Texas Tennis Coaches Podcast

Two tennis coaches (one retired and one current) chat with tennis coaches sharing stories, laughs, and ideas.

Texas Tennis Coaches Podcast

TTCP: THE Tony Martinez

July 06, 2026 • Amanda Sterling • Season 2 • Episode 22

0:00 | 1:12:59

Ever wonder what makes a coach truly impactful? 🚀 Tony Martinez's story is full of lessons on growth, mentorship, and staying hungry to learn.

Drop a 🔥 if you're committed to leveling up your coaching game!
From humble beginnings in Wichita Falls to guiding camps at UT and transforming programs — his journey proves that every moment is a chance to teach more than just tennis.
Tony's approach? Always keep an open mind, embrace new drills, learn from others, and never stop growing — both on and off the court.
He reminds us that the best coaches are lifelong learners, willing to adapt and inspire. 💪
What’s one lesson you’ve learned from a mentor that’s stuck with you? Share below!
#TexasTennis #TTCP #LifelongLearning #TennisMentor #GameChanger

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Hello and welcome to Texas Tennis Coaches Podcast. I'm your host, Amanda Sterling, and with me today and always is my co-host Ruben Vargas. Ruben.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

How are you doing, Amanda?

SPEAKER_00 0:19

It is I guess the second day of summer. I don't I don't like to count Memorial Day as like the first day of summer because it's a holiday and everyone else is on. But like as coaches, like I can't even say that because I went to a meeting today for coaching.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Well, I just got back from Colorado Springs, Colorado. Uh was stayed there four or five days, just uh went uh celebrate my great nephew's graduation high school and had a little mini family reunion while we were there too. So had a lot of fun. The weather's beautiful. Glad to be home though. Glad to be home. How about you? What do you got planned for this week?

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Um we have our little kids, like oh what it's very nice to be. Um, I think you would almost agree too. It's like I have alumni that have returned to Franklin that like run like a little kids' camp. So like to get like the two, the three to four or five, you know, get those kids interested in camp. And you'll hear us talk about the importance of doing that um in this podcast. But I have I'm helping with that camp. It's not like one that I run. It's like I said, an alumni comes and she runs it and she does amazing jobs with our youth, youth, like our baby babies. Um and so it's just a way for them to see me.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

True, true. Well, today our our uh superstar uh coach is gonna be Tony Martinez, and you mentioned camps. This guy is a camp guru. I mean, he he is not only a great high school coach, a great uh friend, he's a great player when he was younger, but man, you talk about camps. That man has done camps at UT AM. Uh Vernon Amarillo, anywhere you I mean, that guy, a lot of people know him because of the kind of uh tennis coach he is, and he he travels across the state of Texas. And I uh he's retired, he's retired and won't be retired officially till the last camp at UT, University of Texas. But uh, I don't know. I don't know if I believe him, but such a great guy. I've known him for a long time. How long have you known him, Amanda?

SPEAKER_00 2:34

Um, I mean, the name Tony Martinez is a very well-known name, I think. Like if you're a tennis coach in Texas, you know the name. However, this is aside from one of our other podcasts that he was on. Yeah. Um this was my second time getting to talk with him, and I just adore him. Um I was telling you, I hope there is I hope we need that type of mentality of bringing tennis to not just the kids but to their parents. And I I just hope that's what's gonna keep tennis thriving. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

So well, I I think uh the the coaches, you guys that are listening to this podcast, are really gonna enjoy this because uh yeah, he's an old school coach, but this guy is always uh evolving. Uh and it doesn't matter, he uh 35 years of coaching. He was evolving, you know, the last year of his coaching, and that's the way he is. He you can always get better, and that's the way he is, and he loves to share it. So I know you guys are gonna love this interview when you hear uh uh coach Tony Martinez, and he's finishing his career at Sulfur Springs and did the 13 years and uh got that program from next to nothing to uh a winner. So that's the kind of coach he is.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

Without further ado, this is TTCP, the Tony Martinez.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

Let's do it.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

Hello and welcome to Texas Tennis Coaches Podcast. I'm your host, Amanda Sterling, and with me today is Ruben with our super special guest of the hour. A this is his second time on the podcast, the Tony Martinez gentlemen. How are y'all?

SPEAKER_01 4:26

I'm doing good. How are you doing, Tony? Doing very well. Doing very well. Well, what are you what are you doing right now that that uh is keeping you busy since you're retired?

SPEAKER_02 4:39

I'm not retired yet. I'm getting ready to start four weeks at the University of Texas next week. So I'll be working four weeks at tennis camp, full blast of the month of June. Then I'm gonna be retired.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

And I'm gonna call BS on that because I even after that, knowing you like I know you, Tony Martinez, you're gonna come up with something else to get into. And your wife is gonna just wanna, you know, take you down. But anyway, we're happy that you're almost fully retired. But you know, you you gotta give due to the UT tennis camps because how many years have you done that?

SPEAKER_02 5:15

I'm really about 37, 38 years, you know, off and on. Uh the story begins back in 78 and 79, I was working with Holiday, Texas. I was working with some kids there, and I ended up taking a girl to state two years in a row. At that time, I wasn't, I wouldn't say coach, I was a player. And I knew how to hit the ball back and forth, you know, with one ball a thousand times. But to teach mental strategies, to teach, you know, uh how to play, how to be confident, all the, you know, how to sleep, drink, and you know, all the good things you need to be as a tennis player, I didn't know those things.

SPEAKER_03 6:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:00

I didn't know how to coach to teach a player that. And we lost to Mason two times in the finals at state. Uh and I figured at that point at that point I really wasn't, I didn't think I was a good coach.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

You know, well, you know, uh a lot of people lose to Mason, so that doesn't mean you're not a good coach. No, they're just really good at Mason. You know that more than anybody. Right. Yeah. But hey, do us a do us a favor, Tony. I know that that you've been in this for 35 years as far as coaching uh high school and stuff like that, but give us your whole story, how you started in tennis and uh how that got from point eight to where you are now, almost completely retired.

SPEAKER_02 6:42

Are you talking about like in the beginning how I got started, you know, playing tennis nine or ten years old? I always the wooden racket days. Fortunate enough, I worked under two future, you know, past, you know, Hall of Famers. Chuck Aver. Coach Aver was the coach of Wichita Falls High School, and he came to our elementary school and bounced the ball around a few times. And that's I got hooked out to, you know, in the sixth grade, going into seventh and eighth. And then in the seventh and eighth grade, I can't believe I was playing for Coach Paul Brotherton at the junior high level. So I had two great coaches. You know, one was a nice coach, and Coach Brotherson was a disciplinarian coach. The good, the bad. Yeah, they had the good and the bad. And and I have used these two guys for my whole lifetime. They have been the two guys that I have looked up to, being a disciplinarian, being accountable, but also being, you know, with Coach Aver losing to his guys, and I mean they had great teams through the 70s. Uh, Mark Floyd, Graham Whaling, you know, you know, it wasn't you didn't have to feel bad when you walked off the court. The guys here were going to go on to win state. Jerry Garcia, Robert Gamboa, great doubles teams. But the way Coach Aver made you feel after you got beat by them, he would come over and just, you know, these are the words that he would use. Hey, you played real tough today. You almost beat my team. Keep practicing, you're gonna get there. And he gave rewards. These are, you know, this is what a you know, a coach in the opposition does. And I have been doing that my whole life with other teams that we do beat. I don't go over there and like, well, you think you were gonna beat us or what? No. I tell I encourage them, hey, you were almost there, you almost got my guy, uh, almost beat my girl. Keep working hard. You know, tomorrow it'll be another tomorrow, and you'll probably get me next year. So I'll say this about quick about Jake Abra.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

When I when I first moved to Vernon, I knew of the name, but I didn't know the person. I think we're playing old high, and we played them tough, and they beat us probably, I don't know, uh 16-2 or something before the mix and all that. Anyway, they beat us bad. We competed. And he came up to me and introduced himself and did exactly what you just said, Tony. Coach Vargas, I'm Chuck Avery, and I must tell you, your Vernon team. I've never seen a team so scrappy and fight so hard against a really, really talented team. And every single time I laid eyes on him, he had nothing but kind words from myself as a coach and from my team and the player.

