Baseline Values: How a basketball coach built a tennis team that feels like family

A longtime basketball coach at St. Cloud High School, Chad Ansbaugh took on the additional role of tennis coach at his central Florida alma mater a decade ago. Moving from one baseline to another has presented unique challenges, but with the help of the USTA’s coaching resources, Ansbaugh has found his sweet spot on the tennis court. Above all, the coach's strong values remain the same, no matter the sport.

At the close of this season, Ansbaugh received a framed senior night photo from one of his tennis players. Earlier in the year, the coach gave the sneakers off his feet to that young man, whose shoes were falling apart at practice.

“He wears them everywhere,” Ansbaugh said of the player, an underprivileged student from Colombia.

"That right there, that might be the biggest win of my career," added the coach, who also gives back by providing his players with new clothes and tennis racquets.

It’s all part of Ansbaugh’s coaching mission, carried out with equal enthusiasm on basketball’s hardwood or tennis’ hard courts. While he humbly calls himself “the most average tennis coach there is,” the former college football player’s impact extends far beyond the field of play.

“I'm just trying to save souls, and I'm trying to do it with a racquet,” he shared. “These kids are at a very delicate stage of their life and they need to know that they belong.

“They know that they're coming to a place where a coach loves them, and if at some point in their life, if all heck breaks loose, they know that I'm one phone call away. So in that aspect, I'm the jam, I'm legit. But the tennis stuff, I'm just trying to get better every single day and I just want to use tennis as a way to serve our community.”

While Ansbaugh came into tennis coaching late, he has always felt a connection to the sport. His wife of 27 years is a former player at St. Cloud, and some of their first dates were on the tennis court.

Having grown up as an underprivileged youth, Ansbaugh recalled finding tennis racquets in the trash and digging through the bushes for balls to play with at his local courts—an experience he says helps him identify with some of the kids on his team.

“A lot of our kids, the racquet that's in their hands probably belongs to me,” he said. “When the season's over, I'll tell them to take it, and they'll think the racquet’s made of gold. They will not believe that they'll get to take that thing home.”

One of his players, senior Alex Hatchell, had no tennis experience until he tried out for Ansbaugh’s team four years ago in an effort to stay in shape for soccer season. He quickly fell in love with the sport, particularly the mental aspects, and his passion was fueled by Ansbaugh’s coaching.