October 3, 2025 • 21 mins
All college coaches must listen to this. In a period of uncertainty for non revenue sports, listen to Chase Hodges, Senior Vice president at UTR Sports, and see how easy it is to work with us to generate revenue for your program. It is simple, we are creative and it is so important!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
Ladies and gentlemen, this is this is a very important guest
today because quite frankly, I am not doing what I'm doing
today and I'm not in the country, this great country if
it is not for Chase Hodges. Chase, I appreciate your time.
(00:23):
It's great to work with you on adaily basis.
How are we doing today? I am doing phenomenal, James.
I couldn't ask for a better introduction.
I mean, really, of all the list of accomplishments that I've had
#1 has got to be getting you in the United States.
So the fact that you're still here, thrilled and obviously
(00:45):
thrilled to have you at UTR Sports.
You're doing incredible things. Well, I appreciate that.
Yeah, it's, it's actually, yes, I am doing this podcast because
at UTR we work with many great people, many great players have
played UTR, but also, and more importantly, the reason why is
(01:05):
to is to have conversations withgreat people and, and, and talk
about the past and talk about the future.
And one thing that's actually quite incredible here is I still
have the e-mail from Chase Hodges on Thursday the 25th of
June. And hopefully my dad listens to
this one because he was very stressed out at the time.
(01:28):
Thursday 25th of June 2009 at 3:19 in the morning in in UK.
And you said, you said to me, James, Congrats on your
admission to Drake University sent from my Verizon Wireless
BlackBerry. Isn't that cool?
(01:49):
That is awesome. I did.
Blackberries were great back in 2009.
I can tell you that. And getting you admitted was
was, you know, made it happen, made it happen.
Bottom line is made it happen got you admitted to Drake and
you know, you look at what you accomplished at Drake is utterly
(02:11):
incredible. You know, 68 in the country and
singles got up to 16 in the country and double s as an as a
player. So had a remarkable career at
Drake and obviously kept that winning tradition alive at the
time. And you know, I think that you
know, you coming, you know, fromScotland and, and being in a in
(02:32):
a position where you can make itan immediate impact was what we
were always looking for from a recruiting basis is trying to
find players that could come in immediately as freshmen and make
that impact. You obviously were were able to
do that. So kudos to you and obviously
got love for got a lot of love for Drake University.
I see you're rocking the shirt. I'm sure you had a a remarkable
(02:55):
experience there in Des Moines, IA as as did I.
So I'll bet you still have that.That's awesome.
Well, I appreciate that. Well, in all seriousness, you
know, you, you, you meet great people throughout the way.
And the last thing I'm going to bring up about Drake is another
fantastic thing here is I still have the Mauricio shirt in the
(03:19):
background here. If you if you don't know or
remember, his name was Mauricio Bolivian.
He was my mentor in college. He honestly, I came to the USI
had no clue what I was doing, noclue about school.
And he put his arm around me andhe looked after me and he was
(03:41):
the ultimate competitor, an unbelievable guy.
And I keep him with me. And that's why I have that.
That's why I have this frame. And just so everyone can can see
or hear what's on it, He's he always said never give up, just
try one more time. So Chase, I don't actually know
(04:01):
if you recruited Mauricio or not.
But I. Did story there.
Yeah, I recruited Mauricio. He played for me, was an
incredible player from Bolivia, but more importantly was an
incredible person. We we lost Mauricio to a better
place about 10 years ago now andcertainly miss him every day.
(04:21):
And, you know, he was an inspiration for a a lot of
people in this world. And you know that that's pretty
special that you have that doesn't surprise me at all that
that he was sort of a Big Brother for you.
He was a phenomenal mentor to a lot of players and he certainly
loved Drake University and the Bulldogs.
(04:44):
Anyway, Chase Hodges is the senior Vice President at UTR
Sports Chase. For those that don't know, he
was actually a 15 time national champion in the NAI for Georgia
Gwinnett College. His record, just just everyone
(05:05):
listened to the record. His record was 377 and 22.
