Entering his eighteenth year as head coach for the New Orleans Privateers, Burzis Kanga has developed a team that has a reputation for competing at a very high level on the court, while also achieving lofty goals in the classroom.

Kanga has won Southland Coach of the Year three consecutive seasons (2022 and '23-Men, 2021-Women). In the spring of '23, he guided the men's team to their first ever outright regular season conference title and their first undefeated record (5-0) in conference play.

The Privateers men's team earned their first NCAA bid in 2022 after winning the postseason title against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at the Privateer Tennis Center. They went on to play Florida in the opening round.

In 2023, the Privateers swept the Freshman of the Year honors in the Southland (Karim Al-Amin: Men and Didi Bredberg Canizares: Women). 

In 2021, the Privateers played a spring schedule only due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Kanga won his first Southland and LSWA Coach of the Year after guiding the women's tennis team to a 12-3 record and a share of their first Southland regular season championship.

Kanga also coached Newcomers of the Year on the men's team (Marcel Volz) and the women's team (Lina Hohnhold). Between both sides, the Privateers had seven all-conference singles selections and two doubles selections.

2019-20 was off to a flying start for the men's program before the season was shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic. New Orleans got off to a 6-2 start which included a win over Southern Miss, their first against the Golden Eagles since 2004. Mats Westkamp earned Southland Player of the Week and LSWA First Team honors.

On the women's side, the Privateers were 6-4 when the season was halted. Ank Vullings got to 10-0 in singles and won LSWA First Team and Southland Student-Athlete of the Year honors.

In 2018-19, Kanga coached a pair of doubles teams to all-conference selections: Samuel Armand and Johannes Klein got the honor at flight two while Nicolas Kramer and Odysseas Papaioannou shared the award at flight three.

On the women's side, Kanga has had four student-athletes eclipse the 50-win mark for their careers since 2016: Soledad Calderon, Anna Segarra, Anja Luethi, and Trang Dao. 

With a senior-laden team on the men's side, Kanga guided the Privateers to a 10-10 overall record while coaching a Southland first team doubles group in Rui Silva and Blake Gregor. Of the nine team members on the 2014-15 roster, five were seniors.

Also highlighted were strong fall performances by senior, Timo Kranz and freshman, Giacomo Adoncecchi at the ITA Southern Regional. In the spring, senior, Romain Lefevre emerged as a staple in the Privateers' rotation, winning the co-conference championship at #5 singles.

Overall, Kanga is in his third stint at the helm of the tennis program, and was hired on Feb. 22, 2008 as the program was reinstated as part of the rebuilding efforts on the Lakefront.

Kanga previously coached at UNO from 1986-89 and again from 2003-06 before the program was put on hiatus due to the effects of Hurricane Katrina.

No stranger to UNO prior to his stints as head coach, Kanga was a member of the Privateer tennis program from 1980-83, earning his Bachelors of Science in Business in 1984.
 
While playing on the Lakefront, Kanga amassed an 81-9 mark and became the only member of either UNO tennis team to achieve All-American honors, doing so as a senior.

During his time on the UNO team, he was ranked as the top player in Louisiana for the under-21 age group. He also played professionally on the satellite tennis circuits of the USA, Europe and Mexico.
 
Since returning to the Lakefront in 2008, Kanga has made steady progress in establishing both the men’s and women’s programs – both on the court and in the classroom.
 
A list of highlights since 2008 is available below:

Competing in team’s first dual since 2005, UNO defeated No. 59 South Alabama in 2009 in Mobile, Ala. The victory was the first-ever over the Jaguars in school history and propelled the men into the national rankings at No. 75, a spot they would hold for several weeks.

UNO produced the nationally-ranked men’s doubles team of Calvin Kemp and Ben Smith in 2009-10, who would reach a high of No. 42 in the ITA rankings – a school-record. Rui Silva would become nationally-ranked at No. 110 to begin the dual season in 2013 – the Privateers’ first ranked singles’ player since 2003.

The 2011-12 UNO men’s and women’s tennis teams received ITA All-Academic honors as a team while the Privateers placed a Louisiana-leading six men’s student-athletes on the ITA Scholar-Athlete list.

In 2012, the UNO doubles’ team of Ricardo Campos and Hossam Meligy were named ITA All-Americans, the first UNO All-Americans in tennis since Kanga was tabbed an All-American in 1983.

In 2013, a total of five different members of the UNO men’s tennis team received Southland Conference Player of the Week honors – two shy of the total amount of Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week honors the team received from 1998 through 2009.

In 2013, UNO placed a league-high three members on the Southland All-Academic team including the institution’s first-ever Student-Athlete of the Year (Hossam Meligy).

Kanga coached student-athletes have received All-Louisiana honors since 2009 on ten occasions and includes the 2009 Newcomer of the Year (Kozue Matsumoto), the 2011 Freshman of the Year (Hossam Meligy) and the 2013 Newcomer of the Year (Rui Silva).

In 2013-14, Kanga coached two All-Conference selections in Soledad Calderon Arroyo and Marta Sans. Calderon garnered All-Southland Second Team mention in singles and doubles while Sans garnered All-Southland Second Team doubles honors. 

Outside of the UNO tennis team accomplishments, Kanga has restored the University Tennis Center. Working with Hike for KaTREEna, a major beautification occurred at the facility in 2012 – the same year the facility hosted the PJ's Coffee Women's International Tennis Classic to University Tennis Center, the first women's professional event in New Orleans since 1988.
 
A native of Tanzania in East Africa, Kanga brought the 1988 Virginia Slims of New Orleans tournament to Chateau Golf and Country Club in Kenner, where he served as Director of Tennis and Head Teaching Professional from 1989-2006.

A long-time Board Member of the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation, Kanga served as the Sports Commissioner for Tennis for the 1996 AAU Junior Olympic Games.

Kanga holds United States Tennis Association Professional 1 certification.