Nate Connell gives back through coaching at Cooper Tennis Complex

Coaches often measure success by wins. But sometimes those wins aren’t on the scoreboard.

Nate Connell has coached tennis off and on for 20 years. It hasn’t always been his profession, but it’s safe to say it’s always been his calling.

Connell is the assistant club professional at Cooper Tennis Complex in Springfield, Mo., and a member of USTA Coaching. Prior to accepting the full-time role a little more than a year ago, he coached at Cooper as an independent contractor.

He said the point at which he realized he was supposed to coach was when he took a young player who was frustrated enough with tennis to throw his racquet and turned him into a dedicated learner.

The young man was lean and athletic, but he wasn’t dedicated enough to take advantage of that athleticism. He wanted to be the life of the party, typical for a 12-year-old kid, and that got in the way of him getting better at tennis.

“One day, he was getting super frustrated, and he chucked his racquet a couple times into the tarp behind the court,” Connell said. “Once we got done with the drill, I got down on one knee and said, ‘What’s going on?’ And he said, ‘I suck at tennis.’

“I said, ‘You don’t suck at tennis. Let’s not say that. You’re just not making the effort to work on it. You’re at a crossroad right now.’”

Connell told the young man he could continue to come to the classes, be goofy and hang out with his buddies, which was the main reason he came.

But even if he did that, he was not going to throw his racquet at the tarp.

Connell then presented a second option. The player could come in and work. He’d still have fun, still play games and still laugh. But Connell told the kid he was willing to invest his time in him and try to raise his skill level. And then Connell added, “But you still can’t throw your racquet.”

Two days later, that player was back at the facility and was a changed person. He was the first one to complete the drills. He asked good questions. And he never threw his racquet again.

“I was like, ‘Oh, this is what coaching is like,’” Connell said. “That’s pretty cool. As I got into this career, I realized how just blessed and fortunate I was to have an individual like Sean Kembell in my life at a young age. Coming up through middle school and junior high, there was no tennis program in the Branson school district. Three or four years before I started high school, Coach Kembell started the high school program.