USTA Missouri Valley celebrates National Coach Appreciation Month

Check out these feature stories from across USTA Missouri Valley celebrating National Coach Appreciation Month, which takes place annually in October. Learn more about USTA Coaching by clicking here.

🎾 Elizabeth Deerinwater has made a significant imprint since joining USTA Heart of America as the district's junior programming coordinator in 2024. Deerinwater—a member of the Cherokee Nation originally from Oklahoma—dishes on all things coaching in this Q&A article.

🎾 Former National Coach of the Year award recipient Janet Glaser has coached high school tennis for more than 40 years and additionally serves as USTA Kansas Junior Team Tennis coordinator. She shares her tennis journey and credits all the coaches she's worked with and against in this article.

🎾 Austin Hale, head coach of the Missouri State University women’s tennis team, is following in his Hall-of-Fame father’s footsteps, Kendell Hale, as a college tennis coach. Like his dad, Austin is a relational coach driven by his faith. Learn more about him by viewing this story.

🎾 Lizelle Landino grew up in South Africa before playing NCAA Division-I tennis at Oklahoma State University. Landino has coached tennis for the past decade and particularly enjoys coaching youth players and Junior Team Tennis in Dubuque, Iowa. Read her story by clicking here.

🎾 Husband-and-wife duo Tom Lilly and Jean Lilly met while competing for their respective tennis teams at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. When Tom became his alma mater's head coach in 1997 he knew just who to hire as his assistant, and the tandem still coaches the Bluejays women's tennis team. Check out more of their story here.

🎾 Paige Madara, women's tennis head coach at Washington University in St. Louis, guided the Bears to their first national championship in program history this past spring. It was a full-circle moment for Madara, who competed at WashU as a player and has led the program since 2020. Read more about Madara by clicking here.

🎾 After leading both the Ada High School boys' and girls' tennis teams to state championships, Terry Swopes was selected as National Coach of the Year by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). Swopes has spent decades building upon Ada's proud tennis tradition, and you can read more about him by clicking here.