International competitor Shannon Carney's journey spans UCLA, US Open, ITF Masters

Shannon Carney can play a name drop as well as she plays a drop shot.

The longtime women’s tennis head coach at Principia College in Elsah, Ill., Carney grew up in Southern California where she hobnobbed with stars from sports and entertainment. She used to play doubles with actors Gene Wilder, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Rob Reiner and Phyllis Diller. Brooks’ wife, Anne Bancroft, was an interested fan on the sidelines.

In the sports world, she often crossed paths with tennis players like Martina Navratilova, Billie Jean King and Renee Richards. In music, she's met Redfoo (see image above).

Unfortunately, most of the players she coaches at Principia don’t recognize many of those names—“which breaks my heart,” Carney said—but they are impressed that, at age 68, she can still compete with them on the court.

“Most of them,” Carney said sheepishly when asked how many of her current players she could beat. “I have a couple that would probably beat me, but they’d have a hard time because I wouldn’t hit it hard to them. I’d lob and hit drop shots and run balls down and make them stay out there for a long time. Why would I hit hard shots to somebody who likes a hard ball?”

To say that Carney has a lot of stamina is an understatement. In fact, that’s her calling card.

“When I go to tournaments, sometimes people say, ‘Oh, I have to play Shannon,’ and they roll their eyes,” she said. “At the grass-court playoff this past summer, I played a four-hour match in the heat in Philadelphia.

“People in my age group know they’re going to have to hit a lot of balls when they play me. They’re going to have to hit a lot of balls up high, because I can easily do that.”

Finding the Game

Carney grew up in Los Angeles, where she began following tennis when Chris Evert made it to the semifinals of the US Open as a 16-year-old in 1971. Carney thought it would be fun to be on that stage.

But she didn’t jump right in. She played some in ninth grade and again in 11th grade before playing on the boys’ team in 12th grade, where she was typically the No. 3 singles player. She was also on the No. 1 doubles team with a guy who was a bit wild, but who behaved when he was around her.

She walked on at UCLA, where she played all four years. She played anywhere from No. 3 singles to No. 6, a position in which she never lost a collegiate match. She also played on the No. 1 doubles team.

Carney played in satellite tournaments during the summers. She linked up with some players from USC who had connections to movie stars wanting to play tennis.

“Every Saturday we’d go play doubles, and they’d show a movie,” she said. “Gene Wilder was my doubles partner. We traded around and just hit them balls. They got better, and we had a lot of fun. I guess that’s name dropping.”