Steve Hayden
BCCTC Owner, Director of Tennis

Steve Hayden's tennis career spans 35+ years and his accomplishments are too numerous to list here. Some key facts: USPTA Teaching Professional, Ohio VP for USPTA, member of National USTA Adult Competition Committee, Chair of National Circuit Chairs, Midwest Section Delegate at Large, Captain Midwest Donoff Cup team (10 yrs), National tournament player, High School coach (8 yrs).

We featured Steve Hayden's article Clay Court Tennis - The Soft Choice in our January 2019 issue.

Questions for Steve Hayden

TCB: Steve, when did you start playing tennis? Did someone teach you?
SH: I started playing tennis in college. I had a fraternity brother playing on the D-III team and started to hit around with him on many occasions. From there, I continued to play during college without formal training and soon got hooked on the sport. Growing up playing basketball and baseball gave me the hand-eye coordination and footwork that helped me transition to tennis.

TCB: When did you start teaching tennis? When did you get USPTA certified??
SH: Post undergraduate college, I taught high school physics and coached both the boys and girls tennis teams for an Ohio D-III school. After the third year of coaching, I started working at a local country club teaching tennis during the summer breaks. At this point, I started playing in tennis leagues, adult tournaments and attending coaches' clinics at regional clubs. I joined the USPTA in 2002 after I began giving tennis lessons, part time, at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Tennis Club and have been a member ever since.

TCB: Where did you work between college and BCCTC?
SH: Post undergraduate college, I taught high school physics and coached the boys and girls tennis teams (8 years). I then worked at the National Air & Space Intelligence Center (Air Force) as a federal employee, received my M.S. in Engineering Physics and worked at the Wright-Patterson AFB for 34 years. During that time, I have volunteered for the USTA Ohio Valley District as a VP and President of the District, volunteered for the USTA Midwest Section as the chair of the Section Adult Competition committee, chair of the Section Nominating committee, Delegate-at-Large, Volunteer committee and National USTA volunteer for the National Adult Competition committee and National Local Play Net Generation committee, all over a 20 year span. I have been the tournament director (TD) for numerous Ohio Valley District junior sectional tournaments and TD for National adult tournaments. I have also captained our Midwest Section's National Intersectional team events for nine years. I am currently a VP for the Ohio USPTA.

TCB: Did you start BCCTC 2017 from scratch or did you buy an existing club?
SH: In 2015, my wife and I entered into a business relationship with a swim club here in Beavercreek, Ohio. The swim club had 4 asphalt tennis courts that were in disrepair. Through our business agreement, we acquired land from the swim club and tore up the courts to replace them with 5 HarTru tennis courts, built a clubhouse, 3 pickleball courts and parking lot. We are currently a May through September seasonal club.

TCB: Why 5 har-tru clay courts? Are you planning to cover them or add indoor courts?
SH: First, why clay? I have been playing on clay courts for 35 years and 1) enjoy the style of play that clay provides and 2) know that clay provides a better aerobic workout for players and 3) know that clay will allow me to play longer as a senior than hard courts. I have read OpEds from numerous medical writers that will usually state the message that clay is easier on your body however there is no scientific proof of this belief. I disagreed…there is a large amount of scientific research showing the benefits of clay on the lower extremities of the body and positives for aerobic exercises. Thus the reason I wrote the research paper on, "Clay Court Tennis -- The Soft Choice". We have 5 tennis courts due to the limit in space for the complex. We have no plans for any indoor courts.

TCB: Do you have more tennis pros working for you?
SH: We have an assistant tennis professional that works with the juniors during the summer.

TCB: What do you like about BCCTC and working there?
SH: The primary reason I enjoy working at and running the club is that I have found additional ways to enable health for all that play tennis and pickleball at our club. We all know that tennis prolongs a healthy lifestyle over other sports, allows creativity to enable fun events, and running a club allows the flexibility to reach out to schools, community, USTA, members, etc to bring people together. I believe more local members and teaching professionals should consider volunteering for USTA, NSMTA, ITA, UTR and USAPA activities at the local level.

TCB: How many members do you have so far?
SH: Over 200 members

TCB: When did you start embracing pickleball?
SH: I recognize that there are many racket & paddle sports…tennis being my favorite. Since pickleball is a growing and popular sport, dedicated pickleball courts were envisioned as being a part of our complex from the start. Our tennis players love tennis and our pickleball players love pickleball and a small percentage of players play both. From our club's view, I don't see one sport as a threat to the other.

TCB: Do you have one membership or are tennis and pickleball separate memberships?
SH: We have annual memberships that provide access to all facilities and also separate memberships just for pickleball.

TCB: How do your members embrace pickleball?
SH: As mentioned above, members appreciate the opportunity to have a variety of activities available to them.

TCB: What are your challenges day in day out?
SH: My biggest challenge is getting the 'indoor only' midwest league player to play tennis outside. I have found that some indoor only players are more likely to try out a clay court when they overcome the rumor that clay is too slippery or to costly or have not realized that clay slows down the ball allowing the player more time for the stroke.

TCB: What are your plans for the future at BCCTC?
SH: Tennis: Our club opened in 2018 and sponsored a National adult team event (physically carried out at Lake Nona, the National USTA campus), ran a National USTA Adult Cat-III compass draw tournament, two USTA junior tournaments and a 19-39 Team-Up event. We will continue these events this year and into the future along with our local Adult/Junior leagues & clinics. We are hosting a college D-III women's invitational in Sept of this year.
Pickleball: We hosted a level-play non-sanctioned 16-team compass draw tournament. We will move into the sanctioned tournament events this year and initiate leagues and drop-ins.

TCB: Do you still play tennis yourself?
SH: Yes. I do not play local or USTA leagues however play USTA age-bracket tournaments. My ranking has slipped due to limited play recently however was in the top 20 nationally in the 55s.

TCB: What brand/model racquet do you use? What type strings?
SH: I use a Dunlop F4 Tour racket with Kevlar & nylon hybrid strings

TCB: Thank you, Steve Hayden.