Holmes embraces opportunity in USTA's Racquet Sports Management Apprenticeship

The racquet sports industry is growing. Thanks to coaches like Larry Holmes, it’s also becoming more diverse.

Holmes spent the last three years as the head club pro at Cooper Tennis Complex in Springfield, Mo. He’s now part of the second class of the USTA’s Racquet Sports Management Apprenticeship program at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla.

The purpose of the paid two-year program is to create new leaders in the racquet sports industry, which includes much more than just tennis. There’s pickleball, padel and squash among others. And the RSMA program is taking a leadership role in ensuring the leaders reflect the communities they want to serve.

“From my understanding and my conversations with the directors of the program, it’s purposeful,” Holmes said of the program’s diversity. “The USTA is very big on diversity, equity and inclusion. (RSMA Director) Dr. Jason Allen has spoken immensely about growing the game of tennis.

“People need to have role models that look like them and talk like them. We see the need in communities that are underserved, predominantly minority communities.”

Prepared to Lead

Holmes grew up in Rochester, N.Y., where there weren’t a lot of Black tennis players. He started his coaching career at age 13 as a volunteer coach. After playing high school tennis he played collegiately at Johnson C. Smith University, an HBCU in Charlotte, N.C. He played briefly as a professional.

He then devoted his time to coaching. He’s worked as a private teaching pro, a high school coach and a college head coach at Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kan.

He said his big break came in 2019 when he worked at a tennis camp at the University of Michigan. There, he met former Michigan Men’s Tennis Head Coach Adam Steinberg, who told him if he wanted to coach at the NCAA Division I level, he would need to volunteer at that level.

Holmes volunteered at Virginia Tech, where he quickly was promoted to a paid assistant while the university looked for a permanent assistant. Less than two years later, he was named the head coach of the D-I Norfolk State University men’s and women’s tennis teams.

Then, after an 18-month stay at a tennis club in Akron, Ohio, Holmes accepted the head tennis pro position at Cooper.

“I enjoyed getting out in the community and growing the game of tennis there,” he said. “Springfield is a very passionate tennis community. Being the head pro at Cooper, with our contract pros, and working with my bosses was an absolute privilege and pleasure.”