SPEAKER_02 9:31

So, man, what a great person to uh get a very fortunate. I mean, he's a class, it was a very class act, you know, and uh and that's what I've used all these years for the next 40 years. I've used that same context, used, you know, copying what he did and just try to do the same thing. I mean, I'm I'm not out here to be the coach that knows it all. And that, you know, that I'm that you should know me by now either. I'm not the coach who knows it all. I'm the coach who has I surround myself with great coaches that make you look good. That's that's exactly surround me like you use I use you and you know Joey Canto, and you know, we've been I've been very blessed to have the right guys around me. Yeah. So it's it's uh For sure.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

But that's So where did you go to school?

SPEAKER_02 10:24

Go ahead. I went uh well after after doing middle school, and uh you know I thought I got rid of Coach Paul Brothers, and I ended up going to Ryder High School. I was one of the few Hispanics that were there in the late 60s. I mean, there was only five Hispanic kids in in the in the high school, me and my brother and Pete Martinez and a couple other guys.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

I was gonna say they're all probably related. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:51

So um the first year I had I had this two guys, uh Paul Snodgrass, he graduated from North Texas, great player, you know, pretty well known in the in the tennis circles. And then my junior year, when I thought I got coach Coach Paul Brotherson, he took over my junior year in sophomore, uh senior year. So I had him the last two years. And and I here's the real story about Paul Brotherton. And you need to really know we were next door neighbors. I mean, next door, five feet away, ten feet away from each other for 25 years. So I, you know, he he knew me as a kid, and he knew me as I grew up. Uh John Brotherton, another famous player, and then uh brother Bobby, Judge Bobby Brotherton. Um, they've been watching out for me. Bobby's been watching out for me for the last 34 years. Great family, just a great family. But like you said, they, you know, he he really pushed me through high school, you know, not to quit. There were times I wanted to quit, you know, and and you know, he gave me the quitters, hey, anybody can quit. If you quit now, you're gonna probably quit a job when you get a job. You know, and I've used that story with kids throughout the years, you know, you you you're gonna quit now your senior year. You know, you've already got you're gonna let your your teammates down if you don't play team tennis. And, you know, he had to write talks to them. But he did the same thing with me. And I I know what he was talking about, you know, I let down. And I truly was blessed that he pushed me because all my friends, all the kids that I graduated at 71, we still keep in touch on Facebook, and they've been behind me, you know, telling me how Coach Barr-Brotherton would probably be, you know, proud of me today for what I've done over the last, you know, 35 years. And and and I'm that's part of what you want to do. You know, it wasn't, you know, it wasn't planned to do this, and I wasn't planning to be a coach. So I did those two years on holiday there in 78, 79, and I quit. And then I went, moved up to Oklahoma, ran into a guy named Randy Stewart, and I was I was doing some part-time teaching. What happened was while I was there at Hamilton Park Tennis Center with Johnny Simmons, um That's another legend in tennis. Another legend. You know, I get I uh I got to work with a young kid who was 14, 15, 16 years old, and I got to beat him all those years when I was playing. And his his name was Michael Martinez. Now, oh my god. Everybody knows Michael, and I mean uh a real stud. I mean a real player, you know, and I still and he's still teaching over here in the Dallas area at uh Canyon Country Club. And like I said, he's the one who taught me back into playing tennis in 1990. I had not done any tennis for 10 years after I got married. I had four kids. In 1990, I hosted the OU team at my team at my house, and that's when Michael said, you need to go back into coaching. And I said, Ah man, it's been a long time. And I went back out and I went across the street, and this is the true story. And this other coach just talked to me yesterday, the guy who hired me. But the true story, I went across the street, it's not more than 200 yards because I used to hit my golf balls into the tennis courts. I went over there and I asked, and I was working for Tractor Supply Company, and I'd opened up that seven stores in Texas, and I probably should have stayed with him too, because there's over 175 stores in Texas now. And uh but I went across the street, asked him, hey, does anybody need any tennis lessons? And this is the gospel truth. We need a coach. You know, I don't know, you know what I mean? But how serious are you? We need a coach. When can you start? I can start tomorrow morning. That's the truth. I started the next morning at eight o'clock, you know, because I was just going over there trying to help out just to do some lessons. Right. It was a Toloso Midway in Corpus Christi. Oh, man. Another top school. I mean, we weren't top that first two or three years I was there. We were a losing team. But finally, I was able to turn it around about the fifth year, sixth year, we went undefeated for three to four years, you know, like 40 and oh in district play. Wow. So it was and those kids are still around. I mean, when we were at state two weeks ago, and I had the two girls that played for me that went to state back then. This is their two daughters are playing together, and they're playing for Telosa Midway, and they were at state two weeks ago.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

What an honor.

SPEAKER_02 15:58

You know, so it that was a you know, and I got to see their parents because their parents were so nice, and we were all neighborhood neighbors too at that time. So how long were you there? But that's that's where that all began uh at Telosa Midway, and then after 10 years there, I jumped across the street to Calan High School. Um, and from Calan, I stayed there for about 17 years and and uh Cal and And then I know you talked to me about coming to Vernon, and I thought I won't live that long. I'll I'm still going there 13, 14 years later, but it's not a regret. You had you picked the right coach. Y'all have the best coach there right now. So you had a great successor.