That's a lot of wins and that's very few losses.
I don't care what level or what sport.
To win that much and lose that little is just shows
competitiveness, right? And also shows character.
(05:25):
But anyway, moving on Chase, you've left the coaching world
three years ago. You're now with UTR Sports, as
am I. How are things going?
Tell us a little bit about your your role at UTR.
Yeah. So you know, James, obviously
being a college coach for 25 years and stepping away in 2022,
(05:48):
which is really a little over three years ago and and jumping
on with UTR sports personally, it's been an incredible
decision, great decision in in my opinion.
I, I certainly loved college coaching, as I'm sure you did as
well. And the transition at first was
(06:08):
a little difficult, but now it'sjust feels like this is what I,
I should be doing every day at UTR Sports.
And you know, Kelly Parise, I remember meeting with her prior
to jumping on board with UTR Sports and having known our CEO
Mark Leslie for, for quite some time, you know, it was just an
(06:29):
incredible opportunity that I just needed, needed to pursue.
And at this moment, James, yes, I'm senior vice president, I
oversee the college segment of the company, the high school
segment, flex leagues, pickleball and the international
and domestic clubs of the business.
So lot on the plate, but every day is incredible, lot of fun
(06:54):
and really just trying to transform the the pickleball in
tennis space. Every day is what we do, as you
know, and it's a thrill to work for such a phenomenal company.
As a former coach, one thing that frustrates me now, not
frustrates me, but I wish I had known, is how to actually grow
(07:14):
revenue for the program. I need everyone or any college
coach out there to listen to this very brief explanation and
I I think it probably is going to help you.
But Chase, for all the coaches out there, can you please
explain to them how easy it is to work with UTR Sports and
(07:38):
allow their program to generate revenue and make money?
Yeah. Well, it's a great question and
it's, it's something, James, where we've seen coaches across
the United States make millions of dollars in revenue for
themselves, for their program, etcetera.
And it's as simple as really twothings.
(08:01):
One, Chase dot Hodges at UTR Sports, get my e-mail out,
message me, we can have a conversation.
We can get you in the weeds a little bit more in terms of how
to do this. But #2 really all you need is a
UTR college coach encryption, which most college coaches have
with that subscription. What that does is it allows you
to run events right off your digital club page on your
(08:24):
college campus. In terms of what events you can
run, we have various coaches that are just simply using the
software running events on theiron their campus.
Whether they're junior events, high level events, high school
events, you know, colour ball events, whatever it may be, you
(08:44):
can get up off the ground and start running those events
immediately. We also have a college circuit
program where we have hundreds of these college circuit events
that are taking place all over the United States UTR through a
tier prize money approach. We supply the prize money, we
assist with marketing those events and essentially the coach
(09:05):
just has to lock in the dates and and be ready to to run an
event, their home facility. The camp aspect is another area
where coaches can make great revenue for their programs.
UTR camps reach out to us. We got a extremely competitive
pricing structure to allow coaches to simply run their
camps. We will furnish all the the
(09:26):
players and staff with gear for those and we also will market
those camps. So there's a plethora of things
that we can do in the space to help coaches make money.
And really I think that the a lot of coaches that are taking
advantage of the platform right now, you know, pretty much
James, they're saying, I wish I would have done this earlier.
(09:48):
So you know. You know, reach out to us.
We will help you along the way. The beautiful part of this is I
have a phenomenal college team. We have Sandy Franz, our new
director of of our college at UTR.
We have, we have Will Carroll, Regina Escandola, Jim Boder, We
have a full group in our collegedivision that's going to help
(10:10):
you every step of the way to make sure you get the support
that you need to get those events off the ground.
You know, if you actually think about this, right, every year in
the fall, you go into your administrator's office as a
coach and you sit down and you go over your budget for the
following fiscal year. If you actually think about
(10:31):
this, if programs use and work with UTR, how they could be, am
I right in saying you actually don't really need to request a
budget? Obviously you're going to ask
for a budget, but if you use us the right way, you you actually
don't. Correct.
