National Hispanic Heritage Month Spotlight: Armando Espinosa

In celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month taking place Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 in the United States, USTA Iowa is highlighting tennis coach Armando Espinosa.

Armando Espinosa is a tennis teaching professional originally from Mexico City who is the director of tennis at Ames Fitness Center. He previously coached at Ankeny Centennial High School, taking a record number of participants to the state tournament.

Espinosa serves on the USTA Iowa Board of Directors as the standing committee chair of the Collegiate Committee. In this role, he is a liaison between the USTA and college club tennis teams, helping them see what is available for post-college tennis opportunities.

Espinosa played tennis at Drury University in Springfield, Missouri. At Drury, Espinosa was a No. 1 singles player who was ranked second in the nation his senior year. He was a two-year NCAA Division II All-American and a two-time Academic All-American.

He later coached tennis at several colleges as an assistant: Arizona State University, Wichita State University, Marquette University and the University of Oregon.

Espinosa started coaching at Iowa State University in 2007 as an assistant coach before being promoted to head coach in 2009.

At Iowa State, Espinosa led the Cyclones’ women’s tennis program from 2009 to 2018. He finished his tenure with the most wins (96) in school history, and ISU had back-to-back winning seasons in 2016-17 for the first time ever.

Espinosa received the USTA Iowa award for Outstanding Contributor to Youth High-Performance Program in 2024.

Check out additional National Hispanic Heritage Month feature stories from across USTA Missouri Valley by clicking here.