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And now let's get into our recent conversation with Greg Caccia.
Greg talks about balancing traditional club work with independent coaching, the challenges
of nurturing future racket sports professionals and how the sport can evolve to keep players
engaged longer.
Have a listen and let us know what you think.
Who are you and why do we care?
I am Greg Caccia.
I've been who am I?
Wow.
I go way back originally from New York and I could probably take up a full time talking
about who I am.
But I'll put it in a nutshell, I guess.
Yeah, I grew up in the Northeast, New York.
I grew up playing all sports, but tennis was my focus and my love, my passion, but played
all sports and was fortunate enough to move to the southeast for college.
Went to a small college, fight for university.
Only one who offered me a tennis scholarship.
So took it, had a good career there.
And I played some minor league stuff after college, satellite tour out in California and
Hawaii and a great experience there.
And then got into the teaching profession as most guys who do don't quite succeed on tour.
And then I was fortunate enough to get involved with Hamball and that brought me to Atlanta, 1996
Olympics.
I was fortunate enough to represent our country and team Hamball and people say, how does a
Hamball player become a tennis player?
Well, it was vice versa.
I played tennis my whole life and I became a Hamball player.
And then just, you know, I did sales for a number of years, 20 years, but always kept my
foot in my hand in tennis.
Thanks to Bobby.
I helped Bobby out at Windom here, mainly as sort of a side hustle.
And a couple of years ago, I decided to get out of corporate America, second best decision
of my life, get out of corporate America and focus on my true passion, tennis.
Yeah.
I had a head pro at the Chattahoochi Country Club in Gainesville.
I like it.
And you have won an award this year.
I'm not sure when this will actually publish.
It might actually be in 2026 by the time this goes out.
But 2025, you were nominated for and chosen as the American Racket Sports Association head
pro adult head pro of the year coming out of Country Chattahoochi Country Club.
That's fantastic.
Yeah.
Unbelievable.
What a great surprise that was last week.
You actually contacting me.
I was shocked and honored and looking forward to the awards ceremony.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Absolutely honored.
So this will be fun.
Bobby, tell us a little bit about why you think Greg would have won an award like this.
Because I can ask Greg, you know, how great is he?
We assume is the guy he works for at Chattahoochi Scott Gates is going to say good things about
what we hope he's going to say good things about him.
So Bobby, you've worked with Greg a long time.
He is one of your go to coaches that you won around as much as anybody.
Tell us about him and why by him.
Well, number one, dependable.
You know, and you hate to downplay it, but dependable.
We have a history.
I mean, we literally grew up at the same academy.
Now, the funny part is I don't think we really met.
We had a mutual friend down here and we were playing each other in an out-of-match and
a mutual friend who was dating Andre Janisak.
So it's all within the tennis world introduced us.
And here I am thinking of, well, even if we knew each other, he wouldn't remember me because
I was about 125 pounds when I graduated high school.
And I'm this working out guy now.
And he goes, oh, you probably want to recognize me there.
I was five nine when I graduated and I looked up, I was like, what happened to my eight
inches?
You know, so we both changed a little bit after high school.
And once we met, we became very fast friends.
We did the later part of our bachelor lives together.
So we had a lot of fun.
But again, great on the court.
Somebody you're going to be lying to demands, commands respect from the people and very, very
knowledgeable and an unbelievable competitor.
I mean, again, it goes back to you.
What you can't, you know, we went to that seminar all together on Friday and all the things
they talk about that you, you know, you can and cannot teach.
And I'll argue now to the end of time, you can't teach competitiveness.
But Greg has got a fire.
He's almost joining the club next year at 60, you know, near 60 that he still goes out and
we want to, I had to do it.
But, you know, he was hurt and we'd like to slow down, you know, but it's just once you
have that, it's hard.
You know, it's probably better that we're not at the same location because we had a third
gentlemen with us that was kind of like our mediator because we're both pretty competitive
and we don't respond well to lack of effort as well as our third Thad Arnold does.
So Thad was a good balance for the two of us.
But yeah, I mean, I trust to Greg.
It gave me the opportunity to go to Atlanta Country Club and search that opportunity out
and decide that that wasn't the right fit because I knew that Windomere was in good hands
while I was running back and forth in the mornings.
So, you know, like I said, great player, great coach, respect.