I mean, you can essentially write your own budget, to be
(10:54):
totally honest with you. I mean, you look at what some of
these coaches are doing across the country.
Give a shout out to Derek Racineat University of West Florida
down in Pensacola. I mean, James, he's running
pickleball tournaments every Friday night.
You know, he's founded, found a way to really leverage the
platform and put himself in a position to be successful.
But you're right, I mean, in terms of giving you and your
(11:16):
program opportunities and the ability to, maybe you want to
take that extra crib, maybe you want to put yourself in a
position where you want to get those players a higher match
count. And for me, when I was a coach,
one of the benefits that I felt from a, from a UTR perspective
as a college coach was just trying to increase that match
count as much as humanly possible and do it on your home
(11:37):
courts. As you know, Jane's travel is
good for teams in terms of building a bonding experience.
But at the end of the day, if you can deliver a high match
match count on your own campus, then you put yourself in a
position where you know, you're giving yourself a bit of an edge
there. So you know, whether you're
using it from that perspective or you're just looking at it
from a community engagement standpoint, you know, every
(12:00):
college tennis facility throughout the country has a
community that really wants to support, but you have to go into
that community and find ways to bring them in.
And UTR allows you to do that. So reach out to
mechase.hybridsutrsports.com andI'll, you know, get with you and
and build a strategy to to really help the program.
(12:21):
Tell us a little bit about the future here.
What's coming up with UTR and and how are we?
How are you helping college tennis?
Yeah, so you know, every day that's what we wake up and and
say is, is how can we help college tennis.
And you know, one of the things that we have coming up October
31st and November 2nd in beautiful Rome, GA, if you
(12:44):
haven't been to the Rome Tennis Center, you need to check it
out. It's one of the best facilities
in the country. We're going to be putting on UTR
Tennis Fest and what that's going to be is it's going to be
4 events going on at one time. We will have our our Flex League
national championships going on.We'll also be doing our first
ever college tennis showcase. We have college coaches coming
(13:06):
down to to really recruit and scout the talent.
For those that aren't aware of showcase allows players to get
on the radar, college coaches. During that showcase.
We're going to have UTR verifiedmap play for coaching to see
these players compete. We're going to have some Q&A
sessions with coaches. We're going to have pretty much
the the full throttle. You know, if you're a parent,
(13:27):
you need to be at this because you're going to learn everything
about what I need to do right now to put my son or daughter in
a position where they can play college tennis.
And then the other two events that we're going to have is
we're going to have the NJCAA, which is the Junior College
Athletic Association. We're going to have their
national individual championships going on at the
same time. And then to top it all off as
well, we're going to have the NAIA National Singles
(13:49):
Championships going on 4 events.UTR owns and operates all four
of these one location and this is something that we're
extremely excited about. In addition, looking into the
spring of 202026, we have 4 events that we're really excited
about. It's going to kick off in in
March with our BNPUTR CollegiateChampionships, which is going to
(14:12):
feature 4 incredible programs inthe United States vying for that
that championship. In addition, we're going to be
heading into our fourth ever NITNational Championships.
This is something that we've been doing and and piloted in in
2022 and really excited for this.
It's going to be an opportunity for teams that don't make the
(14:35):
NCAA Division One Championships to compete for a national
championship. We'll do that first class.
In addition, we'll have the UTR National Junior College Athletic
Associate Association National Championships that's in May and
then we'll have the NAIA National Team Championships
presented by UTR Sports as well.So doing everything we can to
(14:56):
help elevate this sport and and take it to the next level.
And you know, if, if you're a coach and you have an idea, a
creative, innovative idea, reachout, let me know and our team
will see what we can do to to build something special.
I. Tell you what, I'll be honest
with you. I have worked for UTR for a year
and when you list everything offthere about what you're doing,
(15:21):
I, I, I don't know about people listening, but that is just
incredible. I got a little.
More I got one more to miss. Oh, we've.
