Stepping Up to the Challenge with Kevin Theos

“Success Secrets”

Kevin Theos – Stepping Up to the Challenge

By Pat Whitworth & Jeff Hawes, USPTA Master Professionals

Our Pride of the South recipient and current National Board member Kevin has walked many directions in his tennis career path. He started as a Park & Rec coach, moved into the community tennis sector, commercial clubs, E.D. of a community tennis association, a Tennis Service Rep, coach and clinician, and even more. A tennis renaissance man with an ability to make things happen. Here are some of the trials and tribulations that Kevin has experienced.

How did you get started teaching tennis? I started teaching in the Chicago park district as a summer job while I was in college. I was hired by the long-time director at the McFetridge Sports Center, where I played as a junior. After college, I was an assistant coach at Northeastern Illinois University, taught at McFetridge, for Frank Sacks Tennis Camps, and at other locations. During this time, I met some pros who were certified and wanting to improve myself I became certified as well.

Where did you go next? I worked with a pro that had been teaching for decades and saw the physical toll that on-court teaching can have, so I decided to pursue my longstanding interest in law and went to law school. After law school and while I was practicing law, I met my wife. She was offered a chance to start a medical practice in Birmingham, so we moved. While in Birmingham, I was hired as the first Executive Director of the Birmingham Area Tennis Association, which was a CTA/NJTL. I built programs and fundraised for 3 years, and the organization is still going strong today. From there, I was hired by USTA Southern as the Tennis Service Rep for Alabama.

What was your college major? I had 2 majors. Political Science and Philosophy. I received honors in both and published my Political Science thesis. Initially, publications rejected my submission and provided scathing feedback, but I made significant adjustments and edits and was eventually published in a professional journal. ED NOTE - this is one of Kevin’s superpowers - to keep on track even when things do not work out at first.

You have a real ability to see a challenge and attack it. Do you have a system that you use to allow you to complete the challenge where so many drop out early? Rather than allowing criticism to discourage me, I consider feedback and make adjustments. I try to accept challenges presented in feedback, believe in myself, and focus on improvement. At the same time, I strive to be realistic about what it will take to accomplish goals and if I’m willing to do the work and endure boredom. Achieving difficult goals inevitably involves working at things that will be boring at times. Some people move on to new goals when they get bored without realizing that occasional boredom is part of the deal. In general, when I set a goal, gauge what’s necessary to accomplish the goal, and then create a schedule so that working on the goal becomes a habit. ED NOTE - this does sound like the skills that a tennis player learns along their path of discovery to being a complete tennis player.

It looks like your ability to take on challenges and be successful led to the TSR job that you held for over 15 years. What new challenges did you take on? One benefit of the TSR job was that the USTA created the role to promote TENNIS and not just USTA; we could do anything that would help tennis grow. The big challenge was to develop a more informed mental model for how tennis works in schools, parks, clubs, etc.. Through the years I considered and tried numerous things to increase the number of tennis players and I learned a lot about how community tennis works and how to fill courts in Alabama. I also wanted to gain a better understanding for how tennis works outside of Alabama and benchmarked top performing junior team tennis programs throughout the south and conducted a volunteer retention study with Jason Miller.

As our USPTA Southern President, you brought back the Mentoring Program even though it had either failed in the past or at best been very weak. How do you design the current program to be different than its predecessors? I wanted to create a program that could be sustained where so many others faded. In exploring previous programs I found that some were too rigid while others were too loose. The challenge was to create a balanced program that was administratively manageable. Our USPTA Southern program enjoyed terrific success right from the start, and with the blessing of then USPTA president Gary Trost, we turned it into a national program.

You have recently completed another educational venture. What have your added? Two years ago I started a Master’s degree program in Instructional Design, which involves the creation of evidence-based online and inperson education. It has been a rewarding challenge to learn and use tools for creating, evaluating, and improving education. With so many online needs these days, it was a perfect storm for learning Instructional Design and getting involved in an educational field that is evidence-based and cutting edge. I am designing some modules for USPTA, Auburn University, and freelance.

I understand you want to use this in the tennis/facility arena. How can this help? We already know that CMAA provides content for its members, but the modules are generic. Facilities often benefit from content that is specific to their facility, situation, and staff. An Instructional Designer will create a custom program that fits the needs where an off-theshelf program will not.

You have also moved from a USPTA state president to a southern president to now a National Board Member. What do you see as the new challenges here? The first one that I saw was to revise the selection process for the nominating committee. I wrote a proposal to revamp the process to be more accessible to our members. Also, I am still in charge of the mentoring program and I am working toward making it a centerpiece of membership and a valuable reason to be a USPTA member.

Anything else to add? Always believe that you and your students can get better. Follow through on your commitments. If you give your word, let it be known that you can be counted on. Plenty of good people are weak in the follow-through area. It is an important lesson to be known for the right things.

Why I Teach Pickleball, and Why You Should Too!!!

By Austin Daglis, Atlanta Country Club

In my eyes, pickleball gives an opportunity to be active, socialize, develop paddle/ racquet skills, and simply have fun! There are more things that correlate between tennis and pickleball than the average person or player may think. At my facility, I encourage ALL tennis players to at least try pickleball once or twice and then form their own opinion about the sport. What I have found is that once the tennis player tries pickleball, they tend to come back for a second or third go with it. Since the game is played mostly with a continental grip, the extra repetitions in that grip helps my tennis player’s volleys, timing, reaction, and footwork. Personally, I am looking forward to growing my pickleball program and also mastering my skills as well.

The Social List

Pickleball Party: "Dinks & Drinks"

By Tom Cascarano – USPTA Elite Professional

Is it time for you to come up with a new event at your facility! Then it’s time to bring in a Pickleball Party. You need to embrace the fastest growing sport in America. Pickleball will bring together a vast group of demographics (young or old, tennis or non-tennis players). This is definitely a sport and activity for everyone.

First, when planning for any social it is important to put an outlined event schedule together. • Name of the event • Date and time • Food and Beverage (be sure to have adult beverages) • Decorations • Marketing and advertising of event • Type of games • Round robin • Music • Camera for picture taking • Follow-up email after event

This event name is the “Dinks and Drinks” pickleball social. Once I have come up with a Theme, then I put a date and time together to promote the event. Since pickleball is so social, I will organize a menu of food and beverage list trying to stay with the theme (finger food, beer, wine and a special alcoholic drink). Don’t forget the decorations, again that goes along with the theme. It is time to advertise and market the event in all your available avenues.

Now the main part of the social, which is participating in the event. Start with a game (similar to tennis), this is the easiest and most enjoyable way to get players having fun at the start of the evening. Since the theme is dinks and drinks, start off with a doubles team dink game on either one or two courts (mini tennis for a better understanding), Winners stay and losers switch after each point.

Once everyone has warmed up with the game, it’s time to start your pickleball round robin and that’s what all the players come to this event for. Work your round robin using rally scoring (which is win a point and team scores a point, this goes faster). Mix players by using up court, down court split partners after each round. It is important to stop between rotations to let players eat, drink and socialize (don’t forget to take pictures).

Once you have gone through multiple round robin rotations, finish the evening with one last game (king and queen of the pickleball court) and end with a drawing for prizes.

After the event is complete it is important to send out an email with pictures that shows how enjoyable the event was. I hope this gives you a new event idea as you prepare and schedule your calendar of events.