Hey, this is Shaun with the award-winning GoTennis Podcast powered by Signature Tennis.
Check us out at LetsGoTennis.com/podcast, and we invite you to learn more about the
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And now let's get into our recent conversation with Seth Redelheim.
Seth was named USTA Georgia's Tennis Director of the Year for 2025, and Seth shares his
insights on managing a country club, the significance of awards in the coaching profession,
and the evolving role of tennis directors.
Have a listen and let us know what you think.
Who are you and why do we care?
Well, my name is Seth Redelheim.
I'm the director of Racket Sports at the West Lake Country Club in Augusta, Georgia,
and the reason you should care is because I have a wealth of tennis experience.
Years of working in Atlanta and years working in Chicago in a big corporate club up there,
and just lots of on-court and in the office experience that I love to share.
I thought you were going to go straight to the award.
I do.
Well, I was hoping you were going to mention it.
Well, again, we could do that because that's one of the reasons we care today, this time
as to why we're talking to you.
It's because you have won the director of the Year Award from USDA, Georgia.
Thank you.
Yes, indeed.
I think this year was unique.
I had a bit of a tailwind this year with the Hurricane Relief and things that we've
done here at the club.
Hurricane Helene hit Augusta really, really hard in end of September last year.
And so this entire year has been rebuilding programs, rebuilding the club.
I know that just our golf course lost over a thousand trees.
It was a crazy six or eight months after the hurricane before we were anywhere close to
back to normal.
So that was, I think, that gave me a big tailwind for the award this year and gave us lots of
stuff that we could tune our horn about.
Well, that's interesting.
You call it a tailwind because I think most people would call it an impossible thing to
overcome to say, "Well, I'm not going to win director this year because all my windscreens
were broken."
I mean, I don't want it to be self-deprecating, but I feel like I might have gotten the pity
vote for that for the hurricane.
Yeah.
Come on.
Look what he did with that.
That's fantastic.
All right.
So tell us about, we know a little bit about you, those of you that have listened to the
podcast before because you were on our summer camp around table.
So we got to learn what you were doing from a summer camp perspective.
Now your focus is a bit different because as director of a country club, you're not necessarily
running summer camps in the same way you were at Atlanta.
What is the difference now?
Two years ago, you were running summer camps in Atlanta, focused on kids, multi-sport concepts,
and now you are director of records at West Lake.
What does that look like for you?
It is, I think, a little easier.
You have the country club model, you have a captive audience, you've got sort of built-in
promotions, teams, and built-in, you know, kind of the weekly update emails and all of this
stuff that's controlled club-wide.
It makes it a lot easier for us.
We promote mostly inside the club.
Our tennis program here actually is the one section of the club that is open to non-members,
but we don't really advertise that.
It's mostly members who can bring guests, you know.
So we allow members to bring their friends, and especially within the junior program,
we want all the kids playing all the time.
So we'll take all-comers.
Summer camp was a huge success in that we ran it every week.
We had our developmental and our competitive camps.
We had, you know, probably anywhere from eight to 15 kids.
It was small.
It was easy to manage, and it was, you know, it was a lot of fun.
I think we were able to, and we still ran the developmental camp as a multi-sport camp.
We did tennis every day, but then we added pickleball one day a week, pool two days a week, and
basketball, Frisbee Golf, Kickball, you know, sort of a multi-sport element on all the
different days.
But then, you know, I think again, it was easier than in past years.
I didn't feel like I had a whole lot of competition around me, but then I also had this built-in
clientele for the club.
It's always fun.
Yeah, it sounds like it.
Bobby, are you just looking at it going, man, I don't want to do summer camps at all?
But I liked, I mean, just from my experience when I was at White columns that they didn't
let, especially when it comes to the juniors, they did not let outside kids in.
And it's next to impossible to have any kind of competitive junior program if you're not
allowing outside members.
And so good as to the club for things some open mind is there realizing it's awfully tough
on a director when if you give them, oh, here's your 20 kids.
Good luck to you.
Right.
And that's something in Atlanta that is very unique.
When I was at Drew at Hills, it was entirely members and it was enormous.
I mean, we had over 100 kids in the program, all members.
And that, you know, that just does not happen down here, certainly in Augusta and with very
few exceptions, even in Atlanta.
So that's a good thing.
And you, this isn't the first time you've won an award.
You won a Southern Pro of the Year from USPTA, now RSPA at one point, right?
I did.
That was 2022.
Atlanta Athletic Club that year and had done, let's see, I think the things that went into
that award were like a two five team that won the state championship that I had cultivated.
And then I presented at the USPTA Georgia Convention or the symposium that year.