Missed one here, let's go. So during the BMPII like to call
this the Heisman of college tennis, the Heisman award.
And if you don't want to know what the Heisman award of
college tennis is, that is the Herd award.
So we do the Herd Awards, which is $100,000 to a female USA
(15:44):
player, 100,000 to a a male American player.
This is really earmarked for players that want to play
professional tennis and that's something that our UTR Sports
Foundation does. And this is something that
obviously we're really excited about.
We've had some incredible winners as you know, James, in
(16:05):
the past. And that's something that in the
past that we've really announcedthat at B&P.
So didn't want that one to go unnoticed, James.
I'll say briefly, if you're not working with UTR, you're missing
out. We want to hear from you.
Our, our phones are on, our emails are, are getting looked
(16:26):
at every day and we want to workwith you.
We want to step in and we want to help.
So that's just incredible. I'm not just saying that
obviously because I work for UTR, but I actually didn't even
know that. I didn't know how much was
coming up here. So I appreciate you advising not
only me, but also and. And I think also one thing I'd
(16:47):
like to mention that we're we'rereally excited about and is our
UTR collegiate rankings. And, and this is something that
it gets released every Wednesday.
Our first ranking will be released February 18th, 2026 for
the collegiate team rankings. And that's something we're
really excited about that actually determines the NIT
(17:08):
selection. And it's an opportunity for
coaches across the country to really gauge.
I know that James, you're very active in, in terms of
displaying that Power 6 to see where you rank against the
fellow teams and. Something.
Yeah, absolutely. This is something that we did
last year and we're going to continue to do.
(17:28):
So. College tennis fans, if you're
listening, be on the lookout forthose UTR college rankings.
Super excited about those. Well, look, that's enough talk
about UTR. Two more questions for you,
Chase. Stewart who?
Finishes higher in the end of year college football rankings
(17:48):
Tennessee or Georgia. That's an easy one.
I mean, Georgia's already got the direct win.
Got to go with the dogs there. But you know, we shall see.
There's a lot of football left to be played and the SEC as you
know, anything can happen from top to bottom.
So be interesting to see what happens.
(18:09):
I mean, I think the bigger question is how many SEC teams
in general will will make the College Football Playoff?
Will that be four teams, three teams?
Who knows? So we shall see.
Obviously there's a lot of otherPower 4 conferences that you
know, Ohio State, etcetera, thatyou know, have something to say
about that so. Were you out in the Georgia
Alabama game? I was not.
(18:30):
I was not. I missed that one, but obviously
Alabama tends to have their number, right?
You know, it's almost like Georgia having Tennessee's
number. You know, it's very comparable.
Alabama tends to step up to a new level every year when they
play Georgia. So last, last.
Thing here, you know, you and I,both former coaches, stepped
(18:54):
away pursuing something else. Look, I mean, I don't know if I
should ask this or not, but the reason why I'm doing this is to
have real conversations. And my question to you is what
what advice do you give to coaches out there?
You know, once you've been a coach and you and you even think
about the outside being out of coaching, it's it's scary
(19:17):
because you don't know what it looks like.
What advice would you give to assistance to associates power
for mid major? Is there anything that you can
share based on your experience? Yeah, I.
Mean, I think that number one is, you know, you got to be
passionate about what you do. You know, I know that you and I
are passionate about what we're doing here at UTR sports.
We're passionate as coaches. But you know, if you can wake up
(19:40):
every day and, and be passionateabout what you do, then there's
no, no telling what you can accomplish.
And you know, I think that if ifyou're a college coach who's out
there and you're struggling a bit and maybe you've lost that,
that passion for the sport or it's something that you're
trying to regain or, or whateverit may be, depending on where
you are in your career, you essentially have to have that in
(20:01):
terms of. Being able to deliver and
obviously, you know, for mental well-being and, and just overall
happiness in life. So, you know, if, if you're
struggling to find that, you know, go back to when you had
it, you know what, what was different at that time?
How can you get back to that point?
