Coach of tennis champs shares advice

He coached Andre Agassi for 11 years and Anna Kournikova for six. He remains close friends with Jim Courier and will never forget the two years he spent as Boris Becker's mentor. He's Nick Bollettieri -- one of the top tennis coaches in the world -- and he comes from some humble beginnings. He started as a student looking to make some extra money by holding $3-per-hour lessons, but eventually became the founder of a world-renowned athletic academy and a recipient of the United States Olympic Committee National Coach of the Year award. In addition to his success as a coach, Bollettieri began lecturing to college students several years ago and visited Penn yesterday as a speaker for the Fox Leadership Program. Bollettieri began by dispelling the misconceptions people have regarding what constitutes an athlete. "People think being an athlete means competing, getting your name in the paper or being on TV," Bollettieri said. "That's not true. [You] are all athletes... regardless of how physically fit you are." Though Bollettieri feels that anyone can be an athlete regardless of physical ability, he spent his high school and college years playing football and basketball. In fact, he said that playing these other competitive sports probably helped him with tennis -- a sport he didn't take up until his junior year of college. Several years later, when Bollettieri entered law school at the University of Miami, he began giving tennis lessons to help finance his education. But struggling student eventually gave way to ingenious instructor, and Bollettieri soon found himself coaching several players who have since become legends in the game of tennis. "I'm almost able to predict winners," he said. "I've coached eight winners, but I don't make winners. I am just able to bring out their good qualities and motivate them." And motivate he did. Take the 16-year-old player who he once found in the woods breaking all of his rackets after losing a qualification tournament. "I told Andre [Agassi], 'I believe in you. You believe in yourself,'" Bollettieri said. "I said, 'I will stay with you until you make it.'" Agassi certainly "made it," and Bollettieri spent 11 years coaching the world-famous athlete. But coaching outstanding players brought with it outstanding pressures, and to some, a day in the life of Nick Bollettieri may seem especially daunting. He spends his day teaching tennis, playing golf and working out on his Bowflex, a regimen which usually allows for four and a half hours of sleep for the night. However, Bollettieri, who will turn 72 years old in July, certainly has no plans of slowing down any time soon. "Life can go on as long as you want it to go on," he said. "Someone once asked me after a lecture when I planned on retiring, and I said, 'Don't you dare ever use the word retire to me or to yourself. When you use the word retire, half your mind, body and soul go dormant. "Retire is not in my vocabulary."