By Rick Limpert, special to USTA Georgia
“Tennis can be a strange sport!”
Longtime employee of the Troup County Parks and Recreation Dept., Bill Champion recently retired, but he isn’t going far as he reflects on where his tennis journey has taken him.
“We’re busier than we’ve ever been, which makes it a hard time to retire, but I’ll still be teaching lessons and stringing racquets,” admitted Champion, after working for Troup County for 20 years.
Champion is one of Georgia’s top tennis ambassadors and promoters, but his career in tennis seemed to happen by accident.
“I grew up in Pine Mountain, Ga. and like most kids, grew up playing baseball, football and basketball. Baseball was my sport. A friend of mine was teaching tennis at Callaway Gardens when I was a lifeguard there and he kind of got me teaching tennis. Along with playing two years in high school at Harris County, I went to Young Harris College and played for two years.”
It was then that Champion started to realize that his playing career may have peaked, but more doors started to open.
“I ended up then going to Georgia Southern and tried out for the team, but got dropped on the last cut. I was a junior then majoring in recreation, so I ended up teaching with Statesboro Recreation. During the summer, I would come back to Callaway and teach.”
That led to a position back at Young Harris where he took a job as dorm director, PE teacher and tennis coach.
“All for $8,900 a year,” laughed Champion.
It was the early 80’s and Champion went back to Georgia Southern to work on his Masters degree with a goal of doing something in Parks and Rec. After the two years, tennis called in the form of the General Manager of Callaway Gardens.
“He called to offer me a job there after their management company left. I was there 1984-89.”
Champion enjoyed that but then went to Highland Country Club in LaGrange for five years.
In 2004, he left for a new position in Troup County, Ga. and ended up being there for 20 years.
“I went from walk-on to more… kind of like the movie, Rudy. I set out to be a Park and Rec Director, and stumbled into tennis!”
Champion said he was happy to start out at places where he could be involved in the growth of tennis.
“I was fortunate to start out and Young Harris and then go to Callaway Gardens. These were two learning experiences and I got to work with great people. Had a good run at Callaway Gardens as we were a Top-50 Resort in Tennis Magazine and a Top-50 Family Resort.”
Through all his stops, including Troup County, his philosophy has been “A Culture of Community.”
“I’ve been over kid’s programs, the pool, organizing, for the last 20 years, we’ve been wide open at McCluskey Tennis Center. We’ve done the Southern Combo in the past, until we ran out of courts. At Callaway, I got to work with the management company, but the fun was in the summer program, ALTA teams coming out of Atlanta and running about 14 tournaments a year. We brought in a lot of room nights at Callaway.”
With growing the sport of tennis as a goal, Champion and his team stumbled upon a sweetspot.
“We decided our target was junior tennis and 2.5 ladies tennis. We can grow those (groups)! From team tennis to making things fun. We currently have a waitlist for all of our clinics. This is why I’ll need to keep teaching!
Although tennis is popular in Troup County, Champion says there will always be competition, so tennis programs need to be fun and keep evolving.
“Our competition and challenge is youth soccer,” admits Champion. “So many kids get involved in that. Baseball to some degree in the summer, but you always lose a couple good athletes to soccer. We start the kids young. Four, five and six year olds with waitlists. 45 minute clinics with the short nets.”
Another market Champion discovered are the Korean families that come to the U.S. for a few years to work at the Kia plant in West Point. The production plant is home to over 2,700 employees and produces 340,000 vehicles per year.
“The Kia plant in West Point has been incredible,’ stated Champion. “They love tennis. It started out with kids, but now all the moms are taking lessons in the morning.”
In Korea, organized sports are huge and what Champion and his crew offer not only are organized activities, but also offer time for families to spend time together and make memories 1000’s of miles from home.
Champion continued: “We make it fun. We joke with the kids, play Knockout at the end. We plan out the holidays. Toys for Tots, Halloween fun. LaGrange has always had a rich tradition of high school tennis. JV and Varsity. We point the kids in that direction.”
Goals for the future include Champion getting involved with grant writing and capitalizing on the popularity of wheelchair tennis.
“I think we are a sleeping giant. We’ve had some wheelchair tournaments with my friend Jeff Davis. We have the ideal spot. Hardcourts, level parking lot, elevator that goes up to the pro shop. We will try that. We’ll bid on a wheelchair tournament.”
Part of Champion’s legacy is he’s only earned a paycheck in the state of Georgia.
“Kind of weird I’ve spent my entire career in Georgia. I had a chance at one point to go down to Amelia Island, but I think I like the four seasons of weather and my family is all here. The staff has been great over the years, we hire local kids.”
He may be retiring and remembers being cut from his college team, but talking to Champion for a few minutes, you feel he’ll keep being LaGrange’s “ambassador of tennis”.
