Kelly Gaines, Executive Director of USTA NC, is here to share her amazing story!

Kelly played tennis at William Peace University, was a pro at the North Hills Club, and went on to be the head coach of the NC State Women’s Tennis team before becoming the Executive Director of North Carolina Tennis.

Luckiest Human on the Planet

Kelly said she’s the luckiest human on the planet. She grew up playing every sport as a child. She was introduced to tennis by two boys who lived down the street from her and they were at the end of the street hitting a tennis ball. Kelly decided to take a racquet down to join them and the rest is history. Kelly was hooked.

After hitting with the neighborhood boys, she was invited to play at a local club. From there, Kelly played in high school and then in college at William Peace University. At the time, it was a women’s-only college but has since become a four-year, co-ed university. Kelly received a scholarship to play at Peace College.

Kelly’s Rise to University Coach

After college, she went on to teach tennis. She transferred to UNC Chapel Hill and continued to learn how to teach. Once she graduated, Kelly took a job at North Hills Tennis Club in Raleigh, NC. North Hills took a chance on a 23-year-old young woman to be their teaching pro. This shaped Kelly’s path to go on to be the assistant coach at the university level for both the men’s and women’s teams at NC State University.

How Title Nine Affected Everyone Including Kelly’s Career

Once Title Nine was implemented, NC State University split the men’s and women’s teams into two, and Kelly was offered the head coach position for the women’s team. Throughout that time, Kelly was volunteering which ultimately led her to her current role as the Executive Director of the North Carolina Tennis Association. Kelly has been in that position for over 20 years.

Tennis is for Everyone

Kelly said the main thing she wants people to know about her story is that someone asked her to play. The best thing we can do as players to grow the game is to just simply ask people to join in on the fun. Tennis is for everyone!

Carolyn and Erin recorded an episode called “How to Get Your Friends to Start Playing Tennis”. If you’d like to hear it, click here.

Kelly also joined us for one of our most popular episodes about the ITF World Tennis Number. Check that out here.

Complete Transcript of Our Conversation

Carolyn: 0:23

Hi, this is Carolyn, and I’m here with Aaron, and we are thrilled to have Kelly Gaines here with us. Kelly is the Executive Director of USTA North Carolina. She played tennis at William Peace University, where she was recently inducted into the Hall of Fame. She was a pro at North Hills Club in Raleigh and she also coached tennis at North Carolina State University, so we are so excited that you agreed to talk with us. So can you start off by telling us why you started playing tennis and how you were able to make it your career?Kelly: 0:54

Sure, before I jump into me, I just want to take a second and thank the both of you for all that you’re doing to grow tennis. You guys have a unique way of making all of us feel that our tennis is important to us and it is. Your enthusiasm is incredible. So before we get to me, I wanted to make sure to say to you but I am the luckiest human on the planet.Kelly: 1:19

We moved to North Carolina when I was a kid and we lived in a neighborhood that had a million kids and we played everything. So if there was a you know Carolina State basketball game on at two o’clock before we were out playing, replaying the game, we played flag football, we did all kinds of fun things in our neighborhood. And there were two boys. They were brothers. They lived down the street from us and I had a tennis racket. I think my parents bought me a racket one day just to kind of shut me up in a store and I’d play the hit just in the driveway or something. But I saw these two boys. They were cute. I had a crush on one of them and they’re brothers and they were down at the end of our street in a cul-de-sac hitting in the street. So I just took my racket down there to go and I’m not like a flirt, but I went down there to hit with them and the mother stuck her head out and we’d been out there for a little while and and she came out and her you know, I knew her, you know she’s Ms Eckerd and she walked out and she said would you like to go play with us at a tennis court, on a tennis court? And I was like yeah, of course I would. And so she, uh, they, the uh, old Forest Racquet Club. It was only just a year or two old and she actually took me there and because I’d played everything, I was 12, 13 years old and I had a little bit of a natural ability for it. And the high school coach at the time saw me hitting and started giving me lessons and I mainly at first started playing at a park, which is where 70% of all tennis is played is in a public venue, and I had to prove to my family that I was going to stick with it before they would let us join the racquet club to play.Kelly: 3:08

But I grew up in Burlington with a group of players around me and lots of adults who supported us and just luckiest human on the planet. And I was at a time when Title IX it had gone into you know effect eight years before I was ever going to college. But Title IX had really not taken its full effect with college women athletics at that time. So I went to a women’s college in Raleigh, Peace College. It’s now William Peace University. It’s a four-year co-ed school now, but at the time they gave me a scholarship and I got to play and compete there and we played against you know all of the ACC schools that you think of, because there weren’t, there was no other tennis going on. So we were, we were able to play and compete and then I started teaching tennis and I taught a little bit in the summers because I had to have a job of some sort and so I started teaching, found out I really loved teaching, transferred from Peace to UNC Chapel Hill, chose not to play there and I think it’s the best thing. I chose not to do because I started continuing to learn, to teach and came out of college and was given a job in Raleigh at North Hills Club, which they took a bet on.Kelly: 4:27