When we were younger, the ladies absolutely loved him.
I can tell you the first time we hung out story, as I always pre-emphasized that we were
at, when we were at, they don't, jocks and jails, right?
Yeah.
We were at Jocelyn Jails during like quarter finals, you know, NCAA basketball and the manager
comes up to our table and we're being good.
But we had a big group of people and what he comes up is you guys got to get in out of
here and we're like, we didn't do anything.
And he goes, all my waitresses are useless.
They keep coming by the table and see if you see the big guy with the blue eyes.
Get him out of here.
So I was like, wow.
So he was the king as we know him.
But we asked the king in question, this is really the closest thing I've come to Royalty.
Thank you.
Thank you for all you've done for me.
I mean, we've worked together and yeah, it's been a great working relationship and not
just working, but friendship we live together.
So kudos to you as well.
Thank you.
Greg, you kind of balanced that between country club now and independent a little bit of both.
How does that work?
Atlanta's a fairly unique market with as many independent coaching opportunities as are
the out there.
Yeah.
We're starting to see a little bit of an adjustment in the culture where country club types
are able to kind of loan themselves out in the independent world or even the opposite
where Bobby, the independent type is loaning himself out into other country clubs.
What does that like for you?
Yeah.
Advantage is in disadvantages to both totally different mindset, you know, being independent
versus country club.
I had a situation actually a couple of weeks ago at my country club and I had a junior
boy, a young boy, seven or eight.
It just wasn't listening, just acting up, just disturbing the entire class.
And if I was independent, that child would have been reprimanded, reprimanded, sent home,
you know, which in retrospect we could have done anyway.
But a little different at the country club, we have to, you know, sort of watch our peas
and queues.
You know, I don't want to say tied to the club, but you know, it's, it's, you just have
to be careful.
You know, we can't fire anybody as we used to say, how you still fire clients, right?
Hey, you don't, you know, you don't fit in to my lesson plans.
You don't, I don't enjoy my time with you.
I'm not going to coach anymore.
So that doesn't happen anymore.
You have to take them as they come, but a lot of advantages to, I'm fortunate enough to
do a little bit of both, but, you know, having, having the country club role has been, is
great this time of year and the winter time.
And a salary, of course, you have a split with the club dollar wise.
So it sort of balances out, but advantages and disadvantages to both the other big one is
the junior programs.
We can't go outside the gates to bring in junior players.
So you're kind of just having to have your program with whoever the membership is.
So those are the things that sort of jumped to mind.
And Bobby did a pretty good job of sharing some of your uniqueness, but I want to ask from
your perspective, that second question we usually ask is, why are you unique?
Is there anything about you that means you're not just another tennis coach?
Yeah, I think, and we talked about it Friday at the meeting, you know, I think when people
leave and come back and you see player kids that use to coach or now, you know, is taller
than yours, you know, grown up, let's say they don't really remember, oh, you helped me
fix my backhand, Bolly, right?
Are you helping me fix my forehand on the line or my sir?
It's more about, you know, I enjoyed playing, I enjoyed my time with you.
I enjoyed, you know, your programs.
I had fun, you know, while improving, while competing.
I really think it comes down to enjoying our great game and really not losing sight of that,
you know, being there for kids at all to them ever, whoever you're spending your time
with, you know, it's almost like being a bartender, right?
You have to, you know, being able to listen to their, as we all know, we hear a lot of stuff
on every morning I go on the court, I'm hearing it all from the ladies and even the gentleman
at night.
So just being able to relate with people, I think, personality wise is sort of what sets
me apart.
And I enjoy that.
It made me think, Bobby, we saw Wes recently as well, Wes Adam, another award winner this
year, 2025 in the American Raga Sports Association, independent pro of the year.
And he mentioned that when he was in that room, it was interesting for him because there
were two guys there in the room that coached him when he was a junior.
Was that right?
And he was now coaching and it was kind of an interesting perspective for him and probably
for them as well.
But to see that as a coach, that's probably a wonderful feeling to realize there's someone
you coached that became a coach because you've got to picture that as if I wasn't a good influence
on them, they probably would have run away streaming, right?
Joe, Joe's in a different path for sure.
Yeah, I'm trying to think as we talk.
A lot of kids come back that still play that have gotten, you know, good players and she,
I don't know, Bobby, do we know?