SPEAKER_01 16:45

So she's she's pretty awesome, that's for sure. She's she's gonna make me too. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:52

So that's where uh you know my tennis went from Ryder High School, and then I played, I couldn't make the East Texas State team. They won the nationals that year, so I ended up playing a Midwestern for the year. And that's where you know, you know, introduced back to Randy Stewart because he came in to play there at that time. And um there were a lot of good friends. We had a coach named Mark Bull, he was from France, and he'd played for Corpus Christi University, and he was you know a great coach. He was good. Then I went finally I got back into East Texas where I did play for the next three or four years, and we never we only made it to like the semifinals of the NAIA. So uh, you know, and then the year I left they win the national championship in 1975. Oh man, that's bad luck. I I left for the money, but I left to go work at um the McCleary Tennis Center, Charlie McCleary. Waco, yeah. Waco. Charlie was one of my junior coaches, um, another legend guy out of Waco. And he um I was there 14 through 15, 16, 17. Every summer I played in Waco. I practiced there. That's where I was doing my summer stuff there. I just walked to the courts and we it's just like a a team or a team gets better. I was there at nine o'clock and I went home at six or seven o'clock, but we played tennis all tonight. And we had some great guys from Baylor that would hit with us. I mean, play with us. These we I was fortunate enough to get to where we met guys that were just nice enough to, you know, like they didn't say, oh, we won't hit no kids. No, they got there and had fun with us and they played with us and taught us something. You know, uh Gary Luft was the guy from Baylor, and uh the guy was just phenomenal, but he was you know very gentleman. And then I got to work with his kids, you know, 18, 20 years later, their kids are coming to UT tennis camp. I have them there, you know. That's that was the the fun part getting to work with his kids with a kid that with a father who worked with me when I was in my teens. So that's you know, going to Midwestern and then going to East Texas State. Um did two years on the satellite tours in Boston, Vermont, Montreal.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

I did not know that. I did not know that.

SPEAKER_03 19:31

Played with a guy named.

SPEAKER_02 19:38

Yeah, it was um played with a guy from Peru Davis Cup team, Chris Hanhol. Great guy. I mean, he could carry me. He made me look good. I I was fortunate enough to play with some great doubles players. Uh you just get a good double guy, it makes you look at Jerry Garcia from Winchester.

SPEAKER_03 19:58

He was good.

SPEAKER_02 19:59

Carried me along. And then I played for two years with Dean Barrett. Dean was phenomenal. I mean, Dean turned out to be like the number one player in Texas, but we were great in doubles. I mean, he taught me everything, you know, about doubles, playing doubles. And so I had those two guys for many, many years as a doubles partner. Even try to come to play in your tournaments up there, it was just too tough, you know, your burning tournaments all night long, playing, you know, through the evening.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

Especially you playing three events.

SPEAKER_02 20:35

Yeah, I played three events, you know, singles, doubles, and mixed doubles. Uh, you know, um what was the guy's name? Um he was the coach coach uh uh McNeil for many years.

SPEAKER_01 20:51

Oh, oh, oh yeah, yeah. Oh my gosh. I could see him. I could see him. Tigo tall uh he played doubles a lot with me too. Uh yeah, he was a big deal junior high coach. Uh uh Russell Henry. Russell. Russell Henry.

SPEAKER_02 21:08

Russell, like I said, helped me, you know, through the years and my daughters and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 21:14

And so, like I said, he was let me tell you a story about Russell Henry. Don't forget, but he played so much, he was in all the finals, and I can remember he always uh spent the night with me a lot. And one night he he took a shower and he just completely, completely cramped, cramped up. And my daughter Megan was a little girl and she was daddy, I think he's gonna die. He's gonna die. I said, I mean I we almost called the ambulance on him. It was that bad. And he begged us not to. And I I've never seen a guy cramp up the entire body like I did that time. So, anyway, it was very painful to watch him do that. Sorry to interrupt you, but that memory came into my mind.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

Let me tell you one more story of my verning. There were two Vernon stories. The one was one night where I played matches and And I did beat Russell Henry at two o'clock in the morning. And then, of course, the guy you're going to play from Vernon, you know, had a bye, and he's home at 6 o'clock. And, you know, they've got to play again at 9 o'clock the next morning. I'm like, golly. And that guy was like, was it David Jones? Yeah, David Jones. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:20

He's he he lives in Abilene. Yeah, Lefty.

SPEAKER_02 22:23

Yeah. So I cramped up that night in a car. And it was Jerry Garcia and a bunch of other people. And they said, Oh, you got to get those wet clothes off. So we're there on the highway by Electra. And I got out of the car and I took everything off. I'm talking underwear, everything.

unknown 22:42

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 22:45

Those guys drove off and left me.

unknown 22:50

I am.

SPEAKER_02 22:51

That's a bit of a boy. This is the truth. I'm standing. I couldn't move. I was cramping so bad. You know, it's like I had to cramp under the other hamstring, the other one, and I had to turn my butt to the trucks that were coming down the road there from the lecture. You're cramping so bad you couldn't even hitchhike. I can't hitchhike. I can't hitchhike. And then about five minutes later, they made a U-turn and I can hear them on the other side of the road coming back, honking their horns and yelling at me. But then they made another U-turn to come back and pick me up. But they thought that was good. I couldn't do anything. That was funny. But it was funny, you know, the next day. I mean, I I could move the next day. Vernon has love in my heart for Vernon for the tournament. Yeah. And and the people there. You know, I went down through your row of all those people, all the parents. It was still parents. Sue Sue Robinson, she was there. I mean, all the people were at the state there. Her daughter won the mixed doubles.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

Not daughter, granddaughter won uh mixed doubles.

SPEAKER_02 23:54

Yeah. Yeah. You know, so I could. It was it was good to see all these people, you know. I mean, yeah. Beautiful people in Texas. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:01

All right. I don't know. And then how did it end up in Selfur Springs?

SPEAKER_02 24:06

Okay. Okay, so I was there in Corpus Christi and I just finished my four years at UT for the as this men's assistant, you know, volunteer coach with them for four years. And so I went back to corpus and got my job back. And what they did is they called me the last day. Sulphur Springs called for a reference. And it was like the next last day of school. They called for a reference for one of the kids from UT to be the coach. Right. And I I go and like, yeah, he he's God, you need to hire him because he's the best player. He's one of the best players, and he can coach. And so I asked three questions. What's he going to teach? And they said, Oh, it's going to be tennis all day. And then, how much are you going to pay? Oh, well, gonna pay salary. You sound like you're interested, coach. And I said, Yeah. Well, with you years, you'll get more money than a starting first year coach. And says, send me a resume. And you know, I'm like, God, I've never done a resume in my life. I mean, back then we didn't do resumes. You know, so I'm gonna call my wife up and say, hey, fix up a resume. She fixed up a resume back in 2013, sent it in that afternoon. The coach said, Hey, can you be here tomorrow? And I said, Well, it's my last day here, and but I can be there, but it's a seven-hour drive, but I can be there. I'll be there at three o'clock. And I drove to Sulfur Springs. And an hour later, they gave me the job. You know, it was just everything's been nice. I mean, everything you do or do in life, that was one of them. I had many chances in Corpus Christi to take on at Ray High School, some of the big schools in Corpus, but it came with a lot of headaches and pains. I mean, it was a revolving door for coaches if you took the job because the booster club kind of ran the the the team. Oh no. It wasn't the administration. If they didn't like you, you were gone. And so the grass is not always greener on the other side. I mean, I could have taken they'd asked me, heck, Ryder Hut School had asked me also 20-something years ago to come back. Uh guy named Chuck White was the president of a bank here, and he we graduated together and he had a son playing. And I said, uh, I don't know if you you might not like me. I'm Paul Brotherton. I'm Paul Brotherton Jr. I I am not, you know, the nicest coach.

SPEAKER_01 26:42

I I'm a custom Chuck Avery in you too. I'm I'm Chuck Avery and Brotherton rolled into one.

