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As the Lane College teams gathered to take team photos recently, new head coach Venecca Green was amazed at the reaction. The Division II historically Black college program hasn’t received much attention in the past, so even having pictures taken seemed like a big deal.

“The girls were so excited. You wouldn’t believe it. It was crazy,” Green said. “You would have thought I gave them a million dollars. That was important to them.”

Green is in her first month as the head coach for the men’s and women’s programs at Lane College. Coincidentally, Green is going from living in one Jackson (Mississippi) to another Jackson (Tennessee).

Green is a Mississippi native and obtained her bachelor of office administration and masters of business administration from Jackson State University. She earned her law degree from Mississippi College School of Law and is a practicing lawyer in Mississippi.

But helping promote the benefits of tennis has become her passion. After captaining several USTA teams in the Jackson, Mississippi area, she saw the need to bring tennis to the children in the Jackson Public Schools.

That led Green to take part in the USTA Fellowship in Tennis Coaching and Leadership Program at the USTA National Campus in Orlando for three months to become a Level 2 PTR certified coach.

“Learning and connecting with all those great minds and getting the resources was invaluable,” Green said. “It was such a great experience and I really learned a lot. It uniquely prepared me to say yes to the job at Lane because now I do feel capable of coaching at this level.”

Having officially become the head coach this month, Green didn’t have a chance to recruit for the upcoming season. Green has some remaining scholarship funds available in case there are players on campus or from a junior college program that may want to join the team.

“(The timing) has left us short of players and many of the players here don’t have a high level of tennis experience,” she said. “We are not expecting great things this season, but we do believe we can build this team for the future.”

Green replaced an assistant football coach who was coaching both tennis programs at Lane as well.

“As far as I’m aware, I am the first tennis coach that is a tennis coach,” she said. “In the past, the coaches were the baseball coach or the football coach or the basketball coach or track coach who also coached the tennis team.”

In taking over at Lane, Green has inspired some of the players from the Jackson Public Schools to join her at the collegiate level.

“My ninth graders are saying to me, ‘Coach, I am going to Lane and coming to play for you,’” she said. “Some of the players on my junior tennis team have the ability now to play and may win some matches here. That is exciting to think about for the future.”

Green’s immediate priority is to help build the culture at Lane and make tennis more entrenched in the community. The program plans to take part in acts of service for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Green also wants to reach out to local schools and try to introduce tennis to more low-income kids.

The Lane players have discussed eating lunch together during the season and wearing their team jackets around campus more. Those may seem like minor things, but Green believes it can plant the roots for a brighter future.

“Who knows, we may have a diamond in the rough on campus that played tennis and doesn’t play for the program,” she said. “You just don’t know if the program is not suitable in their eyes. We want to change that and find those students.”

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About Rhiannon Potkey

Rhiannon Potkey is a veteran sportswriter with more than two decades of experience in journalism. Potkey has covered many sports at many levels and has a passion for finding great stories. Potkey has covered the U.S. Open, junior sectional and national events, college conference championships and Davis Cup matches. Potkey is currently Content Strategist for Tennis Recruiting. You can reach Rhiannon by email at rhiannon@tennisrecruiting.net.