I can't think of anybody.
It's actually turned around and become a coach since we've coached them.
But in time, I'm sure it'll happen.
We're getting up there.
So it'll happen.
Volume, volume will play out.
Actually, Bobby, the Dave Chatterjee's son, I don't think he counts.
You didn't work with him.
I do not work with Dave.
I don't work with Dave's though.
That's true.
So you can ask the father and the father.
Yeah.
Well, the funny part.
And I didn't want to co-opt the meeting on Friday.
But I really want, when they were talking about your influences, your past coaches, and
because Greg and I shared a coach and I do, and it's funny because Wes is the same way.
Wes and I share a mentor.
And I see both of them is very reflective.
Greg and I shared King Ben Austrian.
And I told this story a thousand times to people that, you know, why didn't you play tournaments?
I was like, well, because they were 25.
That it could have destroyed me at the club.
I didn't need to travel to lose.
I was quite comfortable losing at match point.
It was just one of those moments in time.
And then this gentleman was just that.
I mean, he wasn't loud.
But he worked with his wife.
And when you walked in there, you felt like you were family.
And it was just amazing.
And you were just so respectful of him because if you had to look at somebody and Greg knew
him better because he was also a teacher at Bayshore.
Am I correct there?
Greg?
Yeah.
His brother Allen, twin brother.
Yeah.
So they got to see him in that environment as well.
I saw him as a tennis coach.
And you know, where I have a tendency to be a little more sarcastic.
And flip a King was just, you know, you just felt good being there.
You felt safe.
You couldn't.
There weren't enough walls.
You could run through this guy.
You know, through he would be on his wife's boots was just as, you know, I would remember
it being sick one time.
And literally, you know, when you weren't playing, she'd be putting a blanket around you.
And it was just, you know, it was a great time to be 14 to 15.
You know, if you ever look back at, you know, your influences, King would definitely be one
of the people that I just was always just an off for just respect.
He was amazing just just to just to, you know, expand on Bobby's point.
He was number one in the world in the 60s, 65s, 70s, 75s, 80s, 85s.
I mean, the guy played Mike Stillby playing.
But number one in the world, the guy was just like Bobby said, he didn't say much.
But when he spoke, people really, really listened.
And I was fortunate enough to have him as my coach at match point at the club.
And then my varsity genocime at Bay Shore Eye was his brother, Alan, another well-respected
guy.
So coach and teacher.
So I was gosh, I don't think I could have had any better growing up as a junior.
I'll look.
We were contemporaries with his two daughters.
The sons were older than us.
But Jane worked out with us and Molly, who was my age, was, you know, major to win building.
16s or quarter finals.
Quarter finals.
And she ended up going to, and it's all I'll never forget the last time I saw her because
she ended up going to SMU.
I went to TCU and we were coming home for Thanksgiving.
And we ended up on the same plane sitting next to each other.
In the small world of the party, I hadn't seen her since I was 15 or 16 and there she is
sitting next to me on a plane.
And we got to come back from Dallas together.
And I was probably the last time I started getting because he met them at the gate.
So long time.
Amazing.
Yeah.
I have a friend who met his wife on a plane.
They were those just sat next to each other, started talking and there you go.
One direction and the direction back, which I found is interesting.
Like there's a little bit of a little kiss met there.
But I think we've covered who you are and I like the way you put that Greg in the beginning
where you said we could probably spend a lot of time on that, which I can appreciate
because that means you understand the volume that we can beat.
It isn't just, well, I'm a tennis coach.
Well, that's what you do.
But who you are, if people really think about it, should be a difficult question to answer
in a brief amount of time and you recognize that.
So I appreciate that.
Is there anything as we move toward finishing up here?
Is there anything you have going on?
I know you just wanted a ward.
So you probably, you know, you're probably not a type to scream that from the rooftops.
We're going to do that soon.
But does Cheta Hootji, you don't have anything outward facing.
You just finished your pro-amp.
Is there anything you got you want to talk about?
You have something in life that you like to discuss that you're passionate about?
With me.
Well, at work, I'll start with.
We have a great pro-amp that we finished up with.
Yeah, it's fantastic.
Event, three days and what makes it great is our membership, but really houses all the
pros and really dives in and just loves the event and it's just a really, really great event
up there.