And there were some other things, but yeah, that was a really good year too.
That was a fun one.
So if I can throw in an unscripted question, we recently did a forum about awards.
And it's one thing to win an award.
It's another thing to win two awards in three years.
And so from your perspective, what are the awards do for you?
Are you?
There are a lot of pro coaches out there that say, I don't really care about awards, but often
those are the coaches that don't win awards.
And so they just pretend, like, there you go, like Bob, right?
So it's like, well, I'm never going to win an award.
So I'm going to pretend not to care.
Like we go in all seven year old mode, like I'm not even trying, right?
What do you think is the benefit of some of these awards?
Because you're also a DCA member, you're well connected.
You've got your certified doctor of rocket sports.
That was the Florida program.
Am I right?
Exactly right.
You have program.
I really had to apologize to my mom.
She's a seminal.
So I had to apologize when I enrolled at Florida.
And actually, I missed that.
Sorry.
I said, you've done all the right things.
And winning the awards is that do you think the award helps you get the
next job?
What are you from a pro perspective, from a director's perspective, or just an
industry person?
How do the awards?
What do they do for you?
So I hope that it's not just to get the next job.
You know, I think that anyone who would say that, I think, is in it certainly for
the wrong reason.
What's, when I like about it is really just sort of an accounting part of it.
I think that being able to keep track of the things that you're proud of for
yourself, the things that you know are worthy of accomplishments and worthy of writing
down, I think some people don't remember and don't realize the impact they're having.
And so some of these awards, I think the USPTA won, I self-nominated.
And they actually encouraged that.
They tell you to like, you know, you know yourself best.
Why don't you submit your summary of accomplishments for the year and tell us what you did.
And so that kind of stuff, I think it helps us look back and go, okay, I really did.
I did have a good year.
I think that helps us keep track and keeps us in the game for the right reasons.
This one was a surprise.
I don't know who nominated me this time.
So it feels better this time.
It's really interesting.
And I think that it doesn't change what I'm doing and sort of what I want to do in the
role.
But it's really nice for the members to see that too.
And I think that the amount of the outpouring of support I've seen from the membership, where
they're, you know, they see it on Facebook or wherever they saw it and they've, you know,
people have been texting me, calling every person I see, congratulates me.
And they're really proud of it too.
So I think that's something for them.
Before I got here, there wasn't a very dedicated director position.
And so now for me to come here and in sort of in my first year to bring that home is really
good for them to see also.
Because now they know what it looks like to have somebody at the helm and to have somebody
who's, I mean, just just staring the ship, I think they never really had that before here.
I like that.
Now, Bobby is someone who don't really care about awards.
I'm putting words here about there.
What are your thoughts on awards and kind of in that from that perspective?
Oh, I mean, hey, you get it.
Congratulations.
I mean, it's great to be recognized by your peers.
So there's absolutely no question.
And it's good to be an environment that you're appreciated as much so.
And people recognize the work that you're going in.
They're putting it to get the award.
So I think that's a great, you know, is just as equal as having something to put on the
wall is the thanks and appreciation from the people that realize the work you put into
to earn it.
So, hey, I have no problem with it.
It's, I just, you know, it's my first tennis program at Whitecombs.
Remember, it was the old, if nobody complains, or if I don't get a phone call, you're running
a good program.
You know, it was always really low.
The ball wasn't real high there.
Yeah.
Well, it was me.
They play tennis in Augusta.
So that's, you know, you got a lot of nice golf courses down there.
So it's going to be a sample.
Absolutely.
And that is a big deal too.
I think that within the company that owns West Lake is called Concert Golf Partners.
And they own, I want to say, 40 or 41 clubs now.
And they are hugely golf focused as most, you know, club core and the other corporations
are.
And they put that, they put it up on their social media and they, I think that's a good thing
too, because it does help the other tennis directors, even within the company, that they,
you know, they get a little, a little boost and they see, I'm right, you know, tennis as
an amenity, you know, doesn't have to take a back seat.
We can still, we add value to the club.
We add, you know, sort of a, it's an amazing thing that the members really do want and really
do appreciate.
Yeah.
And there's a, an elevation.
I really don't like that word.
But there's a, there's a profile of the club, of the director of the program that says,
okay, this is good.
Now, the question is, does your head pro then see that and then want to be a part of the
next thing?
Or does that make someone else work harder the next year?
And I want to create an award winning, winning pro.
And how does that look?
And that really encourages some, but then others are like that seven year old, like, yeah,
I'm not even trying.
Why do I care?
Bobby says the, the bar is so low.
There's no reason to care because you're kind of spinning your wheels at times.
