• MACCC Women's Tennis Coach of the Year (2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2019, 2018)
• MACCC Men's Tennis Coach of the Year (2025, 2024, 2023, 2022)
• NJCAA Region 23 Women's Coach of the Year (2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2018)
• NJCAA Region 23 Men's Coach of the Year (2025, 2024, 2022)
• ITA Region III Women's Coach of the Year (2024, 2023, 2021, 2018)
• ITA Region III Men's Coach of the Year (2025, 2022, 2021)
• Wilson/ITA Women's National Coach of the Year (2024)
• NJCAA Herschel Stephens Coaching Award Winner (2021-22)
Brooks Buffington enters his 10th season as head coach of the nationally-ranked Jones College men's and women’s tennis programs.
Buffington was again showered with accolades in 2025, being named both the MACCC and Region 23 Coach of the Year for the women's and men's programs along with ITA Region III Men's Coach of the Year.
The women have sported a collective 160-14 record with six conference titles and the men are 140-44 in Buffington's nine seasons with four consecutive MACCC Championships. He's guided the Bobcats to an additional nine combined region titles and 15 NJCAA National Tournament appearances.
Jones finished 7th in the final ITA NJCAA rankings for a second straight year on the women's side and the men landed at No. 12.
Jones' women have posted back-to-back perfect seasons at 17-0 and 22-0, gone back-to-back as MACCC and NJCAA Region 23 Champions and tied their best-ever finish in the national tournament at 7th.
Helen Hernandez and Molly Bennett finished as 2025 national runner-up at No. 1 doubles to cap a 25-2 season and grab NJCAA Second Team All-American honors.
Led by Jones' first-ever individual national champion and NJCAA First Team All-American at No. 1 singles in Matias Ruiz, the Bobcat men were 19-5 this past season and also claimed 2025 MACCC and Region 23 Championships.
Two years after boasting their first-ever Top 10 finish (2023) behind a pair of consolation doubles championships at No.'s 2/3, the men have placed 12th in consecutive national tournaments.
Buffington received the 2021-22 NJCAA Herschel Stephens Coaching Award for his service and dedication to the NJCAA Coaches Association after leading the men to three trips to the national championship in a five-year period.
Jones swept the 2025 MACCC Men's and Women's Players of the Year in Matias Ruiz and Helen Hernandez, 2024 with Guadalupe Tocci and Matias Ruiz and 2022 Players of the Year in Tomi Nader and Addy Seward.
Jones has been equally impressive off the court under Buffington's watch. The Bobcats have boasted dozens of ITA Scholar-Athletes and had one of the state's and nation's top GPAs year in and year out to win MACCC and NJCAA Academic Teams of the Year.
Jones has won the coveted ITA Arthur Ashe Leadership & Sportsmanship National Award six times in the junior college division. Ethin McKinnon (2025) is the newest award winner, joining Dawson Do (2024), Ally Brooke Chism and Trey Hilton (2021) and Danielle Viljoen and James McWilliams (2020).
Prior to Jones, Buffington was a tennis paraprofessional coach for six years at Northwest Rankin High School, spent four seasons at Hartfield Academy as head coach and was a three-year head tennis pro at Reservoir YMCA. He was also the head tennis pro at Castlewoods Country Club from 2007-2014.
Buffington played collegiately at Jones during the 2003-04 seasons and finished his career at Mississippi College. He received Jones' Bobcat Award as a sophomore and MC's Choctaw Award his junior and senior seasons.
He's been playing in the USTA League since 2007 and his team won the 2013 USTA 4.5 Adult League National Championship. For the past five years, Buffington has been a USTA NTRP 5.0 Player. He's been a USPTA elite professional since 2008.
Off the court, Buffington is co-chair on the ITA JUCO operating committee, ITA rules committee member, ITA Operating Council, ITA JUCO Women's and Men's Tennis Region III Rankings chairman, NJCAA Men's Tennis Coaches Association President and MACCC Tennis Coaches Association President.
Buffington is married to the former Sarah Spraberry of Southaven. The couple celebrated their 10-year wedding anniversary in May 2025. They are proud parents of James and Anne Elizabeth.
