Josh Mulligan went from college dropout to coaching his hometown team
After leaving the Nazareth men’s tennis team 15 years ago, Josh Mulligan returned to college tennis as a volunteer assistant coach at SU. Adeline Taylor | Contributing Photographer
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After dropping out of Nazareth University (Rochester) at the end of his freshman year in 2010, Josh Mulligan’s life changed when he ran into his neighbor, John Miranda, at a Wegmans in Fayetteville. Mulligan was an “all-court” tennis player, according to Golden Flyers head coach Paul Waida. However, Mulligan struggled to balance tennis with academics and the social scene, which he said caused him to drop out.
He then returned home to East Syracuse to live with his mother, Amy Mulligan. He enrolled in Onondaga Community College but didn’t have a plan for life post graduation. That changed after hearing about Miranda’s volunteer work for Advocates Incorporated — which provides services for people with special needs in central New York.
Mulligan soon joined as a part-time mentor, which rekindled his passion for helping others that originally stemmed from playing tennis with his extended family and high-school teammates growing up. Fifteen years after dropping out of college, Mulligan’s now in his first year as volunteer assistant coach for Syracuse tennis, combining his passion for helping others with tennis.
“(Full-time tennis coaches) have your traditional, ‘I went to a four-year school where I played challenger tournaments, or I played on tour or I grew up at this tennis academy,’” Mulligan said. “For me, I’m a local guy. I’ve loved tennis since I started playing, and it’s just been where the opportunity has presented itself.”
At Nazareth, Waida remembers Mulligan listening to ‘Return of the Mack’ by Mark Morrison in the back of the bus, proclaiming it was his favorite song to the entire team. The head coach said it made him a memorable character. On the court, Amy saw her son thrive in the No. 1 doubles. But she knew something was off.
“I could sense Nazareth was not what he had thought it was going to be,” Amy said.
Instead of staying on campus during the weekends, Waida said Mulligan usually traveled back to East Syracuse to spend time with his relatives. Growing up, Mulligan formed strong bonds with his younger cousins, Nate and Damian Roberts, through playing tennis.
“There’s no memory without Josh or my older brother,” Nate said. “Whether it’s vacations, trips or summers doing absolutely nothing, it’s hard to think back to a time when it wasn’t us doing something.”
Mulligan, who began playing tennis as an eighth grader, first started taking lessons with Nate and Damian at Drumlins Country Club, where Syracuse plays. He quickly became the best player in the family, much to the chagrin of his aunt Mara, who was a domineering United States Tennis Association 4.0 player. Still, Mulligan took his cousins under his wing.
Fifteen years after dropping out of Nazareth University and its tennis program, Josh Mulligan is amid his first season as a volunteer assistant coach at Syracuse. Adeline Taylor | Contributing Photographer
Because Damian was a taller tennis player, Mulligan told him to charge the net after his serve. Mulligan also worked closely with Nate, who couldn’t imagine how life would have been without his guidance.
As a result of the work he did with her sons, Mara knew Mulligan would thrive in high school at Christian Brothers Academy. In four years, Mulligan became CBA’s program-leader with a 46-2 all-time record.
When Mulligan was a junior at CBA, twin brothers Colin and Matt Nardella first entered CBA in seventh grade, hoping to make the high school varsity team. According to Colin, Mulligan was the “big man on campus.” Any interaction with Mulligan was worthwhile for Colin and Matt, who both went on to play tennis in college.
But Mulligan struggled to find the same connection with others at Nazareth because of the unfamiliar college environment. He needed to find his joy again, Mara said, leading to his decision to drop out.
“Having the courage to leave school and find his own way, you can call that being a college dropout, or you could call that being brave enough to realize that is not something that’s working for you and to go pursue other stuff,” Damian said.
A month after talking with Miranda in Wegmans, Mulligan became a part-time mentor at Advocates Incorporated while taking classes at OCC for his associate’s degree three days a week.
As a mentor at Advocates Incorporated, Mulligan worked with a mentee under a self-direction plan, which entailed relatives or friends of the client coming up with activities to achieve specific goals. One of Mulligan’s mentees was 5-foot-5, 320 pounds. Mulligan said they didn’t like where their body was at.
To achieve his mentee’s weight loss goal, Mulligan worked out and ate healthier lunches with them almost every day from 2014-19. Now, the mentee weighs 185 pounds and continues to stay in touch with Mulligan.
“I was a little lost in what I wanted to do at the time and just randomly bumped into (Miranda),” Mulligan said. “I started doing this, and it’s the best thing ever.”
In 2019, Mulligan became a full-time coordinator at Advocates Incorporated, where he helped pair mentees with mentors. Today, he’s an administrator who plans annual events like golf tournaments.
As he was finishing his degree in 2015, the director of the Manlius YMCA asked Mulligan if he wanted to be a part-time tennis instructor. Mulligan accepted and taught youth classes and private lessons until 2018. From 2018-21, though, Mulligan put tennis aside and worked solely at Advocates Incorporated full-time.
Then in 2021, Drumlins Country Club Tennis Director Marion Nies saw Mulligan running on his street. After talking to Mara, Nies contacted him about teaching part-time because Drumlins needed help with its program.
Mulligan had an urge to return to tennis. He got back to Nies immediately, and for the last four years, he’s taught classes at Drumlins at night. He’d often run into Syracuse head coach Younes Limam in the facility, offering his services if Limam needed help with SU’s squad.
After 13-year volunteer assistant coach Len Loppo stepped away from the team, Limam quickly asked Mulligan to take his spot. In August, Mulligan joined as a volunteer assistant before the Orange’s fall season.
“When we started to put things together and think of who would be a good fit for our culture and team, Josh was definitely at the top of the list, and we’re fortunate to have him,” Limam said.
Now with Syracuse, Mulligan is trying to get the best out of SU’s players. Just like he did with his cousins, former teammates and mentees at Advocates Incorporated.
“They work really hard, and it is tough sometimes because they’re good and they’ve been playing for a long time at a high level,” Mulligan said. “But, they don’t know everything. People still always need help.”
