New Rule May Impact Tennis Revival at Garden Grove

When Kevin Starnes took over the Garden Grove High boys’ tennis program, it was on the verge of collapsing. Today, it is one of the best in Orange County.

Starnes’ first team in 1990 finished 2-16. This year’s team won its third consecutive Garden Grove League title and finished 17-3.

Coincidence? Good fortune?

Not quite.

The tennis revival at Garden Grove is strictly about Starnes and his hard work. During the off-season, Starnes spends hours of his free time giving his players private lessons for free.

But after a Southern Section Executive Council’s ruling last month, it appears the revival might be short-lived. The new rule prohibits a coach from playing tennis with or instructing an individual outside the tennis season.

The Southern Section has always prevented coaches from working with their players, other than in the spring and summer, during the off-season. But that rule always excluded tennis, golf and badminton because they were individual sports.

But the Southern Section’s Blue Book Committee recommended that the rule should include every sport. On April 20, the council strongly approved the committee’s recommendation.

“It was all about consistency,” said Bill Clark, the Southern Section administrator in charge of boys’ tennis. “I don’t think we’d be very strong in court if parents in other sports brought up these exceptions.”

Starnes, whose team plays host to traditional power Laguna Beach today in the Division II playoffs, has been devastated since the ruling came down.

“They’re taking away the opportunities of kids who can’t afford lessons,” said Starnes, also Garden Grove’s girls’ coach. “I can name around 20 schools that will be directly affected. That’s 80 to 100 kids.”

Starnes will still be able to work with his players during summer league and sixth hour, but he says much of the improvement comes during individual instruction.

“I can’t even go to a club in L.A. and work with one of my kids,” Starnes said. “There are programs that are going to drop . . . El Dorado, Garden Grove and others. It makes [tennis] more elitist. The areas with the economics to support private lessons won’t be hurt. The strong will stay the same, the weak gets weaker.”

Starnes said he wasn’t exactly getting rich off from his tennis lessons.

“I don’t take a penny,” he said. “I do it because I like to see the improvement.”

Starnes’ stance was strongly backed up many in the tennis community, including Mission Viejo Coach Bill Smith and El Dorado Coach John Cyrus.

“Playing tennis gives kids an opportunity to do something other than spray painting or drugs--people are giving of themselves, doing community service work and this is what they get in return,” Cyrus said.

”. . . This is a unique sport in that it’s inaccessible to middle- or lower-income people. Now, it’s even more inaccessible.”

Cyrus, who has a tennis court in his back yard, also gave private lessons to his players but he said his program won’t be affected.

“I’ve already switched my lessons to other people,” said Cyrus, whose team plays at Downey Warren in the first round of Division II playoffs. “I wasn’t charging much anyway.”