Bluegrass Yacht & Country Club
Director of Tennis
Bill has served as the Director of Tennis at the Bluegrass Yacht & Country Club in Hendersonville, Tennessee for the last 11 years. He is a Professional Tennis Registry National Tester and Clinician. He has worked with and directed a wide variety of local, regional, national and international tennis tournaments & events for such organizations as WORLD TEAMTENNIS, the Virginia Slims Legands, the USPTA, the PTR and IMG working alongside many of the games topp professional players and legands such as Andre Agassi, Billie Jean King, Luke Jensen, Andy Roddick and Martina Navratilova.
Bill spent 9 years coaching college tennis most recently at Cumberland University where his players and teams made three appearances in six years in the National Championships. Fisk University and Belmont University where also stops along the way in his coaching career in the early '90s.
Bill also founded and runs the "PRO's of the Caribbean" which offers tennis camps, clinics and events throughout the Caribbean . He and his group of select coaches have organized and run events and programs in Anguilla, Bermuda, Jamaica and St. Martin. He founded and directed the international junior team tennis tournament called the "Caribbean Cup"
As a player and a teacher Bill has been fortunate to have gained a wide variety of experiences in the tennis industry. Having coached and played throughout the US, the Caribbean and Europe, Bill has taught and coached tennis to all levels of players. He has also been a featured and sought after speaker throughout the United States at national, regional and local coaches conventions and workshops.
Bill was recently selected as a coach for the USTA High Performance Program at the Wimbledon Championships in London, England and is now a member of a select group of national coaches. He is also recognized as a “specialist’ by the USPTA in the area of elite and high performance tennis coaching.
One of his ongoing projects is serving as the Co-Chairman and Tournament Director for the Music City Tennis Invitational Pro-Am and Team Tournament held annually to benefit the Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital Child Development Center in Nashville, Tennessee. The 2008 MCTI event raised over $140,000 to help benefit the Child Development Center and also received the 2002 Tennessee Tennis Association Special Event of the Year award. To date the MCTI event has raised over $1 million dollars for the Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital and is the longest running music related charity tennis event in the country.
In February 2005 with the help of Travis TV, Bill helped create, promote and direct the “Country in the Caribbean” Music & Tennis Charity event on the island of Anguilla, BWI. The event was featured on the cable station GAC and shown throughout the US, the Caribbean, South America and Australia to over 50 million homes. The event featured some of country music’s elite including Billy Ray Cyrus, Shannon Brown, James Slater and Scotty Emerick.
Bill has also served as a Tester for the USPTA and state chapter president for Tennessee. Bill has been involved with all aspects of the tennis business and spends a great deal of time helping to grow local grassroots tennis. In 2003, he was instrumental in the success of the Agassi vs. Roddick exhibition match called “Emeril’s Grand Bam” in New Orleans, LA to benefit the Emeril Legassie Foundation. He is also a member of the PRINCE Elite Advisory Staff. He and his wife Stephanie have two children, Blakely (age 13) and Will (age 7).
Awards & Accomplishments:
2008 USPTA Southern Division College Coach of the Year
2008 PTR Tennessee Pro of the Year
2007 Tennessee Media Excellence Award for "TENNIS TALK"
