CourtSide.
Long-form conversations with the owners, directors, and head pros shaping racquet sports. Hosted by Evan Dechtman.
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Introducing CourtSide
Why we are building this show, and who it is for.
Matthew Feuer, BOAST
Owner and CEO
Matthew Feuer spent 30 years supplying leather to brands like New Balance, Adidas, and Timberland, always wondering what he would do differently if he owned one. In 2024 he got his chance and bought BOAST, the maple leaf tennis brand he wore as a high school player in the 1980s. Since he took over, BOAST has shown up on Tennis Channel, put pros on tour in the brand, landed in Nordstrom, and is heading into Saks.
Marcos del Pilar, Pro Padel League
Padel Educator and Co-Founder
Marcos del Pilar left a successful life in Spain in 2017 to build padel as a business in the United States, where clubs, investors, and property owners kept telling him no. He had already built and run five tennis and padel venues in Spain. Since then he has helped bring the first Padel World Championship to U.S. soil, co-founded the Pro Padel League, led the USPA, and certified more than 1,500 padel coaches. People call him the Godfather of Padel in the U.S.
Jennifer Gelhaus, The Club at Renaissance
Director of Racquet Sports
Jennifer Gelhaus was four years into a career in molecular biology, on track for a PhD, when she quit to coach tennis full time. Fifteen years later she has built racquet programs at Maidstone Club in the Hamptons, East Chop Tennis Club on Martha's Vineyard, Oyster Harbors Club on Cape Cod, and The Club at Renaissance in Southwest Florida. She hosts the Vida Tennis Podcast and co-hosts Power Players with the Directors Club of America.
Kyle LaCroix, SETS Consulting
Founder and CEO
Kyle LaCroix has certified and mentored over 1,700 tennis coaches worldwide. He spent part of his early career living out of his car in South Florida, waiting for his break. Now he runs SETS Consulting and holds one of the rarest designations in the sport: RSPA Master Professional, one of roughly 150 currently active in the world. Kyle and Evan cover his path from Ferris State's Professional Tennis Management program through the Philadelphia Cricket Club, Saddlebrook Resort, and The Oaks at Boca Raton, plus a stretch helping retiring ATP and WTA players learn to teach. They get into 17 years of testing and certifying coaches for the RSPA, the founding of SETS in 2020, and Kyle's core thesis: racquet sports professionals maximize their ability, but not their potential.
Craig Bell, Bell Boy Sports
Co-Host, At The Net Podcast
Craig Bell spent 27 and a half years running the tennis program at Bent Tree Country Club in Dallas. In 2024 he retired, moved back to Utah, and started over, selling padel and pickleball gear across the Intermountain region as owner of Bell Boy Sports. Craig is an RSPA Master Professional and co-host of the At The Net Podcast, closing in on 700 episodes with AJ Chabria. We get into starting in the sport in 1974, a 131 mph serve at the Jansen Fast Serve Contest, taking play at University Club Dallas up 300%, coaching his son Chris to a 4-time Texas state championship, and being a 6th generation member of the Chickasaw Nation.
Brandon Day, North Hills Club
Director of Programming
Brandon Day graduated from Ferris State's Professional Tennis Management program in 2022. Four years later he's the assistant director at a 31-court tri-racquet club, and he's not even 30. He got there by cold-calling Jarrett Chirico for an internship, starting at zero at Royal Oaks Country Club, and working his way from teaching pro to director of programming in under three years. We get into the real math of what young pros make, why burnout is a leadership problem, what certifications actually do for your career, and his goal to be a director by 28 in an industry where the average director is 55+.
Karen Schott, The Broadmoor
Director of Tennis
Karen Schott has been at The Broadmoor for 32 years. She started as a teaching pro at 24, spent 11 years under Dennis Ralston, a five-time Grand Slam doubles champion and International Tennis Hall of Famer, and took over the program in 2005. Her message to women looking to lead in racquet sports: find a mentor. Walk up to someone you respect and ask. 'Every woman in this business is going to say yes.'
Jarrett Chirico, North Hills Club / Founder, Directors Club of America
Director of Racquets
Jarrett Chirico grew up with a racquet in his hand. By eleven he was at the Bollettieri Academy on a full scholarship. By sixteen he was the top-ranked junior in America, playing all four junior Grand Slams. Today he builds racquets programs at private clubs and turns them into the highest-revenue departments in the building. He took Baltimore Country Club from $7,000 a month to nearly $100,000, grew Royal Oaks Country Club from $1 million to over $2.5 million a year in racquets revenue, and founded the Directors Club of America, a network of over 1,300 leaders across 400+ clubs. In January 2026, Jarrett moved to North Hills Club in Raleigh to take on his next challenge: 22 tennis courts, 6 pickleball courts, and 3 padel courts.
Sam Hitman, Gates Tennis Center
General Manager
Sam Hitman has been managing Gates Tennis Center since 1993. In 30+ years he's turned a public facility into the host of the country's largest sanctioned tennis tournament, launched two more facilities across Colorado, and built a scholarship program for kids who can't afford lessons. We get into the public-private partnership with The Park People, running three facilities at once, the real economics of public tennis, how he added quiet pickleball courts, and why he started teaching other people how to run facilities.
Julius Gavin, Tennis University
Independent Tennis Coach, Founder
Julius Gavin, known online as tennis.god, has nearly 90,000 Instagram followers, charges $1,000 for six hours of coaching, and claims he can build a complete tennis game in 40 hours. We get into the math behind the program, the fraud accusations, the real economics of driving thousands of miles with a trunk full of balls, and how short-form content converts a viewer into a paid client.
Andy Zodin, Columbine Country Club
Director of Racquet Sports
Andy Zodin on 15 years running racquet sports at Columbine Country Club, what a director actually does day-to-day, the ownership conversations that never go away, staffing teaching pros in 2026, and how private clubs are handling pickleball.
Evan Dechtman, TopSpin Digital
Founder
A short introduction to CourtSide: why we are building a long-form interview series for the people running racquet sports, what each episode looks like, and how to be considered as a guest.
About CourtSide.
CourtSide is produced by TopSpin Digital, the marketing agency built for racquet sports. Each episode features a 20-minute conversation with someone shaping the business of tennis, pickleball, and padel. No scripts, just the people doing the work, talking about what they've learned.
The Interview Series
CourtSide.