A Tennis Coach Took His Team to the Top

A tennis coach took his team to the top of the tennis world by following these best practices. His advice can help you take your team to the top, too!

Introduction

John McEnroe was once ranked as the #1 tennis player in the world. He coached the U.S. Davis Cup team to victory and led the New York Jets to two AFC Championship games. But his biggest accomplishment may have been taking a ragtag group of tennis players and turning them into winners.

In 2006, McEnroe was hired to coach the Indian Wells Tennis Academy, a sleepy little club in the California desert that was struggling to stay afloat. The club had no marquee names, no facilities to speak of, and no real track record of success.

But under McEnroe’s leadership, Indian Wells soon became one of the premier tennis academies in the country. In just a few years, players who had once been lower-ranked amateurs were winning professional tournaments and competing at the highest levels of the sport.

How did McEnroe do it? It wasn’t easy, but he was able to take a group of talented but raw players and turn them into champions through hard work, dedication, and a whole lot of tough love.

The Early Years

Born in Tokyo in 1957, Mr. Moriuchi began playing tennis at the age of 5. When he was 10, his family moved to the United States, and he took up tennis again, playing in local tournaments. He won his first tournament at age 12. After high school, he attended Auburn University on a tennis scholarship. He graduated with a degree in business administration in 1980.

The Turning Point

In 2006, John Isner was a highly touted college tennis player from the University of Georgia. He was ranked No. 11 in the nation by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) and was expected to be a top-10 player in the upcoming years. However, something happened that changed John’s trajectory: he tore his labrum in his right shoulder.

The Championship Years

The championship years were a time of incredible success for the tennis team. From 1979 to 1982, the team won four straight league championships and three straight state championships. They were ranked #1 in the state and #2 in the nation. The players on those teams were some of the best players in the country, and they went on to have successful collegiate and professional careers.

The Legacy

Bradley J. Bartlett, Jr. was born in July of 1966 in New York City. The eldest of four children, Bartlett’s parents divorced when he was young and he and his siblings were raised by their mother in Queens. An active child, Bartlett played a number of sports including baseball, football, and basketball; however, it was tennis that truly captured his interest. When Bartlett was eleven years old, his mother enrolled him in lessons at the local tennis club and he quickly began to excel at the game. By the time he was a teenager, Bartlett had embarked on a successful junior career; in 1984, he even had the opportunity to play alongside John McEnroe in an exhibition match.

A few years later, Bartlett made the decision to pursue tennis professionally. He competed on the Satellite circuit for several years before finally earning a spot on the ATP Tour. However, after just two years on Tour, Bartlett was forced to retire due to injuries.

Bartlett then shifted his focus to coaching. In 1992, he became the head tennis coach at Queensborough Community College (QCC). It was there that Bartlett would make his biggest impact on the sport of tennis. Over the next twenty-five years, he would lead QCC to thirteen conference championships and four NJCAA national titles; in doing so, Bartlett established himself as one of the most successful community college coaches in history. Along the way, he also mentored countless young men and women – many of whom would go on to have successful careers in tennis themselves.

In 2017, Bradley J. Bartlett Jr. passed away suddenly at the age of just 50. His death came as a shock to those who knew him; however, his legacy will continue to live on through all those whose lives he touched both on and off the court