Advantage Tennis Academy has plenty of talent.
An intensive coaching school based at the Racquet Club of Irvine, Advantage has seen its tennis students go on to play competitively or nab college scholarships.
Owners and coaches Jimmy Johnson and Mahmoud Karim say they earn a comfortable living in Orange County compared with other tennis coaches.
The challenge: growing their tennis academy.
They want to make Orange County a hub for “world class” tennis by building a large international training center that attracts students from afar and keeps players here.
“California and Southern California have a strong tennis tradition,” Johnson said.
Neighboring states such as Utah and Nevada,despite raising Andre Agassi,offer little competition because there are fewer players, he said.
Most OC players often leave to boost their game in the other sunny state,Florida. There are about 15 academies in Florida and just a couple in Southern California. Advantage Tennis Academy’s nearest rival is Weil Tennis Academy in Ojai.
Johnson and Karim say they could draw more talent if they had their own facility. Advantage leases its 28 hard and clay courts at the tennis club.
Overhead is huge. Leasing courts is expensive and liability insurance costs about $2,000 a month. Advantage also offers scholarships to players with talent. They consider that an investment.
The trouble isn’t finding money to build their facility.
“We’ve been approached by investors,” Johnson said.
Finding a willing developer is another story. Land in OC is valuable and developers need a bigger return on their investment.
“We don’t want to rent,” Karim said.
A developer could sell the prestige of a tennis academy at a resort or community development, Johnson and Karim say. Karim,a top player in his native Egypt,attended Saddlebrook Tennis Academy, which is based at a Tampa-area resort.
Most developers put up tennis courts in their community developments and could use an academy to appeal to homeowners, according to the duo.
The conversion of the former El Toro Marine base as Irvine’s Great Park could be the biggest hope for an academy with lots of land and plans for various types of public uses alongside homes.
Tennis schools such as Advantage Tennis Academy are unique in that they board tennis players during the school year. Advantage reserves nearby apartments where the kids stay.
Boarding kids brings up a whole other set of responsibilities. They can get homesick or worse,they can get into trouble, Johnson said.
Advantage is responsible for overseeing their schooling. The kids take morning classes at the club through the Irvine Unified School District’s home schooling program.
Cost for the academy is $18,000 a semester for boarders and $12,000 for non-boarders. Advantage also has part-time training and camp tuitions.
Johnson and Karim say they are exploring other ways to grow the business, including partnering with high schools and franchising. Advantage has 14 workers.
“We’re in the early steps,” Karim said.
The Model: Coto
Tennis guru Vic Braden, one of Johnson’s mentors, was a pioneer in partnering with a developer to establish tennis in OC.
In the 1970s, he helped woo tennis players and celebrities to Coto de Caza with his Tennis College and Coto Research Center. Braden, now 78 and living in Coto, is known for his research in the area of sports physiology, the brain and psychological performance.
At the time, Coto de Caza “was an unknown piece of land,” Braden said.
There were few homes and few trees, he said. Coto was a resort area that hosted hunting and equestrian events. Great Southwest Corp., then a subsidiary of Penn Central and developer of Six Flags theme parks, owned the land and recruited Braden to boost the resort’s prestige.
Braden asked for a sports research center so he could study player performance and he wanted a classroom to teach tennis. Great Southwest built it.
The Vic Braden Tennis College opened in 1974 and Coto de Caza began earning its swanky reputation as celebrities came to play tennis, including Chevy Chase and Tim Conway.
“They kept me laughing for a long time,” Braden said.
Scientists came too. Braden traded tennis lessons for scientific know-how.
Braden said he’d like to see Advantage succeed in building a tennis academy in OC, but it will be tough.
“It’s difficult because of initial funding,” he said. “For me, I had Great Southwest.”
Another issue: a lackluster tennis scene in the U.S.
“The stature of the game in the U.S. isn’t quite what it used to be,” said Pete Skeadas, of VB Ventures LLC, a Washington D.C.-based marketing consultant.
Skeadas works with Braden, who lends his name and expertise to several tennis academies.
“We just haven’t grown enough awesome players,” Skeadas said. “Americans need heroes.
“Roger Federer is a good player but he doesn’t really get you amped to watch tennis,” he said of the Swiss player.
Tennis is getting bigger,outside the U.S.
“Tennis is a much more global sport than it used to be,” said Darren Potkey, in charge of junior (under the age of 18) tournaments at the United States Tennis Association Southern California.
Global Competition
The U.S. has more competition because other countries are developing tennis players to make a name for themselves, he said.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, Potkey said. The U.S. is simply used to winning,all the time. But the world is changing, he said.
In the U.S., there are few known up-and-comers. Sam Querrey often is cited as the next big name.
There aren’t players like Pete Sampras, Michael Chang and Agassi rising up.
“It’s a tough world out there,” Potkey said.
Advantage has local supporters. Daniel McKenna offers cars for the players and other sponsorship money. McKenna is owner of a handful of auto dealerships including McKenna Volkswagen in Huntington Beach.
He’s also a tennis nut. He lives and plays in Emerald Bay in Laguna Beach, where there is a big tennis community, he said.
His two children also attend Advantage. McKenna pays full price for his son and daughter. The sponsorship is a business deal, he said.
“I like keeping that separate,” he said.
McKenna said he appreciates the passion of Johnson and Karim. He said his son, Hutton, wants to be there.
His kids aren’t out to be pros.
“I think it’s important kids have a passion,” he said. “Hutton’s a great player but he really enjoys the automobile business.”
There are kids who play for character building and fun, like McKenna’s children. Then there are those who play to nab a college scholarship. They make up the majority of the students. There also are the aspiring pros.
Local Players
OC players Joseph DiGiulio, Michael McClune and Mika DeCoster, Johnson’s students, are all top players. McClune, Karim’s student who set out to beat Sampras’ records, just turned pro. He’s playing the U.S. Tennis Association’s Boys’ National Championships, and if he wins he’ll play the International Tennis Federation’s U.S. Open Junior Championships.
“So few get to that level,” Johnson said.
Many former students are coaches.
“It’s a great environment,” Karim said. “It’s not where they come, train, leave and forget about it.”
As for Johnson and Karim, they still have to keep their eye on business. Both coach sometimes six hours a day and then there are weekend tournaments. That takes away from time spent on business.
“Not only do we feel it’s necessary for us to be out there but we really enjoy it,” Johnson said.
Karim moved near Johnson, so now they carpool and that’s when they take care of business.
“It can be 24-7 if you let it,” Johnson said.
