PENSACOLA, Fla. – The 2025 Gulf South Conference Awards presented by Caldwell Architects is set for Thursday, May 29 in Pensacola, Fla. Valdosta State head men's tennis coach John Hansen will be inducted into the GSC Hall of Fame, while senior men's tennis player
Takeshi Taco will be honored as part of the GSC Top Ten. The event will be streamed live on the GSC YouTube page beginning at 5:30 p.m. ET.
Click here for the link to watch the ceremony.
Hansen and Taco both capped the 2024-25 season with the program's fourth national title last week in Altamonte Springs, Fla., with a 4-2 win over No. 9-ranked Washburn (Kan.) in the title match last Saturday. The men's tennis team went a school-best 26-0 en route to the title and won back-to-back national titles while winning 42-straight matches. Hansen was named GSC Coach of the Year for the 15
th time.
Coaching the Blazers for over 50 years, Hansen is one of the all-time winningest coaches in collegiate tennis at all levels. Over the last three years, Hansen has guided the Blazer men's program to a staggering 73-4 record with a national semifinal appearance in 2023 and back-to-back national titles in 2024 and 2025. The Blazers have won three-straight GSC titles during that span. He has earned twenty-four Coach of the Year Awards with 15 in the GSC for the men's program and five for the women's.
Hansen has earned plenty of national recognition, as he was named Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National Division II Coach of the Year Award twice in 2000 and 2010. He was named South Region Men's Coach of the Year in 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2025, while added South Region Women's Coach of the Year honors in 2005, 2007 and 2008. Hansen ensures his players perform at a high level and attain personal recognition as well. He has coached over 65 All-America players and has had an athlete earn All-Gulf South Conference honors 206 times, including 110 men and 96 women.
Thanks to Hansen, Valdosta State has boasted the GSC Player of the Year on 25 separate occasions, 15 men and 10 women. In fact, Leo Blay won the honor twice, following Philip Pakebusch, who won his second consecutive GSC Player of the Year award in 2011. The GSC's Freshman of the Year has often come from VSU as well as 12 women and ten men have won the award under Hansen's tutelage, including 2025 freshman
Julien Doitteau. Bea Morales in 2015 last won the honor for the women, while Doitteau becomes the second Freshman of the Year in the past seven years for the men's program.
In the NCAA postseason, Hansen also has been extremely successful with a combined record of 89-42 record as the men's team is 67-28, while the women's team is 22-14. Combined, Hansen has guided the Blazers to 46 postseason appearances – a GSC-record 30 for the men's team and 16 for the women's team. Hansen guided the men's team to four national titles in 2006, 2011, 2024 and 2025, while finishing runner-up in 2004, 2007 and 2010. The women's team has qualified as one of the last four teams remaining three times (2005, 2008, 2009).
Hansen's athletes also have earned a number of individual honors nationally as Pakebusch and Christian Hansen were named ITA Senior Players of the Year in 2011 and 2012, while Eduardo Rincon earned the prestigious Arthur Ashe Award in 2004,
Luca Mack in 2023 and Taco in 2025. On the women's side, Raphaelle Durante, also a VSU Athletic Hall of Fame honoree, earned ITA Rookie of the Year honors in 2007.
Hansen's induction into the GSC Hall of Fame marks the seventh-straight class of a Blazer being enshrined into the Hall of Fame, with Marti Littlefield (softball) in 2018, Dusty Bonner (football) in 2019, Morgan Faulk (softball) in 2020, Briny Baird (men's golf) in 2022, Kenny Moore II (football) and Courtney Albritton Johnson (softball) in 2023, retired Director of Athletics Herb Reinhard in 2024 and now Hansen in 2025. Former VSU baseball coach Tommy Thomas was inducted in 2015 and former Blazer quarterback and head coach Chris Hatcher was enshrined in the inaugural class in 2014 for ten total Blazers now in the GSC Hall of Fame.
He is one of two active VSU coaches to be named to the Valdosta State Athletic Hall of Fame (Thomas Macera, Softball) and just the second coach all-time to earn the honor while still actively coaching.
Along with Hansen, West Alabama athletic trainer R.T. Floyd, as well as West Georgia football's Alex Armah, Alabama Huntsville volleyball's Ellen LaFiore and Montevallo men's soccer's Jonathan Maloney.
"The careers and accomplishments of this year's class is nothing short of awe-inducing," said GSC Commissioner Matt Wilson. "Their contributions to their respective institutions and Gulf South Conference are well documented is their inclusion to GSC Hall of Fame is well deserved. Congratulations to this year's members."
This is the conference's eleventh
Hall of Fame class, as membership, including the new elected class, now stands at 61, since its inception in 2014.
The 2025 national title marks the tenth title in the school's history with four titles in men's tennis (2006, 2011, 2024, 2025), four in football (2004, 2007, 2012, 2018, one in softball (2012) and one in baseball (1979).
Taco, a native of Lima, Peru, earns the GSC Top Ten honors this year as the award recognizes the top female and top male student-athletes for their athletic, academic, and extracurricular achievements, during the 2024-25 academic year. One men's and women's sport student-athlete will be also be awarded the Commissioner's Trophy, which is the conference's most prestigious individual honor.
Joining Taco as GSC Top Ten honorees are; Alabama Huntsville's Tommy Murr (men's basketball) and Lili Wilken (women's basketball), Auburn Montgomery's Chloe Baynes (softball), Delta State's Brett Burrell (baseball), Lee's Ryan Lovelace (men's cross cross/track & field) and Ashleigh Simes (women's tennis), Trevecca Nazarene's Ashlan Sensing (softball), West Alabama's Marissa Mitchell (softball), and West Florida's Keegan Lynch (men's soccer).
This season, Taco earned All-GSC First Team honors for the second-straight year, became the third Blazer to earn the Arthur Ashe Sportsmanship and Leadership Award presented by the ITA. He was named the Herb and Linda Reinhard VSU Athletic Male Student-Athlete of the Year for 2024-25 and is ranked in the top five nationally in both singles and doubles.
Taco finished his outstanding career at 57-6 in singles and 26-1 this year as he won the ITA Fall National Championship. He currently is No. 2 nationally with the final national rankings being announced Thursday. In doubles, he finished 39-13 in his two years and went 21-4 this season with senior
Xaveam Van Wijk as the tandem currently is fifth nationally.
This year's GSC Awards will recognize the following individuals:
Hall of Fame Class of 2025
