Tennis coach Kelly Langdon began his sport hitting the ball at the tennis courts by his house when he was in middle school. He didn’t even know much about this sport except that he liked it.
When he was in seventh grade, his school started a tennis team. No one else in his family played tennis, so his parents didn’t see the significance of taking lessons. Because of his lack of experience, he didn’t make the team at his first tryout. But the coach gave him a second chance. After more practice and a second tryout, he earned a spot on the team.
“I wasn’t this natural tennis player because I had no formal training, I didn’t have a whole lot of lessons and everything was real raw,” Langdon said. “I just knew that it was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it.”
He then began training and improving his skills. Despite all his friends playing football and basketball, he stuck with tennis and played it all throughout his high school career. He ended his high school career with a trip to state.
After high school he continued to excel in tennis as well. As a kid, Langdon recalls people complaining about their jobs which he found strange. This further cemented his commitment to the sport because it was something he loved.
“When I finally did start taking lessons, I thought, ‘That’s a pretty cool job, I mean there’s a lot more to it in the background than what I saw being on the court, but you’re outside, you’re working with people, helping people, and it’s a sport that I enjoy,” Langdon said.
By the time Langdon was 19 he became an assistant professional coach in tennis. Once he reached the age of 25 he was a head professional, the youngest in the Fort Worth area. His commitment to the sport continued to grow.
“Things have always rolled along for me as far as my career and my enjoyment of the sport,” he said.
He has won numerous awards during the 15 years he’s been at Marcus. This is his third year to be named the United States Professional Tennis Association Coach of the year. He was also named Coach Of The Year by the Dallas Morning News and Fort Worth Star-Telegram in 2004.
But despite earning all these individual awards, he views the awards he’s earned as group efforts. He believes he wouldn’t have been able to do it without the help of his players and assistant tennis coach John Schildt. He takes pride in the fact that his awards recognizes others as well such as the school and administrators.
“I always feel very proud that it’s going to shine a light on that many people,” Langdon said. “At the end of the day there’s a lot of people, coach Schildt, that make that award happen, so I’m always happy that some more people are able to get some accolades out of it also.”
Langdon is a strong believer in giving back to the community. Besides coaching at the school, he gives tennis lessons throughout the Dallas area as well. He pushes his players to help out in the community likewise.
“Outside of the on court stuff everybody kind of remembers that we always make it a special point to help out others,” Langdon said. “Especially the local community.”
Langdon says he takes pleasure in seeing his players improve their skills and enjoy the game. He hopes to inspire them enough to play tennis for a lifetime.
“There’s not a lot of 60 year olds playing football but there are plenty of 60 year olds that play tennis,” Langdon said. “What I do hope that they’ll take have gotten from me is a joy of the game and improvement of
their own game.”
Senior Raj Landry is now in his fourth year with Langdon. He says Langdon has taught him the skills he needs to win and reach his goal. He’s encouraging to his players.
“He uses his past experiences, not only as a coach but in life, to inspire us on and off the court,” Landry said. “He makes people feel good about their strengths.”
As much as Langdon prompts to positively influence his players, he says he is amazed by things they have accomplished on their own. During the spring, the tennis players miss a lot of school playing tournaments, about once every week. Yet that doesn’t stop them from excelling in their school work. The program has had a number of National Merit semi-finalists and even a salutatorian.
“For these students to commit themselves to a top rank program and then also have the academic success that they have I think is very inspiring,” Langdon said.
His son, Sebastian, was a part of the tennis team. He graduated last year, and is now a Division 1 tennis player at Abilene Christian University. Langdon defines having had him be a part of team as the most rewarding thing during his time at Marcus.
“That’s single handedly the highlight of my career here for sure just for him to have that opportunity and him excelling too,” Langdon said.
Langdon said he has learned that patience has become an important aspect in working with such a diverse group of kids in regards to age, gender, and skill level. He has also learned different coaching styles and has become skillful in figuring out how to work with players so they can improve.
However he still feels he has room for improvement. Creating a team atmosphere has been a bit of a challenge for him. It’s a difficult mentality to generate when tennis doesn’t involve playing as team.
“One of the biggest challenges every year is to instill some kind of ‘everybody for everybody’ mentality,” Langdon said. “Over the course of 15 years we’ve done a better job at that and it definitely shows in our results that year in year out we’re one of the top programs in the state.”
Despite the few bumps in the road that come with coaching tennis and a loss every once in awhile, Langdon continues to reflect how to give incentive to his players so they may improve and be the best that they can. Junior Kelly Mowery can attest to this.
“He puts a lot of heart into it,” Mowery said. “And he takes a lot of time to think about ways to push us and how to motivate us and let us grow.”
