Legendary tennis coach Becker elected to AHSAA Hall of Fame

Nancy Becker knew the score when it came to coaching her Vestavia Hills girls tennis teams.

“We had some talented girls who were really good singles players but they didn’t know how to play doubles,” Becker said. “And I said, ‘Look, it’s two points for winning in doubles and it’s one point for singles. We’ve got to learn to play doubles, because that’s what wins state championships.’ It’s a no-brainer, so that’s what I did.”

Becker, 74, is set for induction into the Alabama High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame in Montgomery on March 23. The 12 members of the Class of 2015 will be honored at a banquet at the Renaissance Hotel and Spa at the Convention Center. 

Of course, she had to persuade the girls to do it her way at first.

One way was by showing them a simple well-placed shot from her could tie them in knots. That convinced them that maybe she knew what she was talking about.

“They didn’t know about the strategy of doubles. I’d have them hit me balls and I’d hit it back. I said in doubles, it’s not how hard you hit it, it’s where you put it. And that’s all we did, work on doubles.”

She also instructed them to watch their opponents as they warmed up to figure out their weaknesses. 

But she also emphasized something else: The concept of a team in what most of them saw as an individual sport. When your match was over, you stayed and watched your teammates play. While other teams’ girls might be off chatting and talking with family and friends, the Vestavia girls would be rooting for their teammates. 

And while most of them had their own coaches as they worked on their individual play, team practices became the order of the day.

 “Most of them worked with their own coaches. I said, ‘No, we can’t do that. We work as a team every week on nothing but doubles.’”

Winning at doubles did lead to 10 state championships, and left her as one of the most successful girls tennis coaches in AHSAA history.

The other members of ASHAA’s 25^th HOF class are basketball coaches Steve Jefferson, Jack Doss and Bobby Wright, football coaches Steve Rivers, Doug Goodwin and John Tatum, athletics director Myra Miles, track official Houston Young, and administrators Alan Mitchell and Ron Ingram. Selected in the “Old Timer” category was Geneva County football coach James D. Chesteen.

The 18-member Hall of Fame Committee made the selections from 50 nominations on the Hall of Fame ballot. The Hall of Fame is located at the AHSAA office in Montgomery.

“I was really surprised when Steve Savarese’s secretary called,” Becker said of the phone call from the AHSAA executive director. “She said, ‘Would you hold for Mr. Savarese?’ and I thought what would he want? I mean, it honestly never entered my mind. And when he got on the phone and said I want to congratulate you as a new inductee into the Hall of Fame – well, I’m not at a loss for words much, but I really did not know what to say. It was a shock. A really nice surprise.”

Becker began her teaching career as a business education teacher in Jacksonville, Fla., in 1962. She moved to John Carroll High School in 1965 -- she started a girls tennis program there before taking a 10-year sabbatical to raise her son -- and then arrived at Vestavia Hills High in 1984. 

Her Rebels tennis teams won 10 Class 6A state championships, had eight runner-up finishes, finished third four times and won 20 sectional championships. Her teams won more than 200 matches in her 23-year career at Vestavia and several prestigious tournaments, including the Chattanooga Rotary Tournament three times. She came out of retirement in 2013 to serve as an assistant coach and helped Vestavia Hills win the state championship. She was named National Federation of High Schools State Tennis Coach of the Year in 2008 and 2010. 

Despite that resume, her sports love came relatively late in life; she didn’t pick up a racket until she was an adult.

“I became a tennis bum,” Becker said. “I had a 10-year sabbatical from teaching when my son was born. A friend of mine loaned me a racket and said ‘come play tennis with us.’ I went to a clinic with Les Longshore at Mountain Brook Swim and Tennis and just loved it.”

She helped form the ladies tennis league in Birmingham and had what she called her greatest experience playing doubles with her daughter Tracey in the Equitable Family Tennis Challenge, which was held at the U.S. Open, representing the South. Tracey was a junior at Mountain Brook and the top-rated player in the state. “She was the youngest player there. That still is the most exciting thing I’ve ever done.”

By the time she got to VHHS, she figured she was done with the tennis and traveling to junior events and so forth, but before long, the principal approached her about coaching the girls team. She tried to say no, but she also played tennis with mothers of the girls on the team, and at their urging she reluctantly agreed.

And the rest is history.

“But I loved the girls, we traveled all over the state,” Becker said with a smile. “Really proud of winning the Chattanooga tournaments because they had teams from all over the country.”

A couple of other characteristics aided her success. 

“You know, I’m really competitive,” she said. “You know how some people say they don’t care? -- if you’re going to play, why not win? I don’t like losing.”

“Another thing we did was we worked together as a team, but we bonded, the girls and I, on and off the court. I loved them. I still see some of them. Some of my favorite people are the girls I coached. Some of them are teachers in the system. The girls made scrapbooks of all the years I coached. I’ve given some of them to some of the girls I thought would like them and they were thrilled to get them. I still have about six of them at home and my grandchildren love to look at them.”

“They were just awesome, and funny! – gosh. But you know they would confide in me sometimes before their parents because they knew first of all, anybody who knows me knows I tell it like it is.” 

Understanding that each girl was different was also a key to her success.

“Some of them I knew not to even go down there and bother them. I knew they’d figure it out. I’d just make them nervous. Some I had to go down there every time they switched sides. You’ve got to be with them and learn who they are. All that’s so important.”