I think the next big thing on our board is we have the Athens Cup Challenge where we play
Athens Country Club every year.
I took a team, actually, Scott put it on my plate last year and I chose the team, men and
women, 12 men, 12 women, all different levels and we went out to Athens Country Club and
then we won.
So they're coming strong in February to come get us back at our place.
So we host and then travel and we're hosting.
So that's the next big event for us and we're having a $25 million expansion of our club.
Everything's coming down.
The blueprints look absolutely amazing.
So we're moving the pickleball courts, adding pickleball will be keep the same eight tennis
courts, three clay, five hard, but new buildings, new pools, new everything, $25 million project
and that's going to start happening in the spring of 2026.
And I mean other than that, I stayed busy as much as I can playing Alta mainly, a more singles
these days and I really had fun with that.
I think my pro league days are over.
It's just too much.
Friday nights is a bad, I'll say Friday nights is a bad time, but that's a lie.
I'm just not good enough anymore.
Those guys are too good.
So the pro league's probably done, but I just, I enjoy the playing part.
I just don't have time to practice much anymore.
But hey, how great is this sport that we can play till we die?
I mean, and we get nine years, we live nine years longer, racquet sports players.
So it's the greatest, greatest game ever invented.
And I mean, I just love telling my kids who played multiple sports, keep playing multiple
sports, but make tennis one of them.
You know, John McArrow's Academy, he tells them they go play other sports.
So we should be telling our kids to play all sports.
And at the end of the day, tennis, you'll be playing for the rest of your life if you choose
so.
Let me just help.
We just help Greg real quick strong. So he doesn't get in trouble because he's actually a client
of mine too.
He is also in a new, wonderful relationship with someone.
Lori.
So you guys got to go to the airport to pick up.
And so I just want to make sure that Lori gets her props during this little shout out.
Nice.
Well, that's going to, that's a thank you, Bobby.
Let me go along.
Thank you.
We've got a couple of friends now at clubs that are doing major renovations upcoming.
You got anything coming at Wendermere?
You guys putting in any fancy new courts or getting your lights fixed there?
What's going on?
Well, we have great lights.
I don't know.
The ones that go out from time to time or they're state of the art when they were.
Just a matter of whatever that happens.
Just a different life.
All right.
You got anything else for Greg or should I hit him with King of tennis?
Let's, we can go Greg King of tennis since he's got a little timeline.
We can keep going, but let's do it.
Sounds good.
All right.
So my last question and was become kind of our favorite question is the King of
tennis question, which is Greg, if you were King of tennis, whether it was the whole world
or just Atlanta or professional social, any aspect that you can picture, if you were
King of tennis, if there is there anything you would do or chain?
Yeah.
I'm going to take it to the pro level.
So I took, took a few notes actually and I think it's all about the fans, you know?
And today's all of our major sports baseball has done a good job, I think.
All our major sports.
Fortunately or not, we could talk about that for hours.
They're tweaking them right to make it, make it shorter and make it more fan friendly, I
guess.
And, you know, some of the purists and maybe some of our other guys, you know, don't like
it, but I kind of do for me to sit and watch a baseball game for four hours.
I'd rather, you know, watch grass grow.
But I think just, I think playing Lets would be great.
That's the first thing I came to mind in college, right?
Lets, you know what?
Half the time we can't tell if it was a letter, not anyway.
So let's play all Lets.
We play them during their alleys and I think you would add a little bit of excitement to
the game.
Play the Lets.
I like this fast-for-format.
We play it at our pro-am.
Men and women can each play five best of five sets, fast-for format.
I really enjoy that format again for the fans, trying to speed things up a little.
And I think, you know, you know, we've all been the major events.
You have to open or whatever it is, Miami open, right?
This waiting outside of a court sitting there in the heat, standing there in the heat while
they play 12-duce points and you can't go sit down.
Give me a break.
Let's let the people come and go as they want.
Tennis players, if we have to start at some time, the only reason why it's quiet is because
we grew up that way.
We grew up playing in a quiet atmosphere.
If we start changing it, we can certainly play in a noisy atmosphere.
People are always comparing.
Why can't tennis players play baseball and football or yelling and screaming?
We could, but we just, we've grown up in a different environment, right?
So why not, at some point, I think I would start it if I'm the king of tennis.
Let's start it up.
Let's make, I don't say make noise, but let people come and go.
