The Ypsilanti Courier
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Chance meeting leads to coaching position
From an Indiana high school to EMU and coach for Smothers
By Dave Merchant, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: June 26, 2008
Robert Smothers loves to play tennis and he loves the sport of tennis.
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He never really gave much thought to coaching tennis until he was working in the East Lansing area and he heard from a player at DeWitt High School that they needed a varsity coach.
So he threw out the idea of him coaching the team and the next thing he new he had an interview and the new coach of the DeWitt Panthers boys' tennis team.
"I was up there for three years and we were very competitive," Smothers said. "We won our conference every year. It was nice to inherit a winning program."
He said tennis is a sport that people often look at as a rich sport. Not every athlete can afford lessons or can play six days a week.
"I was fortunate growing up because my dad was a doctor," he said. "Even if kids can not get lessons they can go out every day and play."
Smothers said he never expected to get the job at DeWitt.
"I threw it out there as a joke," he added. "I had enough credits to substitute teach and I played in high school but I never played in college."
When he moved to this area, he found out about the Ypsilanti High boys' tennis coaching job quite the same way. He was practicing with one of the players from Ypsilanti High and he ran into him at Eastern Michigan University.
"I saw him on my lunch and he said they needed a coach and I should check it out," Smothers said. "The funny thing was if I would have taken my lunch 15 minutes later I never would have known about the job."
Smothers now has coached three boys' seasons for the Phoenix and two girls' seasons.
The boys started out in the Mega White and were moved down to the Mega Gold where they won it. Last season they took fourth in the Mega Blue.
The girls have been in the Mega Blue for both season and according to him have been very young for both seasons.
As he was getting the interest in the girls up about tennis the seasons were switched form the fall the spring. This had a negative effect on the team because now the girls who had played before had to choose between soccer, softball, track or tennis. Since track is such a huge sport at Ypsilanti High tennis came out on the short end.
"This year we had a group that had never played tennis before," he said. "It was a nice sophomore group. We had one girl, Kayla Claxton, who was a senior from volleyball and she gave the team some maturity."
The boys' team had to compete with cross country and football and that didn't have an ill-effect on the numbers.
One high school athlete tried to do both cross country and tennis, and Smothers had to cut him lose because he couldn't attend the tennis practices.
Smothers is now in graduate school at EMU and he is studying public administration. He wants to get into government and clean up some of the bureaucracy.
"I have always been intrigued with the politics and the government," he said. "It was an absolute blessing in surprise that I was able to coach tennis. The DeWitt community was very welcoming and I will never forget the opportunity they gave me. I still go back and visit the old AD (athletic director) who hired me)."
This summer he is teaching lessons at the Chippewa Club in Ypsilanti Township. He has a few kids from Ypsilanti and some from Lincoln whom he will be instructing. But if kids can't afford those type of lessons there are lessons at the Ann Arbor Recreation Center or the Ypsilanti Recreation Center.
"I encourage my kids to go to tennis camps to get better," he said. "Or to just play together."
For him it has been fun and a challenge to coach the Ypsilanti High kids.
"I really like teaching them something," he said. "It is rewarding to see the moment when they get what you are teaching them. It is almost like you are a father or a brother figure to them."
Smothers said tennis is not a cheap sport but that doesn't mean kids can't learn it and keep practicing and playing to become better.
"The kids at Ypsilanti are very athletic," he said. "If they can't attend camps the important thing is that they keep playing.
"Every single year seeing kids understand (the game) is important to me. Driving by the high school I see kids playing and from time to time alumni come back to help."
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