Sometimes maybe that's a top down problem from a club or a location facility.
Yeah, I can see that for sure.
I think that that's, you know, they, the people below you certainly know what you, what
you value and what you appreciate.
And that's, and I think that it should trickle down.
I think that's part of club culture.
And if the director sets that, you know, and sets it a certain way, then that, you know,
for better or worse, it can absolutely affect the people below you.
So, and I'm sorry to say that I missed that, that chat and chew when it was on the awards.
It was, did, Manelli lead that one or was that?
What was the consensus?
Yeah.
That was Andrew Manelli that was actually our biggest one of the years so far from a,
from a participation standpoint.
We had people from all over the country.
And it was really, really good because we got to ask the question, why do awards exist?
When do they become important?
And how do they motivate people to be better?
Is there a state level and a sectional level and then a national level where you are benefiting
from either speaking engagements or being recognized as a thought leader beyond just a tennis
coach?
Because once you get to the point that you're running a club, Bobby will tell you, that
no matter how good of a player you are anymore, obviously minimum requirements, of course,
but it also, from that standpoint, teaching lessons is what you end up rarely doing.
We talked to Matt Grayson recently who says he's almost like, rarely on court.
So you've got some directors at a level that it isn't about being on court.
They're almost not even a tennis coach anymore.
And when you look at the landscape of everything happening and say, hey, I am on award winning,
but I produce awards for the club that I work for.
That is going to be good for that next job, whether you're doing it for that or not.
Okay.
Yeah.
And I don't disagree with that.
And I think I am fortunate where I'm falling right in the middle of that zone where I am
young enough to teach and I love being on court, but I'm now spending way more time in
the office also.
And so it's like, I don't know where that's going to lead me in five to ten years, but
luckily I'm not in not quite there in the director role.
And this club was attractive because of that.
Like I knew coming into this job that there was still going to be plenty of on court.
And I think that's still where I have the most fun.
Like I love sitting in the office.
I love planning events.
I love doing that stuff and coordinating even just the maintenance of the club.
I think that's, I've made a, I'm proud of the impact I've made just in the way it looks
around here.
And that kind of stuff is good, but the on court stuff is still the most fun for me.
So as long as I can do that, I still want to.
Bobby, would you run a club without being on court because you say you're in this business
because you just like hitting the ball?
Yeah, I mean, it would be tough.
I mean, I would have to be in the right environment with the right group because I do like, I like
the drills.
I like to be a part of that.
And I shouldn't say the clubs I've been at, it's required it.
So that's the way I, as Seth said, I set the culture.
That's the way we propagated the culture is by being out there playing the music and getting
enthusiasm.
And like I said, and you know, it's hard to say you're in this business.
Somebody once heard me say, well, I'm not in this business for the money.
And somebody took it that I was independently wealthy.
I was like, no, I mean, if I wanted to be wealthy, I would have gone into another business.
So that's not it.
But you know, as I said, again, you know, we do me a, we've done an awful lot of things
to improve the facility.
Even though I'm not getting credit for that, there is a degree of, well, it's very popular.
It's being used.
We need to make these changes.
So you can look at it and say we did had it, it had an impact.
And on top of making the people's lives, hopefully a little more fun is basically what, you know,
the culture we try to create.
But that's the way I get to be a hands-on with the people's.
Even in office, I would probably demonstrate my ADD and get myself in trouble.
Are you looking at my, you're looking at my court board, aren't you?
It's a bit of a mess around here.
I didn't put the background on, but I probably should have.
No, I mean, hey, I'm still legal, man.
I'm like, you know, I'm pen and paper.
Which is hilarious, because as GoTennis, we encourage people to embrace technology.
But Bobby is still one to use the pencil.
Which we, one of our first podcast episodes was you still use an pencil that's insane.
Like with all the technology out there.
But so Seth, kind of last thing before we hit you with King of Tennis, what do you think
is next when it comes to the evolution of the director of tennis?
So another kind of an unscripted question.
I'll put you on the spot a little bit.
You're one who you've done the extra education.
You've gotten multiple certifications from the look at all the letters after your name.
The only thing missing there is USDA.
I'm guessing that's good.
I'm not wearing the hat today, but it's there.
I've already joined up with.
It's there.
Okay.
Good.
I'm sure we're not leaving.
Well, and I think, yeah, when I'm saying I'm sure you know Craig Jones, who is now like
the, I don't know, he's exact title, but he's in charge of the coach developers for
USDA and is a huge part of this huge rollout for USDA coaching.
Craig Jones, you know, what's here in Augusta and owned a club less than a mile from where
I'm sitting right now.
And so his, his old club is now a public facility called Columbia County Racket Center.