SPEAKER_02 26:48

That's a good one. So you you may not, I don't do preferences. I learned a lot from James Bramlett. I had to play him a lot when I was in Corpus Christi. I always ran into him. I never could get to anywhere to state because you had to run to Alamo Heights.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:05

But I asked him, you know, we're great friends, and I asked him one day, you know, like, what's your secret? And the secret he told me, and I've used it also, also for the past 25 years or so. He had offered me a job as an assistant coach back in '95. And I drove it in the parking lot, and I like every car is like great, expensive cars. I'm driving an 88 station wagon. And so I mean my wife kind of figured out this is not the place for us. But after that, they proceeded to win five state team championships in a row. But he's done a good job with his kids, and his kids had asked for me uh at UT to gotta get me. And uh yeah, but I still had some great kids in Corpus Christie that I needed to stay with, and I said, Yeah. How long were you at Sulphur Springs?

SPEAKER_01 28:00

What, how long? How long, yeah, Sulfur Springs. 13 years. It seems like it was just yesterday. 13 years.

SPEAKER_02 28:08

Oh, it does. This went this went by real fast. This time, this little section. I only did really just three jobs. 10 years at Teloso Midway and 17 years at Cowan and the 13 years here. So um this one by went faster and faster. I mean, this semester. I was supposed to have retired last year, and some things came up.

SPEAKER_01 28:32

So and Amanda, I don't know if you know this, but everywhere this guy's been, the the program has exceled. I saw you do that again at Sulphur Springs. You know, you took a pretty average, I think, maybe tennis program. And when you went out, I mean, y'all were just on fire the last few years you were there. Am I right or wrong?

SPEAKER_02 28:51

Yeah, it it didn't take it took five or six years to get to where when I got here it was just a club team, and I was lucky to have maybe four boys and four girls. I had to forfeit, you know, three or four matches because I didn't have a full team the first two years. And and then I just that I just figured, hey, I'm just gonna play with who I have. I'm not gonna just take kids to get them out of school. I said, you gotta come to practice. So we you know I had to make some make them accountable if you're gonna play on the team. And you know, I couldn't just like give you a Letterman's jacket because you came and played two or three matches. So that's where you know we're at that point.

SPEAKER_01 29:30

So w when you finished last year, how many kids did you have on the team? When I finished this year? Last yeah, yeah, on your varsity. Oh, how many kids? Oh. Yeah, you said you hardly have it up at the beginning. Well, that's it. I want to see how you ended up.

SPEAKER_02 29:46

I I had I have a roster of about 22 varsity, 20 varsity boys, uh, you know, 10, 10 and 12, 12 girls and 12 boys.

SPEAKER_03 29:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:55

Oh, yeah, yeah. The numbers went back up, and then I had a full var uh JV team too. I had eight, eight, another 16. Awesome. So uh and then the middle school program had really grown the last three to four years. Um, and we had a very successful year. I mean, I was beating teams that we've never beaten in the last five years. I mean, be it's awesome. Texas High or Wheels Point, a lot of good teams. Uh we we the middle school, they're the school, the program here when I lay it left, it's it's gonna be in good hands. It's gonna, it's it's they're not rebuilding. They they are still reloading. They're gonna be on the go.

SPEAKER_03 30:35

They'll be on the go. Thanks to you.

SPEAKER_02 30:38

They'll be competitive.

SPEAKER_01 30:40

Wow. What a what a great coach's story, man. We got some more to to ask you. I don't know, Amanda, I know has some questions, but uh go ahead, Amanda. I'll let you go.

SPEAKER_00 30:52

You can answer both or on the middle school?

SPEAKER_02 30:55

How do I begin?

SPEAKER_00 30:56

Yeah, how'd you sure how'd you how'd you but how'd you build your middle school program? You sound like you you're leaving it in a great place. So obviously we had to start.

SPEAKER_02 31:07

So I use I used the Chuck Aver system. I wonder what's that? I did the same thing that Chuck Aver did to us. I went to elementary schools, I bounced the ball around, uh, and I got every kid uh excited, you know. Um get them, you know, I would go to their PE classes in the elementary school before and then invite them to our tennis camp in the summer. But also, if they're in the third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade, I went after those kids. You know, that's how you're gonna develop any kind of a program, be it football, baseball, whatever. I failed to do it the first two or three years because I was the only coach. I only had there was only one coach. It was just me. There was no assistant coach for three years. Um I didn't get a girls coach until about five years ago, and then we brought in this one guy. He was phenomenal, and he really helped me, and he kept pushing me because I was at the point of thinking, well, this all they're just gonna be happy with, but I'm still a competitor. I can't just sit like, you know, I can come to school every day. You know, the AD is just happy. You know, here's what the AD told me when I took the job. We're not looking for you to ever win district. You'll never win district. You don't have to win district. You know, he you know, he just said, I just want you to be good with the kids and make sure the parents don't call me, and we'll we'll be all fine and dandy. And that, you know, and I almost did that for the first two to three years. I almost sat back and thought, well, this is an easy job. They don't they don't even come to see me. That I've never seen the A D in four years. He hadn't come to the courts. And but at that point, I I uh I finally got some kids to buy in, kids to start doing the right things that I started at the middle school. And those kids, you know, and this is the saddest part too, when they graduated, when you had those kids from the sixth grade all the way to 12, you've had them for six years. And then they graduate. I started crying because it was the first time I've had at all the other high schools, I only had them for four years. You have them, you're freshmen, someone junior. But when you have them as babies and you get to see them grow for the next six years, you're invested.

SPEAKER_01 33:26

You're invested.

SPEAKER_02 33:27

That is really tough. And so with that, I was, you know, I kept pushing and we did more. They let me do more things. More things. I had to take money out of my high school budget for us to do anything, but there was no middle school budget, you know. So everything, my activity fee, all that stuff, had to go to the middle school, but they did take care of it. And they took care of the mills, they took care of everything. We we played a regular when I first did the first two or three years, we only played like two to three matches in May. And that was it. That was our that was our middle school season. The last three to four years, we start right after team tennis is over. We start October the 15th. And I usually have five matches going on in October, November, and the first week before we go to TTC, you know, see it to the conference. So I'd have about five matches in, and then I come back and do another four to five matches in the spring in April, and then I'd host one tournament, one middle school tournament. Mine was free. You know, everybody else is charging now. I I just don't bring tennis balls and uh we do that. I I it's just because I know there's a lot of middle schools who can't afford, you know, to keep and then most they've gone up to 250 to $300 for an entry thing. Oh my gosh. You know, so it it's it's hard for some.

SPEAKER_00 34:54

Do y'all get meals? Like are y'all getting a shirt with these $300 entries?

