Karen Ronney recalls as a young junior growing up in the San Fernando Valley the late great Jim Buck would bring his USC women’s team to join him and other local tennis patrons on the court and help teach summer clinics. 

Ronney instantly had role models and young female teaching instructors to look up to. “I remember them all,” recalled Ronney recently. “Girls need to see that women can lead. They were all amazing. I looked up to them and I wanted to be like them.”

The Professional Tennis Registry reports that only 26 percent of its membership consisting of tennis coaches and teaching professionals are females. 

“In the high school coaching ranks it’s even smaller and in Southern California, maybe around 10 percent are female,” said Ronney said, a member of the USTPA and PTR, as well as serving as the Patrick Henry High girls’ varsity tennis coach in San Diego. 

“A bias does exist that female teaching pros are not as good as males,” said Ronney, the USPTA National High School Coach of the Year and the Racquet Sports Industry National High School Coach of the Year in 2020.  “If there are two people in an area and there is a male and a female you will think the male is the head pro. Automatic. And it’s only because there are not enough female pros. And it doesn’t have to be that way.”

That’s why the USTA Soutern California section led by Director of Engagement & Industry Relations Nancy Abrams is bringing back for the second year the Women & Girls Who Ace Summit and Coaching Awards August 6-7 at the University of San Diego. The event is presented by the USTA Southern California and the Professional Tennis Registry and hosted by the University of San Diego.  

On Sunday, August 6, there will be a Coaching Workshop and Awards Reception that high school and community coaches can take part in from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., PTR will conduct on-court training followed by the PTR-W’s off-court workshop. An awards reception honoring the work done by Jamie Yonekura-Jones of San Diego CC will conclude the day. Registration is $25 and includes sponsor gifts, lunch and reception. 

The Monday, August 7, Pre-Season Tennis Skills and Leadership Workshop for high school girls’ grades 9-12 will consist of an on-court/off-court workshop from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The small $15 fee includes lunch and participants can watch the top juniors compete at the USTA Billie Jean King Girls’ 18s and 16s National Championships. In addition, two night-session tickets to the upcoming WTA 500 tournament at Barnes Tennis Center and a sponsor gift bag are part of the registration fee.  

Click here to register for this workshop by August 2nd!

Ronney – who will be speaking on the topic of “How to Build a Positive Team Culture” – said she wants to be part of the solution, and that means starting the young players she coaches early and getting them involved in summer clinics or after-school lessons at local clubs. 

“You have to start with the younger kids, and it could be high school players who are helping younger kids,” said Ronney, who was a journalist before settling down and having a family and coming back into the workforce as a teaching pro because of the flexible schedule. “I think it’s an empowering thing for girls to see other girls doing it.” 

Ronney said male coaches should be encouraged to attend the conference. “Coaching girls is different than coaching guys – it’s night and day,” she said. “There are so many male coaches who, if you are not a dad, don’t know that you can’t approach women the same way you do men.  It’s really important to know how to coach women, and young girls especially.

“How do you talk differently to female players? How do you motivate them? ‘Suck it, Buttercup’ just doesn’t fly. It is rare when it does. So now you’ve got to find out, ‘How’s your day? What’s happening? You look a little down.’ You have to get down to what is going on in their brain before you can coach women. Boys don’t care. They’re here to play sports and they pick up a racket and don’t really care to tell you what’s going on in their mind. It will not affect their tennis game. Women, it will affect their game tremendously. 

“You just need to understand so much more about their psyche, tone of voice, delivery of messaging and even word choice.”

Ronney concluded: “I think it’s really essential that the tennis industry has more female leadership. I don’t think we see enough women in tennis at every level and Women & Girls Who Ace brings that to the forefront.”