Bellamy’s Vision Created a Tennis Hotbed

Steve Bellamy was working as a tennis pro at the Riviera Country Club in 1995 when he decided to bid on the Palisades Tennis Center concession at the Recreation Center. The Center was in great need of a makeover – the pro shop was barely more than a candy shop – and new energy. Bellamy’s peers at the Riviera snickered that he was wasting his time.

Instead, Bellamy found instant success – the Center’s two courts were busy on his first day, and it has become a haven of success for players of all ages and all levels. Pro players have practiced there, including John Izner, Sam Querrey, Jimmy Connors and Patrick Rafter, and young players who train there may eventually find themselves in the pro ranks as well.

Danny Westerman, a 1998 Palisades High graduate and Post Cup Award winner, was one of Center’s earliest success stories. He followed up his stellar high school career by playing at the University of Wisconsin and then joining the coaching staff as an assistant while he pursued his MBA; in 2006, he became head coach at the University of Denver and has been there ever since.

“I played high school matches at the park, but I also played there with pro guys who needed hitting partners,” Westerman told the Palisadian-Post. “The Center was just huge for my tennis, because it allowed me unbelievable access to outstanding players to practice with. It also helped going to junior clinics, doing drills and practice sets.

“For juniors to come together in one place and train together, it just made the Center a hot spot for junior tennis, and you had a lot of adults in live-ball clinics that I remember playing with on Saturday mornings. The place just has a natural energy about it, because the people and staff are so positive. No one is ever sitting or standing around; players and coaches are always doing something, moving around and hustling.”

As Westerman points out, both ends of the spectrum are covered at the Palisades Tennis Center. Eric McKean, a 2003 graduate of Brentwood School, earned a scholarship to play at Stanford University. Derrick Rostagno also completed his undergraduate studies at Stanford – after retiring from the pro tour, where he reached as high as a No. 13 ranking – and he now plays every Saturday at 10:30 at the Center.

Adam Brewer, who has been an instructor at the Center since it opened, echoed Westerman’s sentiments.

“It’s less drill-oriented and more learning through mass scenarios,” said Brewer, who played tennis at Emory University in Atlanta. “Our coaches bring creative energy, they’re not afraid to try anything. And Steve loves the game of tennis so much, he wants anybody and everybody playing the game because he believes that through participation they’ll not only improve their tennis, but also the quality of their lives.”

Bellamy takes great pride in urging players who train at the Center to go the college route, rather than turn pro as soon as eligible. His son, Robbie, who has been the nation’s top junior doubles player the past three years and reached as high as No. 5 in singles, will attend USC this fall. T.J. Pura, who played at Brentwood School, will attend Duke; Alex Giannini (Gorman Learning Center), one of Bellamy’s doubles partners, will play at Pepperdine;  Cristobal Rivera (Santa Monica High) earned a scholarship to play at Loyola Marymount; and Wyatt Houghton (Oaks Christian) will play at UC Berkeley.

“If you play tennis from the beginning to age 18, you’ll get into college, no ifs, ands or buts,” Bellamy said. “As long as you put in the reps, the years of doing it, you’ll get in, so I really push college. You can go to Harvard, Princeton, Stanford or Yale very easily with a reasonable GPA, reasonable SAT scores and a big forehand. And so I push that way.

“It’s a giant myth that if you play college tennis, you can’t play pro tennis. I highly recommend college even if you want to play pro tennis.”

Bellamy notes that one of the major factors separating his Center from others around the country is the variety of training that is offered. It isn’t just practice sessions with a ball machine.

“It’s probably the most fun and game-oriented tennis center in America,” Bellamy said. “Our kids end up competing more than at academies across the country, because they’re not standing in line and hitting a ball and going to the end of the line like at most places. Instead, they’re fighting for points. No tennis match has ever been won because somebody’s forehand was prettier than someone else’s. Tennis matches are street fights.”

While the Center is mostly known for developing some of the nation’s top juniors, expect to see kids and adults alike when you visit the courts.

“We start kids at Mommy and Me,” Bellamy said. “Nobody does that. Last week we had 78 kids under the age of 10 here. We’re planting all kinds of tennis seeds, and we’re exposing the game to so many kinds of people.”

Initially, Bellamy was able to earn some credibility with celebrity clientele. He trained actors like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sally Field, Goldie Hawn and Kate Hudson, which “didn’t hurt,” he said. Bellamy recalled Schwarzenegger leading a fitness program with about 70 kids at one point, playfully yelling to motivate them.

In addition to his Palisades location, Bellamy has opened two other tennis centers: the Westwood Tennis Center in 2008 and the Cheviot Hills Tennis Center last year.

His other three sons also train at the Palisades Tennis Center: Lucas, 14, won the prestigious Harper Ink tournament in April and will be a freshman at PaliHi this fall; Roscoe, 13, was the top singles and doubles player in the 12-and-unders last year; and Lincoln, 11, moved up to the 12s after ranking No. 2 in the 10s in Southern California last year.

Bellamy, who founded the Tennis Channel and also runs the Ski Channel and the Surf Channel on cable television, has lived in the Palisades with his wife, former pro circuit player Beth Herr Bellamy, for 20 years. He played tennis in high school and attended Indiana University, where he was the commencement speaker in 2008.