Provider Spotlight: Kyle Saari

The Upper Peninsula (UP), located at the top of Michigan, is known for more than its beautiful scenery and seclusion. What many do not realize is how popular tennis has become and the resulting tight-knit community. One of the key members of the community in promoting tennis every day is Kyle Saari.

Saari found his passion for the game rather late but fell in love with it immediately. After playing four years of varsity tennis for Negaunee High School, Saari was faced with a choice at the young age of 17: stay with Negaunee, attend college locally and become an assistant coach or pursue an education elsewhere. Saari took a leap of faith in the sport that meant so much to him and took the coaching position.

"Since elementary school, I had the desire to teach and coach, and this was the first step before my education career officially began in 2010 in Negaunee," said Saari.

As Saari became more and more involved with the high school tennis scene, he relished seeing each new group of students come in and make the program their own.

"The most rewarding part is seeing day by day growth," said Saari. "It can be dangerous to think of the long term and what you want to accomplish a year from now or five years from now, but really it's the growth each and every day."

Saari took over the varsity boys' coaching position in 2007 and took over the girls' varsity position in 2009. Since then, Saari has seen growth in every aspect.

Most notably, Saari led his girls' team to win the Mid-Peninsula Conference titles seven times in addition to seven Division I U.P. Girls' championships, with the most recent on October 5, capping an undefeated season. He led the boys to 12 Mid-Peninsula Conference titles thus far and eight Division I U.P. championships.

While Saari was enjoying much success with both of his teams, his focus began to shift to helping establish a summer program to introduce new players to the game.

In 2010, Saari aided in the efforts to expand the summer program to reach children as young as second grade. As Saari saw it, the focus of the camp would revolve around the athletic development and stay away from being too demanding on the campers. Saari was also interested in teaching players the importance of mental toughness, with a 0-0 mentality, to balance the highs and lows of tennis and carry that forward with them in any aspect of their lives

The camp began to grow in popularity as did interest in building a new facility for players coming into the program.

In 2014, through the combined efforts of outgoing Superintendent Jim Derocher and incoming Superintendent Dan Skewis, a new facility was built in Negaunee. The community now boasts eight courts, a coach's office and a storage facility. Since the creation of this state-of-the-art facility, at least seven other UP schools have resurfaced their courts or built a new facility.

In the future, it is the hope of Saari and the rest of the Negaunee tennis community to introduce an indoor practice facility and continue to uphold the rich tennis tradition of the UP throughout the winter months as well.

Saari says that much of the recent success he and others have seen in the tennis community comes in the form of developing kids as well-rounded athletes.

"We have realized for a long time that tennis does not have much initial appeal as a cool, popular sport," said Saari. "However, by focusing on basketball, hockey, football and other sports as an avenue to tennis, many kids soon realize that tennis is more appealing than any other sport they played in the past."

It is Saari's goal to continue to advertise tennis as a lifelong sport to his players in hopes that they pass it on to the next generation.

"When they graduate, they don't have to be a player who plays three or four times a week, but we hope that they pass the racquet on to whether it's their child someday or they introduce another middle school or elementary kid to the game, they'll be able to pass the racquet and continue to grow the game," said Saari.

In the meantime, Saari is focused on completing the current girls' season with pride on how his players have navigated a tough situation. After completing the season, it's back to the drawing board for Saari on how to bring a new class of tennis players into the spotlight of UP tennis.