A 23-year-old woman, which was very unusual at the time Was there for three years and then I got an offer to go to NC State to be the assistant coach for the men and the women, and that was interesting. And after two years they decided and this is when Title IX really kind of did start to kick in they split the program. I was in this one. I say I’m one of the blessed humans ever. I was in the right place at the right time and was there as the women’s head coach for six more years time and was there as the women’s head coach for six more years and you know, just was given a million different experiences, exposed to a lot of people.Kelly: 5:08

But also, along the way I was starting to volunteer for USTA, north Carolina or North Carolina tennis, and so when it was about the time that I was kind of tired of driving around with eight women in a van, I knew that my time was, you know, ending at NC State. I just felt like it was time to decide on something else. This job opened up. The one I’m in right now and the one I took is not nearly like the one that I’m in. I really think we’ve it’s changed a good bit but, like I said, I just am in the right place at the right time and I’ve been blessed by God over and over again. So that’s a long story to how I started, but the bottom line I want to say about how I started is to someone asked me, someone asked me to play, and that is the best way that you can get others to join and play our sport.Erin: 5:59

So, kelly, how long have you been the executive director of North Carolina and can you kind of sum up what that entails? Because that’s a big job in our mind. So can you tell us a little bit about how long you’ve been doing it and what you have to do as the executive director?Kelly: 6:13

Well, since you’ve just heard my tennis story, you know I can’t get by with saying I started this job when I was 12, because I’ve been here 26 years. But as I, you know, as I was able to transition from NC State here, that was in 1995, in November 1st, so I’ve been on staff for over 26 years now and the job has really expanded. When I was hired we had just a couple of people and now we’re, you know, 12 strong and hundreds of volunteers around North Carolina that contribute to tennis. So it’s not just us. But what do I do every day? That is the number one question my husband asks a lot of times.Kelly: 6:54

I guess the first and foremost responsibility is to keep the engine running. We have incredibly talented staff and volunteers and I feel like my first responsibility is to help them do what they do best. We hire, you know I know a little bit about a lot of things and get into trouble pretty quickly. I make a deal with all of the people who have served as our director of adult leagues that if they don’t answer budget and bylaw questions, I won’t answer NTRP rating questions. But I do.Kelly: 7:28

I report to a board of directors and, you know, just really try to be an ambassador for tennis at the sectional and the national level and I do try to, you know, try to be as accessible around the state as possible just to really try to spread the good word about how we can grow. But we spend a lot of time on Zoom calls, talking to people all over the country. We spend a lot of time in team meetings here as to how we can make tennis better. So it’s part administrator, part ambassador and just really trying to do whatever my team needs me to do Okay.Erin: 8:09

So as executive director and as a 4-5 tennis player, I haven’t seen you play, but I’m. I looked up your WTN number and we know she’s a really good four or five player. Do people recognize you on the court? Are you still playing a lot of leagues in this area?Kelly: 8:26

I love league tennis. I play as much as people will ask me and I’ve got a group of, just like everybody does. I’ve got a group of women here in this area in Greensboro that are dear to me and you know they continue to put up with me. I’m not sure how great a player I am anymore, but I have done this since I was 12. There’s a lot of muscle memory. I can’t imagine my life without hitting a tennis ball.Kelly: 8:53

I enjoy hitting a ball as much as I do talking about tennis. Well, some people say I like to talk more and hitting a tennis ball. I enjoy hitting a ball as much as I do talking about tennis. And well, some people say I like to talk more and I like to do anything but um, but I do enjoy the feel of that ball on my strings. I enjoy the feel of running after a ball. Uh, hitting a forehand or backhand volley might be the best thing ever and, um, you know, it’s just still the camaraderie. You know, I just say fun, fitness and friends.Kelly: 9:19

And if I were plopped in the middle of wherever, if you know, if we had to up and move to Iowa, I would be looking for two things. I’d be looking for a tennis court and a church because I think that’s where that center of me would be. As a player, I don’t know how much I’m recognized because I’ve just been in tennis so long. It’s so many people I just know because they’ve just been part of the fabric of my life. It’s not like you know. Oh, there’s Kelly game, blah, blah. It’s just because that’s we all were. We’ve all played together forever and known each other. I think probably some of our staffs are much more known because of who they are, but I feel, like you know, we have North Carolina tennis. We have a very, very deep bench of great players and I’m just glad to be on the court with a lot of them.Carolyn: 10:12