And, you know, even even with coaches that have gotten out of
(20:21):
college coaching and they're, you know, in the business world
or, or what have you, you know, I personally think that the
skill set that you need as a college coach can apply to any
area of business or any area in the career in in.
So, you know, I think that, you know, don't sell yourself short
in that regard. College coaches are the
(20:43):
different breed and you know, they're passionate individuals,
they're competitive individuals,But at the end of the day, you
know, your skill set is you can pretty much accomplish anything.
So believe in yourself and continue to be passionate.
You do those two things, Sky's the limit.
Well, I don't know if you're going to get much better advice
than that, but appreciate that Chase.
(21:04):
My, my, my thing just to add on is, look, you win some, you lose
some, but if you're doing thingsthe right way and, and you truly
love the people that are around you and you love coaching your,
your student athletes, I think that's all you can do.
Work hard, Don't get too highs, don't get too high on the wins
and don't get too low on the losses.
(21:25):
It's a difficult time for non revenue sports.
But from a tennis perspective and from a college tennis
perspective, we're here to help UTR us.
We we want to help you. Please listen and hear that and
from my voice, we really want tohelp.
Please reach out Chase. We appreciate your time.
Thank you very much. All the best.
(21:46):
I'll see you shortly on another meeting, but it's it's great to
catch up. Thanks for having me on James.
I appreciate it.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is this is a very important guest
today because quite frankly, I am not doing what I'm doing
today and I'm not in the country, this great country if
it is not for Chase Hodges. Chase, I appreciate your time.
(00:23):
It's great to work with you on adaily basis.
How are we doing today? I am doing phenomenal, James.
I couldn't ask for a better introduction.
I mean, really, of all the list of accomplishments that I've had
#1 has got to be getting you in the United States.
So the fact that you're still here, thrilled and obviously
(00:45):
thrilled to have you at UTR Sports.
You're doing incredible things. Well, I appreciate that.
Yeah, it's, it's actually, yes, I am doing this podcast because
at UTR we work with many great people, many great players have
played UTR, but also, and more importantly, the reason why is
(01:05):
to is to have conversations withgreat people and, and, and talk
about the past and talk about the future.
And one thing that's actually quite incredible here is I still
have the e-mail from Chase Hodges on Thursday the 25th of
June. And hopefully my dad listens to
this one because he was very stressed out at the time.
(01:28):
Thursday 25th of June 2009 at 3:19 in the morning in in UK.
And you said, you said to me, James, Congrats on your
admission to Drake University sent from my Verizon Wireless
BlackBerry. Isn't that cool?
(01:49):
That is awesome. I did.
Blackberries were great back in 2009.
I can tell you that. And getting you admitted was
was, you know, made it happen, made it happen.
Bottom line is made it happen got you admitted to Drake and
you know, you look at what you accomplished at Drake is utterly
(02:11):
incredible. You know, 68 in the country and
singles got up to 16 in the country and double s as an as a
player. So had a remarkable career at
Drake and obviously kept that winning tradition alive at the
time. And you know, I think that you
know, you coming, you know, fromScotland and, and being in a in
(02:32):
a position where you can make itan immediate impact was what we
were always looking for from a recruiting basis is trying to
find players that could come in immediately as freshmen and make
that impact. You obviously were were able to
do that. So kudos to you and obviously
got love for got a lot of love for Drake University.
I see you're rocking the shirt. I'm sure you had a a remarkable
(02:55):
experience there in Des Moines, IA as as did I.
So I'll bet you still have that.That's awesome.
Well, I appreciate that. Well, in all seriousness, you
know, you, you, you meet great people throughout the way.
And the last thing I'm going to bring up about Drake is another
fantastic thing here is I still have the Mauricio shirt in the
(03:19):
background here. If you if you don't know or
remember, his name was Mauricio Bolivian.
He was my mentor in college. He honestly, I came to the USI
had no clue what I was doing, noclue about school.
And he put his arm around me andhe looked after me and he was
(03:41):
the ultimate competitor, an unbelievable guy.
