Our first in a series of live podcasts, celebrated ATP Tour coach and director of racquets, known to his intimates as Van, our colleague and friend Allan Van Nostrand joins the BeyondTheBaselines.com podcast.

Van Nostrand says, “If you’re going to be on court, you might as well win.” He took that coaching mentality to his students and he brought it to his, what is really his third career, to the country club setting. As a beloved director of tennis at his childhood club Southward Ho, where his father had been director before him, he served that membership loyally for over 15 years on the South Shore of Long Island.

Now, serving on the North Shore as director of racquets at Huntington Crescent Club, Van Nostrand lets his management skills, rather than his playing skills, win. A highly skilled player, Allan this year, for the first time in six years, played in front of his membership. He takes pride in his tennis game, but he might take even more pride in how he manages his department and how he is a part of the fabric of the club and his membership.

Van Nostrand realizes there are daily challenges from an elite membership. He monitors his professionals daily as he serves up to seven or eight courts across a clinic. Allan feels that expectations have changed in the private members club industry over the past 30 years, both for the staff and the membership. Membership wants more, whether it’s in regard to the new racquet sports like pickleball and padel, or simply in terms of service levels. Transparency in dealing with professionals is key: managing your staff’s expectations, their revenues, their work, all helps in the long run through a seasonal or year-round program.

Van Nostrand may have learned his trade at elite clubs and here in the podcast shares some of his experiences at the famed Jupiter Island Club, but he came back to tennis from a position on Wall Street when Patrick McEnroe asked him to be his coach on the ATP Tour. Ten years later and after Allan asked Patrick to be his best man who ended up being on the road with the Davis Cup, Allan moved into the private members club arena and Patrick took his talents to the captaincy of the Davis Cup team and to TV commentary.