Kelly, that’s great, and since you did coach at the collegiate level, I do need some advice. So what would you say to someone like me, an average adult recreational player, when I would get frustrated on the court?Kelly: 10:40

do in my self-talk and not only when I coach, but also it’s really me now is just play a point at a time. It’s not you know, don’t like I always say, don’t try to eat the whole pizza at once, just go a little piece at a time. So you’re going to play. You know how many points you’re going to play in a match. I mean, you’re going to play hundreds of points in a match. You’re not going to win them all.Kelly: 10:56

And I think just don’t hold on to what you just did. Continue to look at what you can do, and I think there are days you just got to chalk it up to. This isn’t my day, but I don’t think you should ever walk on the court thinking that and you should try until the very last point is over to correct that course. If you’re in one of those days where you just cannot seem to hit it in the ocean, you would just try anything you can to adjust, to get yourself, but it’s probably a lot more mental than it ever is physical. But stay positive, stay in the moment, stay with that point. Don’t go back, don’t look back and don’t look too far ahead.Carolyn: 11:39

That’s fantastic. Since you have played for such a long time, can you tell us your most memorable moment on the court?Kelly: 11:46

As a player. I got a question one time from somebody. They asked me about something. I said do you want the players answer or do you want the tennis administrator’s answer? I want both. Right, that’s what they said. Okay, so I will tell you this. The easiest one for the administrator was any time I have done anything with abilities, tennis or wheelchair tennis, any kind of adaptive tennis Early in my career.Kelly: 12:15

The Triangle area hosted the World Special Olympics Games. Y’all may remember that we did a lot with that as a staff. We were real helpful with the tennis part of that and we did a one night. We just did a. We just filled the court, we did some games and all of that with the athletes and these were athletes from all over the world and we put t-shirts out there, wristbands out there, candy, everything out on these courts and we did hit for prizes. We did that a lot in those days with all kinds of kids and any kind of fun activity when we had carnivals and what we would see when we had, you know, able-bodied kids and there was always a tussle over. Well, I hit that and I get this shirt and I get it. Just, little kid tussles that night. Every single athlete that hit something, that got something. No one argued about what they got. Every one of them, in whatever language they spoke, came up and thanked us. The bus driver told us the next day that every athlete that got on the bus was showing him what they won and how, in whatever language they could say it, and how proud they were. And it just was a. It was just a huge emotional time and I, you know, that was probably in like 1999. And we’re sitting here.Kelly: 13:31

You know, so many years later that I still remember that as a player I think it’s got to be anything I did with a team. Tennis can be such an individual sport just like, I think, a lot of sports, even though you’re on a team you still got to have an individual performance. But I know that when I was in college and high school we had really good runs in our high school championship and Peace did really well at the Nationals when I was playing and when I was at North Carolina State we beat Carolina twice and we had never. We stated women had never beat Carolina women and we did. We beat them twice and just the fun of that and we’d beat that last year that I was there’d beat a lot of schools that we had never beaten before, and I was so happy for the girls. I was just so happy for those young women, and so I think I still take great pride in whatever I’ve done as a team.Kelly: 14:28

And I don’t know, I mean, I’ve played millions of tennis matches in my life and I never feel like you know, that it’s the last one and I always feel like I can do better and I’m aging. That tennis number you saw is going to go down and I, you know so many players that you reach they’re still working, going up and I’ll never be the same player I was 20 years ago or 30 years ago, but it doesn’t matter, I’m playing and I’m going to play till I drop. I mean, I just just want to always have that opportunity. So I don’t know that I have this great win or anything, because I I mean, I, you know, but just being with a team has been, has been so important.Carolyn: 15:08

That’s great. Is there anything else we missed or you want our listeners to know?Kelly: 15:12

So much of tennis is perceived as a very wealthy, a very exclusive sport and you know, this is where league tennis blew that out of the water, because I call that the great democratization of tennis. Is that it really did. We have 70 percent of our tennis plays played in public parks. People don’t need a club membership. They can. They a group, a meetup group, a whatever group, and play tennis. And we know that we have incredible health benefits of our sport because of the fact that we do have to run around a lot. Our heart rate goes up and I look at my Apple Watch and I go in and look at my matches after I play. When did my heart rate go up? What was going on? You know all of that is so geeky, but I just want the world to know that tennis is for everyone and as tennis players, we have a responsibility to always ask somebody to play, regardless of ability, regardless of you know, skill level, tennis is for everybody.Carolyn: 16:17

We can’t thank Kelly enough for being on the podcast. We loved hearing her tennis story and you can tell how passionate she is about the sport. We hope you check out our website, which is secondservedpodcastcom. Thanks so much for listening and hope to see you on the court soon.