My high school tennis coach is beyond strange. I’m going to keep this simple—especially since I’m only sharing about 30% of the details to avoid a super long post.
Just a bit of context: I’m a freshman girl, and for the purpose of this rant, I’ll call my coach Coach D.
I joined the high school tennis team and made varsity, ranking number three, so I was guaranteed a spot in the starting lineup.
Right away, Coach D established a group chat with all 24 girls on the team and himself. It felt a bit odd at first, but I didn’t think much of it—until he began texting nonstop.
He started sharing links to tennis videos and encouraging us to watch them. No one initially responded until someone finally chimed in with a “wow, that’s so cool,” probably out of pity for his one-sided messages.
Then it got weirder. Coach D announced that if we watched a specific tennis video and texted him three things we noticed, he’d reward us with a “special prize.” My friends and I were baffled—like, is this guy for real? After his next message, he claimed to have received responses and said, “Glad to see FOUR smart people on the team. They’ve earned a free private lesson from me and a secure spot on varsity.”
Just to clarify, Coach D is the assistant coach and has no authority over the lineup. I soon learned from upperclassmen that his behavior had never been this strange before.
After a team meeting with the captains, we all agreed we felt uncomfortable and decided to report him to the athletic department. They basically restricted his texting privileges, but he hasn’t been fired.
That didn’t stop him, though—he started emailing the team and continued the same antics, even promoting his private lessons and claiming that paying for them could boost a player’s varsity ranking. The cost? A staggering $135 an hour, upfront in cash.
And I can’t unsee the moment when he applied sunscreen to a girl’s back while she was wearing one of those open-back tennis dresses. Seriously, what?!
So, the season ended and I didn’t have to see Coach D—until I heard stories of him randomly running into a friend and high-fiving her, then grabbing her hand to check her “warmth.”
Now, spring sports are happening, and the boys’ tennis season has started (the girls’ and boys’ seasons don’t overlap). The boys’ team is way more competitive, so everyone’s doing their best to earn top rankings.
Coach D has really taken advantage of this, requiring the boys to write essays about their matches and publicly calling them out for poor grammar.
There’s definitely more going on with the boys’ team, but it’s hard to grasp if you don’t know Coach D.
Anyway, that’s my rant!
Wow, that sounds really uncomfortable and inappropriate! It’s definitely not normal for a coach to be texting so much, especially with the whole “private lesson” pitch and that sunscreen incident. It’s great that you and your teammates spoke up and reported him to the athletic department. It’s important to have boundaries, and it’s concerning that he’s still not being held accountable for his behavior.
I can’t believe he switched to emailing after being banned from texting—that’s just so sketchy! It sounds like he’s trying to take advantage of you and your teammates in a really unprofessional way. Hopefully, the athletic department will investigate further, especially after hearing how he’s treating the boys’ team. Keep looking out for yourself and your teammates, and don’t hesitate to keep pushing for change if he continues to make you all uncomfortable. Stay strong!