Get to know Campbell Hall boys and girls tennis coach Steve Kuechel
LOS ANGELES — Tennis is a lifetime passion for me. I played high school and junior college tennis, and competed in junior tennis tournaments growing up. Today, I am the boys’ and girls’ tennis coach at Campbell Hall. Every day is an opportunity for me and my students to up our game in tennis and in life.
Through the years, I have been awarded with “Coach of the Year” honors by the Daily News and the California Coaches Association multiple times for coaching the Campbell Halls’ high school girls’ tennis team, “Coach of the Decade” by the Daily News in 2010, and the USPTA California division high school coach of the year in 2013. Winning the “triple crown” in 2010—that’s winning a CIF division 1 team championship, a CIF singles championship and CIF doubles was special as this is like pitching a perfect game, which doesn’t happen often. It was also an honor to be inducted into the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2017.
Each of the eight CIF championships Campbell Hall’s team won (as well as my coaching five CIF doubles championships in a row and one CIF singles championship) was special. It was a great feeling to see the girls so happy and able to share it with their teammates. However, after 45 years as a tennis coach and 38 years at Campbell Hall (38 with boys and 19 with girls), one of the most important lessons I have learned—and one that I regularly pass on to my students—is the importance of being prepared everyday for whatever comes at you, whether its practice, a competitive match or life beyond the court. After any disappointing loss, I believe that we all should look at the positives and correct the mistakes we made.
It is also important to be honest with your players, and for players to be honest with themselves and each other to allow for improvements. To make that happen, we all work a lot on consistency, team bonding and chemistry. I believe this is an especially important reason for our success, along with great talent.
Ultimately, I would like my legacy to be that my players will have a lifelong love of tennis as I have, had a great time on the team, and take away great memories from being on a team that I coached.
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