SPEAKER_02 34:59

Well, finally I got a boost on my entries, you know, for because I was playing my, you know, regular seven JVs and varsity's, you know, you're playing 14 matches, but my budget was only like $2,000, and I'm spending $3,600 to $3,800 for entries. For the last two, three years, I had to take $1,200, $1,300 of my activity just to pay for her entries. It wasn't paid by the school. So this year they finally, I said, hey, and I've been trying, they did bump everything back up another sixteen hundred, eighteen hundred in uh entry fees because I said, look at this, everybody's going to three hundred dollars an entry. It's three hundred across the board out here. Everybody's, I mean, I went to 300. I kept it at 250 or 200, but I went up to 300, 325. So it's, you know, it is what it is. But that's just you know, to get back to your question, I get in there and I would bring some high school kids over and they would hit around with the kids and they get them all fired up, and you gotta get them motivated and tell the parents what they're gonna expect for the next four or five years. I said, it's not gonna be cheap. It's gonna cost them dollars. I can't believe it. The rackets are going what for three hundred dollars a pop right. You know, and the good ones. The yeah, the good ones. You know, but you could walk around, you know, and I had to do it because I had four daughters that all play tennis. And they didn't, you know, they got the last year's model. Nothing wrong with that, but you know, I could get the demo models and all that for all four of them. Well, they had to have two rackets each and they have all the shoes each, you know. It got expensive. Then we're driving to the Zats and the champs and the supercaries, they had a band. And me and my wife, we spent weekends, week out taking just not our daughters, but other kids that, you know, you're not supposed to do that either, but I took home also. That's all we had in the band.

SPEAKER_03 37:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:05

So those are parts of, but you have to get in there and sell it to the middle school kids and tell them how, you know, you're gonna have choices to make when you get to high school, be playing in the band or going to theater arts or you know, whatever you want to try to do. But tennis is gonna be a lifetime sport that you can play for the rest of your life. I mean, yeah. Tell them here I am, I'm an example. Guys in his 70 years old over here, and I can still play with the high school kids, and I can drill them until they're they drop dead. You know. Oh, that's good. That's good. But now that's you know, that's what I would do, you know. I had a young coach, she just took a head job, and I told her, you know, like I try to talk to other coaches or, you know, new coaches, and and I know Ruben's done this a lot of times, but you know, they ask, what's probably the most important part, or what's most important at starting as a new coach. And mine is don't think you know it all. There's great coaches out there.

SPEAKER_00 38:14

That sounds very familiar.

SPEAKER_02 38:17

Call them. Call me. I'm not the famous coach, but there's some famous coaches out there. There's great coaches. You can call them. I promise they're not gonna laugh at you. They're not gonna we're all here to help you. That's that's you know we and we've all been there. We've all been there. We've all been there. You know, we make calls, and shoot, I was still calling Joey Can too this year, you know, having a question. You know, we I don't know everything. You're still learning from day to day. So I would make a call to him, thinking he would know everything that sometimes he doesn't either.

SPEAKER_01 38:51

So I would like I would like to be at our convention, Tony. Uh I would like to be at our convention and stand up to the podium and said, Everybody that knows Tony Martinez, would you please stand up? You would be amazed. I bet you three fourths, if not more, would stand up because you are so well known around the entire state of Texas, and and not just as a coach, but as a friend and as somebody that will help you do whatever you can. And that's gonna lead me in a little bit into something else with what you and Joey did for uh tennis around uh the state of Texas. But before I get in, that's gonna take you a long time. I know if Amanda had a couple other questions before I hit that one.

SPEAKER_03 39:29

I'm sorry, yeah. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01 39:31

What's the next question?

SPEAKER_00 39:33

Oh how is going to camps, and it sounds like you've just done more than just going to camps, but how has going to camps helped you develop as a coach?

SPEAKER_01 39:46

Oh yeah. Good question.

SPEAKER_02 39:50

Me going to camps to teach camps to work camps? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 39:54

How does that make you oh how's that how has that improved you as a coach?

SPEAKER_02 40:00

Man, okay. Well, I started back in 1990 with Bob Hobgen at the University of Texas. Oh, Bob. Bob is the man. Bob knows how to run camps. Um but what he does is he brings in excellent instructors, and the instructors are top-notch. I mean, that's how I met Joey Cannon too. There's I can name coaches all over the that are great coaches of uh Wade Zimmerman over in Capel. I mean, uh it's just a list of who's who of coaches who've gone on to do other things other than coaching, too. But what they everybody brought something different to the table. And you can learn different drills. You're you're watching this guy, wow, this guy was phenomenal, you know. Um that's that's the purpose of the co of camps. You're listening to the other coaches, have an open mind. You don't know everything, you know, know all about tennis. If you have that mentality, you're not gonna be a successful coach. You've got to have that open mind and listen to somebody. And and and I did. I was able, you know, everybody was able to share their ideas. Uh, you're learning from, hey, how do you handle these situations with parents? You're gonna have parent situations, player situations. I didn't finish my little thing with Jane uh with Bramlett. This is what he told me what to do. I'm sorry. Yeah, I get to forget about that.

SPEAKER_03 41:31

You're good.

SPEAKER_02 41:32

This is the one thing he told me. You treat number one and two, uh, number who's number number 10 or number 12, if number 10 or 12 or running, running one and two, sure better be running with them. That they're not special. If you don't take control of it, then you're gonna lose control of your team. And I know what he was talking about because he had, you know, some prima donnas and all those kind of guys. You know, winning five state championships, you know, you have guys, he had the triplets. He had three guys, you know, they were triplets and they could all play. But he was able to manage them. And he says, and that's that's the key in being a good coach, too. Don't treat one special. If you do that, you're gonna lose control of your team. And like you said, if they're not running, they need to be prepared. You know, one of my pet peeves, they get there and they still have their shoes not on yet. They're not scared, you know. We're just come on, guys. You know, number seven, eight, nine, and ten, they're out on the court already. And you're sitting down here putting on your shoes.

SPEAKER_03 42:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:37

I don't put up with that much because they know what's going to happen the next day when they get back. You know, when we get back to practice. So I I don't have that, I haven't had that problem for the last 10 or 12 years here. You know, they uh know what my expectations are, and I let them know from day one. Okay, so that was, you know, but going back to coaches and doing camps, um, we did a camp in Vern, we did camps out in West Texas, we did camps all over Texas. It was tennis cross, Texas. Me and Joey hired great guys. I mean, Ruby can tell you that. The people we brought were um Casey Smashy, they were just phenomenal people. And we learned from them. You know, we're still learning from those guys. I mean, you you learn how to teach a new drill, how to, you know, incorporate what to say to encourage the players. Um, those are great things to learn while you're at a camp. Learning what I was at the AM camp. I was at AM two or three years ago. Are you allowed to say that?

SPEAKER_01 43:44

Yeah, I was being at UT so long.

SPEAKER_02 43:46

I I was I I was with uh, believe it or not, I was with Bramlett's son next to me. Had no clue. No clue. You know, but I thought Jeff was standing right now. He he talks and acts just like his dick. Just like him. Just like him. And I, you know, but we got to talk, but I I got to listen to him and I learned things from him too, you know, while we were there at at AM, you know, and um I said I'll I'll I'm glad there's been no I have no regrets of going there because you got to hear more things. I had to go there. Like I said, I did go with an open mind. And I did hear different coaches and different strategies. And he's done a great job. You know, I know he moved up here to Rockwell. Now he's in my neck of the woods. He was supposed to take my job, but he got a better offer. And he's he's you know close to the Dallas area there.

SPEAKER_01 44:42

So well he he he got close to the that girl he's engaged in now. That's the main thing. Are they married now?

SPEAKER_02 44:48

I was trying to figure out why do you want to come at least Houston?

