Editor’s Note: Congratulations to Colorado Tennis correspondent, Tom Fasano, who recently won first place for Best Sports Reporting in the Colorado Society of Professional Journalists Annual Awards Contest. He received his award at the Brown Palace in mid-May.

Northern Exposure
Story by Tom Fasano

Greeley's loss is Colorado Springs' gain when it comes to tennis guru Tom Van De Hey.
When Van De Hey, 55, started his new job as head tennis pro at the Garden of the Gods Club in Colorado Springs on May 2, he left a huge void in the Greeley tennis community. Not many people thought Van De Hey would last 16 years in Greeley, but Van De Hey can laugh now about the talk surrounding his hire at Work Out West Fitness and Tennis Club back in 1988.
"When I came here I met with (Greeley resident) Rick Wallace and during the course of our meeting Rick divulged to me that they were taking bets on how long I'd last because there had been a perpetual turnover of tennis pros here," said Van De Hey, who was the manager and director of tennis at Work Out West in Greeley.
Sixteen years later, Van De Hey is excited about building new relationships two hours down Interstate 25 in Colorado Springs. Two weeks after starting his new position, Van De Hey was at Pueblo City Park watching the Greeley girls he used to give lessons to compete in the Class 4A Girls Tennis State Tournament. He had a smile on his face that screamed out happiness.
"I am absolutely thrilled. I've got about 27 hours of lessons," a revitalized Van De Hey said about his new job. "I'm just very, very pleased. The first two weeks have been just almost heaven for me. It's a spectacular location. It's one of the most beautiful settings I've ever seen."
Van De Hey's tennis students are living proof that tennis is truly a lifetime sport.
"I'm working with 6-year-olds who are absolutely delightful," said Van De Hey, a Wisconsin native who came to Colorado in 1978. "I have an 89-year-old by the name of Butch Gregory. Her real name is Doris, and her husband did not like the name Doris so he named her Butch. I give her a 30-minute lesson once a week. She's just absolutely a peach. I get a kick out of her."
Van De Hey is currently the head pro at Garden of the Gods Club, but he will become the manager and director of tennis at the same club starting Nov. 1. The year-round club has seven outdoor tennis courts and two indoor courts compared to Work Out West's four indoor courts and two outdoor courts. An 18-hole golf course (Kissing Camels), a spa and fitness center and a 108-room hotel are all tied into the tennis club, Van De Hey said.
Van De Hey's new responsibilities include giving private and group lessons, taking over the junior program, operating the tennis shop, coordinating all the league play and handling racquet stringing for the members and guests.
"The biggest change for me is instead of managing the facility, being responsible for all the staffing and the operation of the facility, I will be responsible for teaching tennis and running a pro shop," said Van De Hey, who has been a teaching tennis pro since 1974.
Teaching more tennis is what excites Van De Hey about his new job. Van De Hey won't have to load pop machines, sweep tennis courts or vacuum swimming pools anymore like he did at Work Out West, in addition to his tennis duties.
"I started in this business teaching tennis and enjoying tennis with people," Van De Hey said. "The change for me is going back to the fun side of the business, spending time on the court with people and enjoying the sport with people without all the headaches."
Greeley West High School girls tennis coach Kathy Elliott did not want to see Van De Hey leave Greeley.
"I've talked to quite a few people and we're just sicker than sick. He's meant so much to our tennis community, and there is no way you can replace that," said Elliott, who worked under Van De Hey as a tennis pro at Work Out West. "He runs the best show you can possibly find anywhere, and there is nobody who can fill his shoes."
Leaving Greeley was difficult for Van De Hey and his wife, Sandee.
"I never wanted to leave Colorado. I spent the last 25 years developing relationships with people here in Colorado up and down the Front Range. Not having to give up those associations is very important to me," said Van De Hey, who also is heavily involved in the United States Tennis Association and was the Colorado Tennis Association Volunteer of the Year in 1998. "The hard part is I've developed a lot of friends here in Greeley. Over a period of 16 years with the cooperation and partnership of a lot of people in this community, we've done some very good things in terms of developing opportunities for tennis players."
Elliott said Van De Hey always has patience with those he deals with.
"Through it all, you never saw him be impatient with anybody. He's just such a down-to-earth guy," Elliott said. "I just cry because he's leaving. What a great loss."
Van De Hey helped Rosemary Fri and Alice Smith prepare every year for Greeley's premier tennis event, the Greeley Tennis Championships. Fri, the University of Northern Colorado women's tennis coach and an inductee into the Colorado Tennis Hall of Fame, said they always counted on Van De Hey to get things done.
"He's done so much for tennis. We're really going to miss him," Fri said. "He's a heck of a worker. He's so committed in what he's doing in helping people."
Smith is sad to see Van De Hey go.
"He was the type of guy who became a friend, and he has a lot of good qualities," Smith said. "He ran a good ship, and he had a real interest in the tennis program. He really organized tennis and made Work Out West the kind of a tennis center where everybody can go if they have questions about anything."
Smith said the Greeley tennis community wasn't in the best of shape before Van De Hey arrived in 1988.
"There was a while there where it seemed like our program was going to die out, and he stepped in and got some of the people in the tennis community to get going and not let it die," Smith said.
John Haefeli of Greeley said when Van De Hey arrived in Greeley there were as many as six different tennis entities.
"When he arrived his first major goal was to try to get all of those entities as one. I think that overall he did a very good job," Haefeli said. "You saw the Hensel Phelps Junior Open occur. You saw the coaches camps occur."
Van De Hey said he saw a tremendous amount of cooperation and partnerships between people occur during his time in Greeley.
"You get into some communities and the indoor club does their thing and they don't interact with the city and they don't interact with the country club," Van De Hey said. "I think the thing I'm most pleased with was we had shared goals which was to provide more tennis opportunities. We've created a tennis network here where everyone works together, and everyone looks favorably on the other person's event."
Haefeli said Van De Hey did a good job of bringing the Greeley schools together.
"The way I would view him is he's a unifying force, and it didn't matter if it was with youth or with adults," said Haefeli, an assistant boys tennis coach at Greeley West. "He's not only respected in Greeley or northern Colorado, he's respected all over the state of Colorado."
Work Out West co-owner Darrell Call, who has owned the club along with Jeff O'Connell for the last three years, said it's been a wonderful 16 years for the club with Van De Hey in control.
"We've grown to really appreciate Tom and everything he's done for Greeley, the tennis community and for Work Out West," Call said. "He really is going to be missed."
Van De Hey left for his new job knowing that tennis is strong in Greeley and throughout northern Colorado. He said Greeley has six 2.5 women's teams, where other parts of the state are struggling to get 2.5 teams put together for league play.
"I think the health of tennis is very, very strong. I think we have good high school programs, and good people in the high schools coaching," Van De Hey said of tennis in Greeley. "We've excited a lot of people in their 30s who have kids. We're seeing the benefit of having not only the kids involved, but we're seeing parents involved. It's a new generation of people that grew up not playing tennis. I think the future here is very healthy."