From a professional standpoint, Jake Worseldine had one clear goal in mind when he returned to the Verde Valley — make tennis more popular in the area.
Worseldine graduated from Mingus Union High School in 1995. In the subsequent years, he’s coached at places like the Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I., the Barnes Tennis Center [where he served as Director of Tennis for 2.5 years] at Point Loma in San Diego, and most recently in Los Angeles.
When he returned to the Verde Valley, Worseldine was originally planning on coaching tennis at Sedona Red Rock High School. He later learned that the Mingus boys coaching job was open. Knowing that the Marauders job would create more opportunities to grow the game in the area, Worseldine — with the encouragement of SRRHS tennis coach Phil Kovac — took the job at his alma mater.
While Worseldine will be coaching the Marauders, he plans on extending his reach to Sedona as well as the rest of the Verde Valley. While nothing is officially set, Worseldine plans on hosting after school camps at Mingus beginning in late-August.
“I’ve got a lot of experience, mostly in junior development — tennis is my life,” the coach said. “I’ve coached everyone from 4 to 18, and adults as well,” Worseldine said. “It took a long time but teaching kids and developing juniors, getting them to learn the game quickly, is what I really love to do.”
Worseldine’s strategy is to make the game simple. He’ll start beginners by having them hit balls just with their hands, moving to a racket once they’ve figured out the hitting motion.
Worseldine developed that strategy through his years working with some of the world’s best coaches and interacting with legends at the Hall of Fame. He also saw examples of how he didn’t want to coach, remembering witnessing lessons in Los Angeles where coaches were trying to teach a group of eight adults the techniques used by players like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
Worseldine said that in the class, students likely only retained one thing while hitting only 20 balls, adding that “you’re just not having fun” in such a class.
“I’m having adults and juniors play quickly,” he said. “That’s what I do, make tennis accessible for anybody. I have a philosophy where people love it and keep coming back so they’re not cheesed off after the first two weeks. Which is massive.”
“My philosophy is less talking, more fun and easy demonstrations so people of all ages can learn the game quickly,” the coach added. “So they’re not thinking, ‘I don’t want to hear you jabber on about my wrist, grips, unit turn, the racket drop.’ It’s rubbish.”
Worseldine acknowledged that starting in the middle of a pandemic does pose some challenges. But he also noted that tennis is one of the safer activities that can be done right now, primarily because social distancing is built into the game. From baseline to baseline, a tennis court is 78 feet long. Rarely are players anywhere near six feet from each other and when they are, it’s for no more than a few seconds.
Worseldine eventually hopes to add an awning to hang over at least some of the courts at Mingus to make them less exposed to the sun. A more long term goal is to get an indoor facility built to give people a place to play tennis during the heat of the summer.
In the more short term, Worseldine is eager to get his programs going and teach the game that he loves so much to people — especially juniors — throughout the Verde Valley.
“I’m excited to be hired during this time, to have access to eight beautiful courts and plant my seed of bringing tennis fun to all abilities and age levels,” he said. “I’m just excited to start it. Kids pick up things easily. My teaching philosophy of making it easy for them to learn — I’ve seen the results over the years. I’m just excited. I want to get these courts filled.”