SPEAKER_01 44:51

That's exactly what it is. Yeah, we interviewed that. I found out the rest of the story. Yes, yes. You remember Kim Gidley? Who is it? Kim Gid Kim Gidley. She was the Air Force women's coach, and she's come to our our uh uh coach's school to do some clinics, but she's not there anymore. She's retired, but she came to our West Texas State camp, and you talk about learning from other coaches, is what I'm getting at. That girl has so much fire, energy, thrills like you wouldn't imagine. And I was just a young, you know, college player, and who was the started?

SPEAKER_02 45:29

What's a man uh talling a young man from Abilene? He was history man. Well, there are you talking about Rick Rick Myers or who? I know Rick Myers, the the coach of the tennis from Abilene? Yeah. Oh, you're talking about Fred Scott? Fred Scott. Fred Scott came to UT tennis camp one summer. Oh, yes. Guy was amazing. You know, I mean, yeah, still, like said, his dad was amazing. We had different guys, you know, like said from all over through the years, you've got somebody that comes in and and makes a mark, and he made a mark that year too.

SPEAKER_03 46:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:14

So I think what Amanda is trying to get at, you coaches that are listening, is you want to be a better coach? What are you gonna say, Amanda? Go to camps. Go to camp. Amanda, you've done that, right? I mean, you and and you've learned a lot from other coaches.

SPEAKER_00 46:29

I think last year I didn't go to camp. We were moving. Um this year, staying home, being with the husband, trying trying to repay my time that I've been gone for so much. So I'm like, I do. I feel like, oh my goodness, like I'm missing out on drills. I'm missing out on learning how to talk to kids, like you said, Tony, learning how to deal with parents. Um, so I do have a bit of like, oh, I'm getting behind. But I think with how much, like you said, kind of like the relationships you've built with your coaching friends throughout the years, I I feel like um I feel like I'm in good hands. Like it's not, it's not they're gonna be the same. Like, I'm not gonna come back with like this sh this list of drills that I that I have done in the past, but I do feel like I could probably make a few phone calls and pick up something new if I needed to. Yeah, which I do. So yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:30

Well, I wanted to tell I know you mentioned t tennis across Texas, Tony, but I just wanted to. That's another emphasis I was gonna say. You guys helped Vernon tennis so much. Uh when when you guys, how many years? I don't even know how many years you came, but it was every summer, and the kids, not just the kids, you mentioned the parents. We had more fun. I think y'all had a lot of fun with the parents that I had here because they couldn't wait for y'all to get here. Because I don't know if you know, we we'd put the the coaches in some of the other parents' house. They'd house them. And uh I we had a big swimming party with cookout at the Herber's uh swimming pool at the end. You remember those days, Tony? Oh, yeah, love those parties. Love them parties. I love the pirate coat.

SPEAKER_02 48:13

Pirate coat.

SPEAKER_01 48:15

Pirate pub. I love it. Now Scott. We had a good one there, that's for sure. But but my point is the kids, the parents, the community embraced y'all every summer. Y'all came with that group of coaches and really, in my opinion, uh helped Vernon Tennessee even more. And we learned a lot of that with the way you did your summer camps after a while. We we just got it to where now Carrie has over 200 kids, uh, from five years all the way to you know the seniors in high school. Uh, over 200 kids ever in in the summer camp. And so a lot of that I think is because of what y'all did uh for tennis across Texas. So I want to tell you thank you for that. What do you what do you want to say about that?

SPEAKER_02 48:58

Well, well, what we did is we brought you the University of Texas to can't. So we brought you, I mean, the mentality part. There was a guy named Jeff Moore who was won two national championships as a women's coach at UT. And I wish I'd have known all this stuff that he was teaching us about the mental part of the game. Uh, Dr. uh, what's the name? Lair. Um he just passed away about a month ago, I think. I saw your text on that um on Facebook. Believe it or not, I had lunch with him one-on-one at lunch. Uh Jeff Moore brought him in. I had to take care of him for two hours. And it was the best two hours of my life. Thinking what who he has coached, you know, who he given instructions to, how to do the mental part. And that's what, you know, we learned as at UT as going to camp there, you learn more how to teach your kids how to be mentally tough. Um and how to do it.

SPEAKER_01 50:00

Was it called a 10-second cure? Was it the 10-second cure or something that he came up with? 16 seconds. 16 seconds. 16 seconds cure. Sometimes only had 10. So I was kidding. Yeah, that was what it was. I remember. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 50:11

Ours was we we condensed it, he condensed it, and he's let me like authorize where I can say you want to write a book, use it. But we used RTP, which was responsible. I remember that. Positive injury, take your time and prepare with the plan. And that's what we used with RTP. And I've used it here at this school. We use this, you know, this emphasis. And then how the strategies on point building. Well, it was first strike was our first day. I mean, it and I'm telling you, you know, you see it on the pro tour, you see it on TV. We were doing this.

SPEAKER_01 50:46

Can you talk about can you talk about those real and then we're kind of short on time, but can you talk about those just real briefly? First strike, RTP, and and I know you mentioned it, but all right.

SPEAKER_02 50:55

Well, because so you have first strike, and first strike goes with serving, and then first strike can happen the second part. On the second serve, you're you're striking, going after the ball on the second. Don't just baby the ball. You're gonna attack that second serve. As a returner. Uh-huh. So that's your first strike thing. The next thing would be point building. You're building the point, you know, going cross-floor, you're waiting for that weakness where the guy will give you the short shot, which was the capitalizing attack. That was your third theme, where if it's a short shot, you're going to come in, you're going to capitalize on it, and you're going to attack and get to the net. Finish was the last one. You get up to the net, you volley it, or you had an overhead smash. So those are the themes that we we were using for you, but we used it at Bernie, and Bernie uses it. I used it for the last 12, 13 years here at um at Sulphur Springs, talking about, you know, the first strike, point building, capitalizing attack. You have to think on the court. You just can't go out there and just hit the ball over the net. You got to have a thought process. And I promise you, in high school, I had no thought process. I just wondered when performed. But there was no rhythm or rhyme to do it. You know, I just hit the ball. But now, what you know now, and like I said, now I really think, honestly, in my heart, I could have beat Mason those two years now that I know how to strategize, how to think mentally tough. If I hadn't known what I know, you know, 20, 30 years ago.

SPEAKER_01 52:32

Been what you know now, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 52:33

In fact, I called the girl and told her 20 years later, I said, I could we could have won state if I know what I know now. You know, you know, it's just a difference. You know, I could have I knew how to counterattack what the other girl was doing. I knew what to how to do it and how to break them. Um that's yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:51

Yeah. There was a girl from Tilacothy, which is just 15 miles from Vernon, Lauren Spears, uh, who ended up playing later at Baylor. But the very first lesson is like a fifth or sixth grader. I I didn't give lessons during school because I was too busy. Long story short, I her mom finally taught me to. So I gave her lessons and she was a pretty good player. I could see she was gonna be a good player, but one of the first lessons we hit some played points, and and I said, Why did you hit that shot? And she just looked at me and I said, I'm just curious, why did you hit that shot? And she couldn't answer and she started crying. I mean by crying. I don't know why. I said, I'm not, don't cry. I said, I'm not getting on to you. I just want you to always have a reason to hit a ball where you hit it. Even if it's I just want to hit it to her back. I mean, I you've got to have and so long story short, she'll never forget that. And she ended up winning state in Chillicothe and uh being, I think, a walk-on at Baylor and played there for a little bit. But what you said is so important. You just can't, I guess you can hit the ball back one, because I've used that strategy too. Just get it back seven times. You know, just get it back. I don't care. But that's also a strategy. So yeah, what you said was so right. I mean, it you a lot a lot of these coaches don't teach stuff like that. Right. They just don't. So that's a great idea.

