There have been a couple of documentaries lately about LITTLE RICHARD.   He was a leader in the Rock and Roll “Boom”  in the mid to late 50’s .  Fats Domino, Chuck Berry,  Ray Charles, Ruth Brown, LaVern Baker, Marvin Gaye.  Many other “greats”.  I think Little Richard was the first to claim he was The King of Rock and Roll, but others entered the show by wearing a king’s crown and dancing down the aisle once the red carpet was laid down for this “king”.

About ten years later (1968 )there was another BOOM—-“Open Tennis !  The professionals could now enter the tournaments.  The timing could not have been better.  One reason was television.  Tennis fit the screen perfectly.   The Australians led the way,  Borg and the Swedes, Spaniards.  Connors, McEnroe, Sampras, Agassi, Evert, Austin’.  Tons of Americans fueled the  craze,  Craze ? Boom?  You Bet!

 And it wasn’t just the players .  A whole new market developed.  Sure enough  everyone needed some lessons and a green Yonex.   When the USTA  hosted a coaches clinic along with the USOPEN, would be “Kings of Tennis Teaching” cropped up from everywhere with “the way, the truth and the light !   From Elmer Gantry to Dennis Van Der Meer.   Spreading like Kudzu or Pickleball.  

So—1968 until 2023 —Who is the King ( or Queen ) of Tennis Coaching/Teaching ?

Good News:  By and large the boom created an intense ,competitive, effort to learn, to earn, to win.  

One high school coach proclaimed “…I can earn more teaching tennis in the summer than painting the classrooms or teaching Driver’s Ed”.  

The surge of interest  caught the attention of science, particularly sports

 oriented scientists.  Diet, psychology, —-all of a sudden winners thanked  “my team “

Technology is about to radically improve the game.  

Still there is BAD NEWS.  

Where did you go Joe Dimaggio?

French Open 2023 (last week)  ROUND OF 16 WOMEN- American Women ?  One —CoCo.

American  Men ?  zip, zero , nada. 

With the exceptions of Venus and Serena there has been no USA in “winning “ for decades.

As the old saying goes “… if we so smart, why ain’t we rich? “

Where did we go wrong?  What can be done about it?  What can I do about it ?

Last year several American men gave us a glimmer of hope.  Tommy Paul,  Francis Tiafoe, Taylor Fritz , Sebastian Korda provided impressive “shining moments”.  Their training included the THE ACADEMY method of living, lodging, and practicing with master teachers.   The latest French Open  Draws had 11 men and 6  women in  singles who played some college tennis.  The COLLEGE method is strikingly like an academy that houses, feeds, finances, with professional coaches and hopefully education too boot.   Even one season of college play affords an often needed extra year to develop one’s game.  Think “redshirting”.

John Isner Is a North Carolina product of the FAMILY METHOD.  John stayed at home, played high school, then college team tennis.  Scholarshipped to the University of  Georgia, John is quick to credit those 4 years as gateway to our finest player’s success.  

And,  historically , the FAMILY METHOD produced  a large portion of elite American players.

There is no limit on the number of internationals playing college tennis.

  And the number of and percentage of internationals awarded scholarships  is staggering.   We have paid for their training, while abandoning our own.  And quite often at tax-payer’s expense.  Many of these go from college play to the pro circuit.

My guess is that some form of this conversation has repeated itself between internationals:  Player 1—“My country would not scholarship non-citizens like America!”  Player 2.  “Mine either.   Can you believe how they simply gave college tennis to us?”

What should we do?  One suggestion is to reserve at least half of our scholarship money for our kids.

Player development is expensive.  Profitable playing careers are  truly  rare.  Scholarship aid is the only reasonable way to recoup expense. 

What can I do?  

Having quit a job that I wasn’t suited for, I was advised to “ Do what you can do!”

I payed on every team that would give me a uniform. Little league, high school, two varsity college teams.  Coached basketball and 40 years of small college tennis.  

Along the  way there were tons of hours on the  court.  And most with fine college players.  Yet camps, recreation classes , club pro and public tennis, yielded a laboratory  for all levels of  players. 

A lifelong North Carolinian, retired at the beach,  The “what can I do “question  was answered by —-HIGH SCHOOL TENNIS.

I believe in TEAMS.  Team play. Sacrifice for my mates.  Playing for my school.  

I know that the coaches need help that we can give.  Some schools can’t find anyone to coach teams.   THE ARE MORE GIRLS PLAYING HIGH SCHOOL TENNIS THAN BOYS—yet finding girls  teams a good coach is particularly tough.   “The route to the most improvement is through coaching the coaches”.

 I dream we will scholarship our kids first. 

I suspect scholarships are the best bet to motivate our people  to invest what is needed to

get to our share.