And he built, you know, a fantastic program over there.
And he's, you know, that's sort of our, our local competition.
A lot, that's the public facility that, that we send a lot of players to as they age out
of our programs and things like that.
We share a lot, we share a lot of clientele with that facility.
So Craig's done an incredible job.
And of course, I jumped on board with USDA coaching.
I'm as soon as it rolled out and I want, I'm anxious to see where that goes.
But I think that the, the evolution of the position is, is a hybrid position.
I mean, the director of racket sports is the new position.
And everything that that we're doing is encouraging more play across that whole spectrum.
And anybody who sort of denies it or tries to blacklist one or any of the sports is, is
robbing themselves of clients of just general enthusiasm for the industry.
I think that's, it doesn't help anybody if you're, if you're going to put down one sport
over another.
I still prefer tennis.
It's still my, you know, it's my first choice and my, you know, my favorite.
But we have a big pickleball program here.
We've spent a lot of money on pickleball this year.
I'm from an infrastructure standpoint.
We added four more courts plus a large patio and seating like spectator area and, and,
and plan to host, you know, big tournaments and things like that.
Paddle is still, you know, incredibly, like I'm very, very excited about paddle and I, I
heard the magic words a couple of months ago in one of our department head meetings, go
get estimates.
And I was like, oh my god, I can't wait.
So we'll see where that goes in the next probably 18 months and, and see if we can do something
about that.
But it's, it is exciting.
And I, I love all of it.
And I have no, I have no problem, you know, telling anybody and this is my favorite.
But I certainly will not discourage anyone from doing any of the other sports and, and the
only thing that, that makes me mad as a former racquetball player.
I grew up playing racquetball before I ever touched a tennis racquet and I asked Brian the first
time we met.
I said, why didn't racquetball make the cut?
Because we have, you know, there's more, more racquetball players than squash players and
squash made the cut for our SBA.
And racquetball didn't.
So it was funny.
I, you know, got under his skin the first time I, we met just because I, that was the first
question I asked.
Did you, did you get an answer?
I mean, he just basically said that there wasn't the coaching infrastructure there.
The racquetball was sort of a looser affiliation of amateur players and, you know, some competitive
players, but that the US in particular didn't have the coaching infrastructure.
And I don't know when we are in other because I've been out of the game for so long.
I don't know if that's true or not.
I can tell you I don't know any racquetball coaches.
So that, you know, that, that is a question.
But I don't, I don't know a lot of table tennis coaches either, but just because I only know
three doesn't mean there are tennis.
Yeah, yeah.
And I did, I did work when I was in Atlanta.
I worked at Wendy Hill and they have a very successful squash program.
So I mean, I, I at least was around that and I've seen that there is a dedicated sort of
sect of squash players at least there.
There were.
Yeah.
That makes sense.
Bobby got anything else before we hit him with King of Tennis.
And he was just impressed that he said paddle.
I thought that's me.
I know.
I'm following up.
We said, it's like, oh, he's listening to the podcast and realized we were pronounced it wrong.
But now he already.
Well, and I, so, but I also like, being from Chicago or being, having lived in Chicago, I,
I don't call platform paddle like all that platform.
And so that there's no overlap.
But for me, that that was always like people said, oh, well, it gets confused with paddle
tennis.
And that's not paddle tennis to me.
That's platform.
I have, I have no problem saying paddle because I know which one I'm talking about.
Then not to be confused with paddle, which is different from platform tennis.
So it's, it's an interesting combination of things that thankfully we don't really have
to navigate because not a big deal unless you talk with Patrice G.O.
Missy Tronari.
There you go.
All right.
Well, Seth, I appreciate it.
We appreciate it.
Our last question.
We finally get you alone this time.
I got to ask this question.
It was targeted and you were one of three, but we would love to know if you were king of tennis,
whether it's the whole world, whether it's professional tennis, social, local to Georgia,
anywhere, whatever level you consider, if you were king of tennis, is there anything
you would do or change?
You know, it, it feels selfish to say it, but I, I want to say that it is still appreciation
for the certifications.
The, you know, calling yourself a professional versus just some guy who plays tennis and keeps
a basket of balls in the trunk of the car.
You know, it, it is so important to me that the industry is protected by that.
And I saw during a college football game in a very like big market, I saw a commercial
for is your, is your financial planner a certified financial planner.
And I was like, somebody spent a lot of money to put this commercial out here and I didn't
know what a CFP was.
I knew of course there was a CPA and I didn't, you know, it makes sense that there's a CFP,
but that's a, that's a ton of money thrown at a big market of people to make that distinction.