SPEAKER_02 54:10

Whether they either they don't know how or they don't take the time to learn. Exactly right. And I th that that's the problem we have. You know, like I can mention this to them and they're looking at me like, what are you talking about? You know, and I'm okay. And you know, that's and sometimes they don't feel like they have enough time to do that to incorporate you know, to put that into their practice time, you know, but you really do need to I do it on rainy days, but you need to still do it on the court when it's not the rainy day. You still need to practice it too. And we would practice, you know, you hit a bad shot, this is w how you want to act. You you see the pros and you see how they act, and and that's what you want to. They're not throwing their rackets, they're not crying or screaming or anything. And then they get all mad and they're losing, you know, the mental focus, you know, to win the next point because they're still mad about a point that happened two games ago. I hate when I walk up to the fence and they said, Coach, they cheated me two games ago. Oh my gosh, you're still worrying about a point that happened two games ago.

SPEAKER_01 55:16

Stop. You know, I'm guessing you've lost those two games since then, too. You're still worried about them.

SPEAKER_02 55:22

Yeah. But that's yeah, but that's like a that's just part of it, you know, and I think I, you know, I used, you know, I look at things like we talk about the TTCA, and there's things that I look at, and I've now I'm ready to do whatever I need to do. You know, if it's talking to first-year kids, and I know you and I see, you know, Randy and all these guys, but I want to be part of that now too, where you know, if these kids have questions, I'm here. I'm here. I want to do, you know, but I have I I I permit I have permission, you know, from those guys to use whatever I need to use to get points across, be it RTP, be it, you know, the first strike stuff. I can go over that back and forth, you know, and hand out literature, stuff like that. Um I can I can do that. If it rains, then put me in, coach.

SPEAKER_01 56:22

You know, I'm I'm I'm ready to send. Amanda's already Amanda's already want you to come to Franklin because I'm gonna go to the house, come on down to Franklin. We have You're never gonna retire until the day you die, Tony Martinez. I know that for a fact. And uh your wife is gonna uh gonna want to travel and uh you she's gonna have to drag you along. And I love your wife, you know that. And I want her to drag you along. Get you away from the tennis courts and enjoy life in your retirement.

SPEAKER_02 56:48

I have I am working on a secret in Winchitaw Falls. There's the secret. What there was there was a middle school coach stopping open for an hour park, but you know, I I I d I don't really want to do that. I just want to work with kids. And so I do have a job probably at holiday high school driving a bus. Now I am in. Now I can offer the coach my services to since I'm out there, you know. Hey, you need some help? I'll be happy to help you. I am like I said, folks, I said it here first. I'm with the school now, I'm in the system, so it's not like I'm you know coming off the street and trying to help. I'm I'm I'm employed by holiday ISD.

SPEAKER_01 57:32

So that's you're what you're saying is you're gonna be coaching tennis at holiday next year.

SPEAKER_00 57:36

So you're not gonna retire.

SPEAKER_01 57:38

Yeah, I'm not fully retired.

SPEAKER_02 57:40

You know, but I'm I have a I have a neck and a grandson who is gonna be playing seventh grade tennis. I don't know why this coach, uh coach Josh Moore, he's there in Wichita Falls, and he says, Well, he's on the team. And I said, Well, he hasn't even tried out yet. He said, He's your grandson, ain't he? And I said, Yeah, but that doesn't mean he's gonna he's gotta make the team, you know. No, no, I've got him on the team. He went to UT camp last year and he's going to UT camp this summer. I said, Yeah, but you know, I'll be I'll have him ready maybe, you know, for seventh grade tennis by August. But uh it's like I said, don't don't put any pressure on him, you know. He doesn't he just wants to play. But you know, he's not looking at but no, we're those are my what I'm trying to do just to keep in touch, doing some little private lessons on the side. And I've got yeah, my kids that I graduated with. I'm doing all their grandkids.

SPEAKER_01 58:39

I'm just working with grandkids. Yeah, but you also forgot something you promised me that we would be doing. Golf. Yes. Kids said we'll retire now, we'll play golf.

SPEAKER_02 58:51

Oh, I'll come to Virginia. You come to Weeks Golf. Two weeks ago, you had that a month ago or so you had the night nightlight golf. Well, no, that's gonna be July.

SPEAKER_01 59:00

We're gonna play in that. I'm gonna call you.

SPEAKER_02 59:02

When is it? July what? Tell me now.

SPEAKER_01 59:06

Uh I'll I'll tell you afterwards because I don't want to take some time away. But uh uh Amanda, I mean we're kind of running out of time here, uh, so we have to kind of get close up. But this is always to me my favorite part because Amanda has the greatest question that she asks to finish our podcast a lot. So uh I'll let Amanda take it away from here.

SPEAKER_00 59:25

Okay, well, first I'm gonna I wanna compliment you, Tony, because it just um you just sound like my type of coach. I'm sorry that we didn't get to hang out or cross paths sooner, but um I really do appreciate your approach to coaching um in the sense of you don't know everything, you're willing to learn, and you put yourself out there to not only help yourself, but to help kids, parents, and other coaches get more exposure to tennis. So um I would like to thank you for your so your services. Um because man, there's out of you're one of a kind, it sounds like in all the coaches that I've met, there's only one Tony Martinez.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:15

That's what I told you, man. Everybody knows you, everybody loves you.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:19

But what I would like to ask you, Tony, is what would you tell your first year self? What would how would you coach your first year self as a coach? If you're mentoring yourself.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:32

If I met Tony myself?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:34

Yes, if you were if if first year Tony had to ask you, what you know, what do I need to know? What would you tell yourself?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:43

Go back in time.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:44

Yeah, go time time.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:49

I just have an open mind. Listen to everything, take it in, soak it in. Um something, and you gotta use those things, try them out. It may not be something you like, but then it's not what you like, it's what the kids like. I've done drills and some drills, you know, I really didn't like them, uh, but my kids love them. So you have to you have to, you know bend a little bit. You know, you're you're not you're not the God, the godfather of tennis. You have to have to be there uh with an open mind and be able to bend and and accommodate what the players want. There's who you have to take care of first, are your players. Yes. And so it's not what Tony likes or what I like or you know what the it all everybody else is doing. It's like what your players, if it makes them happy and it makes them want to be out there on the court and play a lot, that's the key. You know, do what you know that I'm just telling that coach or telling Tony, let them have fun. Let them have fun. Don't don't be don't be don't be such a disciplinarian type of deal. Now, Amanda, what I'm gonna tell you right now, I don't know what your schedule's like, but at the University of Texas, we have an open door to coaches. Honestly, you can come, walk the courts, or you know, be upstairs, listen to what we say. You know, uh we talk to our directors and tell them, hey, we have a coach who's with a TTCA, does everything. I mean, she's listening and all she does is picking up some stuff. It's not uh you're not teaching any kids or you're not breaking any child rules or you know, or we have that. You know, she's not no, you can come in as a guest. We do invite coaches through the years. I've invited coaches hey, come and listen to what we do on the court in our morning sessions. We have no secrets. We're not, you know. It's open, you know, and we we encourage it. And then if you see, hey, maybe you might be interested, might want to come back next year and coach and see, you know, stuff like that. But yeah, you come and go as you want to through the day, then come back in the afternoon and see what our open tennis, what we do in our uh drills in the afternoon, or we have live tennis where we have matches, but they have certain like they'll play a match, but they only have one serve, not two serves. Oh, yeah. Or else you'll play a match and you're down 40-15. You're down, and you gotta come back to win. And it may be over at one point the game, but it gets you in that mentality of trying to fight back when you're down. So we use those type of scenarios on the court. So I do want to know the doors open. I appreciate that. Just call me and just pop in and you know, we'll take care of you. You know, it's not me, you'd be listening to that.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:58