Let people go get their drinks.
Let them come back to their seats.
I mean, to stand outside the court for 25 minutes and miss a lot of tennis is kind of absurd
to me.
What do you guys think about that?
I think the guys that intense will love it, first of all.
I think I was speaking with John Hannah about, we were talking about all the things that could
be massaged and no getting rid of the duce ahead was one thing that we were both like,
again, tough with the purists, but like you said, I'm a baseball fan as well and we've said
a thousand times.
Since they went to the pitch, you know, the clock, it makes the game go so much faster.
Yeah.
It's a two hour, it's not four hours and it makes baseball a lot more fun.
And I've gone to a lot more games over the last two years that I had in the previous 20
because of that.
And then it goes back to the biggest thing in great can validate this when we first got
to wind him here.
And I would play music on the courts, people are trying to play a match here.
Now you literally go to wind him here and there's 12 different, you know, areas going on
because everybody brings music now.
So, you know, it's just a matter of changing the culture and getting used to it and realizing
what background noise doesn't hurt, not at all.
And it might even make you play better because it might make you relax.
So, yeah.
I think something else we could throw around is just, I don't know how to do it, but
I think the lower levels, you know, the guys that are playing futures and these lower levels,
how do we get them more financially secure to go on to the next event?
To go, I mean, the money down there is just pathetic.
And we all know players here in Atlanta that really, I think, could have played professionally
and maybe succeeded, but they just didn't have the funds to do it.
So how do we get more money in their pockets?
How do we, you know, I don't know the answer.
I'm just throwing it out there because it just doesn't seem like it's, I mean, I think
the USDA and they choose certain players to focus on and to coach and they get well taken
care of.
But what about the guys that are, you know, are not on that team, aren't inflarded with
the USDA and, you know, you know, struggling out there, ranked 1500 in the world, 18, 2000
in the world.
I mean, these are amazing players.
If they could continue to play, you don't know what they can do.
So I just think more money for the lesser players.
I know joke of it was involved with it.
He was trying to have a push that way a number of years ago, but I haven't heard anything
much about it since.
Right.
We've had that, that's come up a lot and it's something that we completely agree with.
And it's, I mean, just this weekend, you look at basketball, for instance, I watched
OKC last night, you know, and if they're not a juggernaut with everybody, well, they got
a third string center that was playing some minutes because the Hardenstein, their number
one center has been out, guys, 29 years old.
And he's been out of the league, you know, been just jumping around and now he's been playing
the last two years because there's enough money in other areas and the guy that Golden State
brought up, a guy that was a professional lacrosse player and just decided it like 26.
I'm going to go play basketball.
And there was avenues to doing it.
Look at Greg, somebody who grows from, you know, five, nine, to six, five over four years,
in 18, they might not have been looking and now they're going to send it to 22, they're like,
well, what the heck?
But, you know, how do we help them get to that spot?
So, yeah, nobody gets better now playing.
So if we can keep the sticks and people's hand, we might see some of those achievements
as well and tennis.
People mature differently at different times.
I mean, look at these quarterbacks in the NFL and ones from the New York teams, everybody
thinks they stink.
Well, they played, you know, 15 games.
Now they're playing 30, 40, 50 games.
You know, they're doing great and Arnold's a great, a very good quarterback and, you know,
Daniel Jones until he got hurt yesterday.
Guys, everybody matures differently.
You can't look at somebody in a minute setting and say, oh, he stinks and he's never going
to make it.
You don't know that.
You got to give people time to mature and to improve.
So, yeah, I think a little bit more of that and maybe US tennis, US tennis is doing well,
but everybody in this country wants champions.
So, I think we'll get it with Ben, but we'll see.
And then the 250 events going away.
I'm not so sure.
That's a good thing.
It's all about money.
I get it.
They want to make these two-week events kind of morph them into men's and women's thousand
events, but the 250's were really good for these lower level pro players.
I mean, these are guys that need to do those two-
He's so, I think those need to stick around as well.
I love it.
We'll add it to the list, Bobby, if a good idea is made.
But Greg, I appreciate your time.
Thanks so much.
We've been talking about doing this for a while.
Really appreciate you taking the time to tell us about who you are and what you're doing
now.
Bobby's always, thank you.
I appreciate it.
Gentlemen.
Well, there you have it.
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