Serving Up Success

Alumna and Former Eagles Tennis Coach Amy O’Connell Leads USTA Atlanta

As executive director of the United States Tennis Association (USTA) Atlanta, Amy Bartlett O’Connell (’03,’11), oversees the largest adult and junior tennis programs in the country. It’s her job to develop and promote the growth of tennis in metro Atlanta, and there’s nothing she enjoys more.?

“I’ve always loved introducing the sport to other people,” said O’Connell. “It’s given me so much. I was able to get my education and have lifelong friendships with my college teammates and coaches and the athletic department. It’s given me so many life skills and relationships that I love introducing people to the sport. If they can get just a fraction of that, it will change their life.”

O’Connell’s own trajectory changed when she transferred to Georgia Southern University in 2000 as a sophomore after leaving an out-of-state university as a collegiate tennis player on a full ride. From Cobb County, she longed to be back in Georgia and visited the Statesboro Campus where many of her friends attended. The University was an immediate fit.

“I fell in love with the campus,” she remembered. “They had what I was looking for academically and athletically, and they had a spot open.”?

It was, in fact, meetings with Georgia Southern’s former head women’s tennis coach Cathy Beene and former athletic director Sam Baker that sealed her fate.?

“They were just amazing people,” she said. “I have a lot of respect for them and what all they’ve accomplished at Georgia Southern and elsewhere. And the feel of the team is why I transferred to Georgia Southern my sophomore year. I then played for three years and had a fantastic experience as a student-athlete. I can’t say enough great things about my time there and all the things I was able to accomplish, thankfully, with our athletic department and my sport management major.”?

In the sport management program, which is one of the oldest in the United States, O’Connell earned foundational knowledge in management, marketing, finance, law, policy development and event management, along with substantive training in athletic administration, revenue generation and sport development. Outside of her studies, she interned with the Southern Boosters, fundraising and planning events for Georgia Southern’s baseball team.??

“That work provided that love of athletics and working in sports, the sports industry and sports business,” O’Connell said. “It was a great fit for me. Anytime I wasn’t on the court and wasn’t in class, I was working on different projects and it was a great experience. I was very involved in our sport management club and network and everything I could do with that group. That created an interest in me early on to think I wanted a career in sports.”

O’Connell’s education on the tennis court was equally as important and would prove to be key to her prolific career.

“Cathy entrusted me with a lot of captain-leader type roles,” said O’Connell. “I watched everything she did. I would pay close attention to see what worked and what didn’t. She and Sam included me in a lot of decisions on things that would happen when we were on the road, or how the schedule was built, or how we balanced how our money was spent.”?

Their mentorship would become vital in ways she couldn’t have imagined so early on.?

Just out of college, O’Connell accepted a position as a tennis professional at The Landings Golf and Athletic Club in Savannah, Georgia. A year into the job, she received an unexpected phone call from Beene, who was by then Georgia Southern’s assistant athletic director, and Baker.? Georgia Southern’s women’s head tennis coach position was open, and they presented her with an offer she couldn’t refuse.

“They asked, ‘Are you interested in this position?,” O’Connell recalled. “And I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, that’s a dream come true.’ So I ended up interviewing and getting the head coaching job when I was 23.

“I don’t know what they were thinking,” she joked. “I couldn’t even drive a rental car so we had to get a special insurance policy to drive the team van. It was really funny being that young. And there was still a little bit of crossover of girls on the team who were my teammates. They handled it well.”??

Returning to the Hanner Tennis Complex (now Wallis Tennis Center) as the head coach, she leaned into what she’d learned from Beene and Baker during her time as a student-athlete. At that time, only four full women’s tennis scholarships were available. There were a lot of strong players throughout the state, she said, and specifically in Atlanta where O’Connell used her hometown connections with tennis academies and pros to recruit.?

This role with USTA has allowed me to promote the sport to the city I grew up in, and it’s such a blessing. This is a perfect fit.— Amy O’Connell (’03, ’11)

“I knew that I had to be so smart with every dollar that we spent,” she said. “That’s why I was very smart about how I recruited, trying to get Georgia players and using my pipeline from Atlanta to come to Georgia Southern. But that’s honestly helped me my entire career of learning how to make the most of things and be smart with how we spend our money and spend it on the true purpose, which is tennis, you know?

“Tennis players are strong students and could get the HOPE Scholarship most of the time. I was able to make it work with quality athletes and we had great years of finishing right in the middle of the pack. And I had some players that were All-Conference. It was a fun job.”

While at the helm of Georgia Southern’s women’s tennis for 10 years, O’Connell became a mother of two children and took advantage of the University’s Tuition Assistance Program to earn a Master of Science in Kinesiology with an emphasis in coaching.

Juggling coaching and parenting roles as she earned another degree wasn’t easy, but she took great care to share the full view of her life with her children so they could know what is possible.

“Even at that early age, I wanted them to be proud of what I’ve done in my career and know they can accomplish anything they set their mind to,” she said. “I want them to see that they can have it all. They can have the education, they can work and they can have a family and be able to balance it. That was important for them to see. I try to include them even now in my role at USTA Atlanta.”

O’Connell returned to Atlanta in 2014 to serve as president of the Chattahoochee Foundation and director of marketing and corporate sponsorships. In a full-circle moment, she then became director of a Cobb County tennis facility, the same role that her mother held when O’Connell was growing up. A pivotal stepping stone in her career, she learned innumerable lessons about public parks and how critical they are to the infrastructure of the USTA and to tennis in general, because that’s where most people first pick up a racquet to play, she noted.

For the last five years, O’Connell has been stationed in USTA Atlanta’s office in Peachtree Corners, which serves more than 40,000 members in the adult league, 6,000 in the kids league and roughly 5,000 in various social leagues.?

“This role with USTA has allowed me to promote the sport to the city I grew up in, and it’s such a blessing,” said O’Connell. “This is a perfect fit.”

Her mission is to provide unequivocal access to the sport throughout the greater Atlanta area.

“It doesn’t matter their skill level or where they come from,” she said. “We want it for everybody. And that’s so important for me. You would think I would probably create programs for the high-level, college-bound student-athletes, but that’s not it. We have adaptive programs for people with special needs. We have things for juniors up to 100 years old. We try to offer everything in every area of Atlanta, no matter if it’s at a public park or a country club. It’s been very important to me to cover every segment of our population here.”?

O’Connell is still connected to Georgia Southern and was thrilled to cheer for the team in person in Atlanta at the 2021 NCAA D Division I Women’s Tennis Championship, and in spirit at this year’s quarterfinals in Rome, Georgia, as the team is now top-seeded in the Sun Belt Conference under the direction of head coach Sean McCaffrey.?

“It’s amazing to see just how much the program has progressed,” she said. “Moving into the Sun Belt, the amount of scholarships, the level of play. It’s amazing to see the resources they have and what they’re able to accomplish. It’s really blown me away.”

Perched in the stands to support Georgia Southern’s newest roster of talent, the view offers a great vantage point.

“Sam Baker, Cathy Beene and my overall experience at Georgia Southern as a student-athlete and coach impacted my life both professionally and personally,” O’Connell said. “I am so thankful for people like Sam and Cathy who gave me an opportunity and took a chance on me.” — Melanie Simón