Charlie Silas and that's any any coach, any coach. So uh that's that's pretty awesome that y'all do that, Tony. Well, listen, thank you so much for taking the time to to be on the Texas Tennis Coaches Podcast. It's a long time coming, but I I really hope that you take my advice that I'm about to give you. You you've done a great job doing what you do. It's time for you to relax a little bit and enjoy your wife, enjoy your relaxing. I mean, and don't feel like you have to keep working. Okay? Do it a little bit, but don't that's one.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:38

Well, my official retirement is like say June 31st, not May, not next week, end of this week. Because I couldn't work at UT tennis camp. If I retired, I couldn't work there. So I had to extend that uh till June the 31st. So I, you know, but I do plan to not do anything the rest of this year. I mean, just doing private lessons and that's it. Uh and uh and after the camp, no more camps in uh you know, August or July.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:11

Play golf with me. I play golf week at least.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:14

I promise you, yeah. I mean, three days a week last week because I had taken my days off and I was playing with every coach last week, playing three days straight. That's awesome. That's awesome. Um I'll be ready for you in July.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:29

Hey, by the way, July 18th, it's the night golf tournament. It's the most fun thing you've ever done. July 18th. We play nine holes during the day, eat a hamburger and let it get dark, and we go out there and set up the course for night golf. It is the most fun thing. And we're off of Taiway 287. And so people are walking by, there's no lot. All they see is golf balls flying everywhere. I thought that's gotta look cool from 287. Mom, look, I toss something mode.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:57

Look, there's another one.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:58

But these states I'm recording. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Well, again, thanks again, Tony. You're uh an awesome uh coach, and more importantly, you're an awesome man. And uh I love you and I appreciate all you've done for the game of tennis in Texas. You and I know uh Joey did a whole lot uh for Texas tennis.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:15

Yes, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:16

He did. He did. I appreciate it. Thank you, Ralph, for the kind words. I do appreciate it. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:21

Oh right. Bye, everyone. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:25

God bless.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:30

Okay, Ruben. Welcome back to TTCP. Ruben, I know you're hungry. I'm hungry, but that's okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:39

This is a great, great interview with Tony Martinez and uh uh coaches. Uh, I know we interview a lot of Hall of Fame caliber coaches and even Hall of Fame coaches. I see him eventually getting into the Hall of Fame because of the kind of coaches, the kind of person he is, and how he's done so much for the game of tennis. So uh hopefully you guys heard and picked up some great pointers uh from Tony. And uh one of the biggest things is just the camps that he does, and now as a coach, you can really pick up a lot if you're at a camp, either watching, walking around, or actually participating in the camp to get other stuff from the other coaches and that that are uh also in the camp with you. I I learned so much from all my years as as a camp uh counselor at West Texas State University when I was playing and doing the summer camps there and stuff. It was it was amazing, and that made me a lot of the coach I am today. So uh hopefully you got a lot of good stuff from this guy. He's a great friend of mine, and I'm I'm honored to call him friend. So what'd you think about it?

SPEAKER_00 1:07:36

Uh it was so good. Again, like I said, I was kind like I said in the intro, I'm kind of sad that he's retiring because he seems like a great mentor and um kind of to step into our motivational minute, I think he's still open to being a mentor and actively helping other tennis coaches. Yeah. Heck, he might even, if you're working with him, he might even help you out if you're like the golf coach. Yeah, um, that just seems to be the type of person Tony is.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:12

And so that's very just I got a feeling he's the kind of coach if you call him and say, hey coach, can you you might come in down to uh Lubbock or you know, uh Franklin and and and spending a day talking to our kids or you know, just kind of work some drills with him. I he would love to do that. You know, he would love to do that. So hope you guys enjoyed this like we did. He's a great, great guy. Great, great guy. Glad we got the interviewing.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:37

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:37

Well, I'm ready for the motivational minute. How about you?

SPEAKER_00 1:08:41

I am too, even though it's like slowly slipping away. So as we let me get it out before it goes away. Um for my motivational minute, I I think, and it and it comes from Tony. I think it's what are you absorbing? And that's not and I this might sound very weird or poorly worded, so I'm sorry. But who are you absorbing to? I think for him to be called, you know, you are a product of the people you are around. Yeah, um, good or bad. So I'm not trying to label it in any form. Um, because your perception of good might be my perception of bad, too. So um, but I think it's very important as coaches to one, as a player, know who your coach, not know who your coach was, like as a coach, but like know that you probably are a product. You are not you probably are, you are a product of your coaching. I'm a product of choice time. I will and I'm sure it is highlighted however people want to perceive it. Um but I also know coaches that I talk to consistently. Um I hope I'm taking their better traits because I I like to, you know, I want to be at that level that they are and I I know I want to sit at their table. So uh I just know know the company you keep and I I think kind of almost almost have pride in like who your coach was because oh like this whole this whole project is to like kind of highlight coaches and I think everyone that we have interviewed has mentioned a coach who has affected their life for the better.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:46

So there's gotta be something behind that a hundred percent. A hundred percent, you know, and and my motivational that's a great one too, by the way, Amanda. It's it's it's we're all a part of of coaches we had or coaches that we knew, but he mentioned something that I really liked. And my motivational minute is this as a coach, you've always got a a a chance to teach, not just the game, but a life lesson. And and I'm gonna talk about when he had the he wanted to quit. Tony. There was a time and and uh Coach Brotherton said, no, you know, uh that's easy. Quitting is easy. You're gonna have opportunities in life later where you can quit. That's easy. Anybody can quit. What it takes is somebody to not quit, to hang in there, to work through it, and and uh uh to make yourself a better player, a better person, a better employee, you know, better uh father, you know, whatever, better friend. But coaching tennis is a great opportunity for you to teach something, good or bad, but you're always in a position to teach something to your kids. And uh Tony mentioned that about you know, when he wanted to quit, and uh the coach, you talk about a big influence, man. The coach influenced him not to. And I think of uh some of my players that I've had that wanted to quit and didn't, and I've even had some that quit and regretted it, came back, and are now coaching tennis. Like Quintero from Burp Renette High School. Anyway, so you know, your coaches, you're important, and what you teach these kids is important, and it's not just tennis. So uh take advantage of that. Uh use it to build your kids up, not not tear them down. So that's mine.