Then a week later, my wife went to take our kid to the dentist and on the wall scrolling
on a TV in the, in the dentist office or in the orthodontist office was, did you know that
not all orthodontists are certified orthodontists?
And I was like, this is incredible.
Like every industry seems to have this problem, but the people that are dedicated to the industry
and the people that are dedicated to their craft want that, want measure of respect.
And I think if I had it my way, I would be, I would love for everyone to know that there
is a difference between someone who is a professional and someone who is, is just a player or just,
you know, you know, that's, I think it is a different echelon of person, different, different,
you know, attitude about the game.
And that's what I would love for everyone to know that and to at least appreciate it.
Bobby, I'm going to start and then I'm going to ask you what you think because I'm going
to point out to Seth, the obvious, to me.
It's obvious to me.
Seth, you are director of rackets at a fancy country club with a wonderful job and the guy
who is uncertified has a basket of balls and his tronkenys teaching in a neighborhood.
I think we know the difference.
Oh, I'm with Seth on this one though.
I thought we'd, in the answer.
I was like, you know, because that's what we've been railing about, especially when you're
in a country club where you have the PGA card where the golf pro is genuinely reflected
in front of because he holds a PGA call.
And you know, you say, well, I'm now RSBA certified.
You know, what's that?
And I think what Seth's saying and I completely agree with him.
And I hope this is part of the role the USDA is going to take just because of the name recognition.
It's going to raise the idea of certification to another level.
I think from an industry standpoint, you would get more people motivated like Seth to continuing
your education.
I mean, I remember when the USP or USPTA back in the day came up with where you can take
a concentration in the physical aspects of it, the kinesiology or the business side.
And I called them up and said, great, I have a master's degree in sports administration.
I've been a tournament director and you know, I've been a couple of tennis startups.
They were like, great, you should probably get into key in the theology that was like,
what?
I'm, you know, my background is business and you're telling me because I'm not spending
money.
So, you know, why would I've already got these degrees?
So, I think if you put some penache and some weight behind the certification, people would
be more apt to continue to learn like every other to just be the differentiator and set
yourself apart.
So, I'm really rooting for that with the USDA taking it over.
You know, like I said, when I heard Seth saying that, I was laughing.
I was like, did we set up an answer?
And he's just reading it because I mean, that's all the reason we started this is to try
to raise the level of the sort of, you know, the people understand that you have a certified
director.
Like you said, you have to have a certification to cut hair.
We deal with the old one.
There were no background checks and there were no license to do it.
It's crazy.
Well, and I'm interested when I, when I saw the commercial during college football, like
I, you know, I have a degree in music business.
I know what, what that time costs.
I know what it, you know, what performance royalties are and I know how that, how that
whole industry set up, right?
So, when I see a humongous audience getting told about certified financial planners, it
occurs to me like, why didn't I see any commercials during the US open about our SPA or PTR?
You know, that would have been worthwhile money spent to throw a little bit of money at
a national commercial about certification, right then, you know?
And I think that's something I would love to see.
I agree.
I think we all would, like Bobby said, it's one of the reasons we started doing this.
This podcast, go tennis, got it into the American Racketsports Association.
The reason one of the reasons we're there is to raise the level and shine a light and
say we should have some continuing education, we should have some certifications, but I
still think people know the difference because I'm pretty sure that when you applied for
that job, there were exactly zero uncertified coaches that applied for that job.
But I think the problem is the trickle down, is that you get too many guys with a hopper
in the bag of a car.
How many kids do we lose?
How many players do we lose that we never make it to see the better coaches because their
first experience wasn't a good one.
Or their first experience didn't know how to partnership with the club down the street
that offered the next step.
That's always been, I mean, when you get to the highest levels, yes, you're always going
to get the cream rises.
But what do we lose at the bottom?
Yes, we have a real issue in the sport with younger players, younger coaches.
I think that's the place where you can sit there and look at and say, is that guy with a
hopper or even just the guy who can hit a ball.
You know, just because, you know, I've said it 10,000 times, Bill Bellichek didn't play football.
So don't judge by how you play.
Where coaches?
We're not players.
We got to look to part, but you know where coaches.
You have to be able to communicate.
It's a different skill set.
All right, fine.
The award winning director of the year wins.
I get it.
But I had to throw it in because we got to make sure the point that we're here, the main reason
is to remind everybody that you are the award winning you at one of the USDA Georgia director
of the year.
So congratulations on that.
And Steph, we appreciate your time.
Thank you so much for being here.
Bobby is always.
I appreciate that gentleman.
We'll keep in touch.
Thank you guys.
I love it.
I appreciate you both.
Thank you.
Well, there you have it.
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