I was fortunate to earn a Division 1 tennis scholarship to Lipscomb University, which also led to me coaching my alma mater as the head coach for four years. I’m definitely fortunate for what tennis has given me in terms of academic and career opportunities, but the life lessons, experiences, and friends that came from tennis were the best part and many of those came during my formative teenage years at King Daddy.
There are a lot of great things I can say about King Daddy, but if I think about what were the most important things, I’d have to say it was the toughness, competitiveness, and conditioning. The toughness came from a great group of coaches that didn’t let you act up and be disrespectful. I remember Todd having to send several players home from practice because they were acting up and that immediately taught accountability, but also about what real toughness was to some teenagers that didn’t know better yet! The competitiveness came naturally because there were so many good players and almost everything was competition. Moving up or down courts constantly whether you won or lost definitely helped you to learn how to handle competition and to know how you needed to improve. Finally, conditioning. I remember there were almost mythic stories about how much they ran at the end of King Daddy practices. Before I joined the program, I was definitely nervous before the first conditioning session started, but it made a huge difference. Most importantly, with the three aspects I spoke about, the most important thing was that all of these aspects to great learning and training were done in a fun environment. The training was tough, competitive, and exhausting, but I never felt like it was a job. It was always a blast because I was with all my friends and passionate coaches that made it a blast!
Currently, I’m a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army working with drill sergeants to train civilians into soldiers at Basic Combat Training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. With my playing and coaching background, I couldn’t ask for a better assignment in the Army. I may not be playing as much tennis these days, but the lessons I learned at King Daddy are still relevant today and I’d definitely do it all over again. I want to thank Todd, all the coaches, and friends along the way. Love you guys!