And I keep him with me. And that's why I have that.
That's why I have this frame. And just so everyone can can see
or hear what's on it, He's he always said never give up, just
try one more time. So Chase, I don't actually know
(04:01):
if you recruited Mauricio or not.
But I. Did story there.
Yeah, I recruited Mauricio. He played for me, was an
incredible player from Bolivia, but more importantly was an
incredible person. We we lost Mauricio to a better
place about 10 years ago now andcertainly miss him every day.
(04:21):
And, you know, he was an inspiration for a a lot of
people in this world. And you know that that's pretty
special that you have that doesn't surprise me at all that
that he was sort of a Big Brother for you.
He was a phenomenal mentor to a lot of players and he certainly
loved Drake University and the Bulldogs.
(04:44):
Anyway, Chase Hodges is the senior Vice President at UTR
Sports Chase. For those that don't know, he
was actually a 15 time national champion in the NAI for Georgia
Gwinnett College. His record, just just everyone
(05:05):
listened to the record. His record was 377 and 22.
That's a lot of wins and that's very few losses.
I don't care what level or what sport.
To win that much and lose that little is just shows
competitiveness, right? And also shows character.
(05:25):
But anyway, moving on Chase, you've left the coaching world
three years ago. You're now with UTR Sports, as
am I. How are things going?
Tell us a little bit about your your role at UTR.
Yeah. So you know, James, obviously
being a college coach for 25 years and stepping away in 2022,
(05:48):
which is really a little over three years ago and and jumping
on with UTR sports personally, it's been an incredible
decision, great decision in in my opinion.
I, I certainly loved college coaching, as I'm sure you did as
well. And the transition at first was
(06:08):
a little difficult, but now it'sjust feels like this is what I,
I should be doing every day at UTR Sports.
And you know, Kelly Parise, I remember meeting with her prior
to jumping on board with UTR Sports and having known our CEO
Mark Leslie for, for quite some time, you know, it was just an
(06:29):
incredible opportunity that I just needed, needed to pursue.
And at this moment, James, yes, I'm senior vice president, I
oversee the college segment of the company, the high school
segment, flex leagues, pickleball and the international
and domestic clubs of the business.
So lot on the plate, but every day is incredible, lot of fun
(06:54):
and really just trying to transform the the pickleball in
tennis space. Every day is what we do, as you
know, and it's a thrill to work for such a phenomenal company.
As a former coach, one thing that frustrates me now, not
frustrates me, but I wish I had known, is how to actually grow
(07:14):
revenue for the program. I need everyone or any college
coach out there to listen to this very brief explanation and
I I think it probably is going to help you.
But Chase, for all the coaches out there, can you please
explain to them how easy it is to work with UTR Sports and
(07:38):
allow their program to generate revenue and make money?
Yeah. Well, it's a great question and
it's, it's something, James, where we've seen coaches across
the United States make millions of dollars in revenue for
themselves, for their program, etcetera.
And it's as simple as really twothings.
(08:01):
One, Chase dot Hodges at UTR Sports, get my e-mail out,
message me, we can have a conversation.
We can get you in the weeds a little bit more in terms of how
to do this. But #2 really all you need is a
UTR college coach encryption, which most college coaches have
with that subscription. What that does is it allows you
to run events right off your digital club page on your
(08:24):
college campus. In terms of what events you can
run, we have various coaches that are just simply using the
software running events on theiron their campus.
Whether they're junior events, high level events, high school
events, you know, colour ball events, whatever it may be, you
(08:44):
can get up off the ground and start running those events
immediately. We also have a college circuit
program where we have hundreds of these college circuit events
that are taking place all over the United States UTR through a
tier prize money approach. We supply the prize money, we
assist with marketing those events and essentially the coach
(09:05):
just has to lock in the dates and and be ready to to run an
event, their home facility. The camp aspect is another area
where coaches can make great revenue for their programs.
UTR camps reach out to us. We got a extremely competitive
pricing structure to allow coaches to simply run their
camps. We will furnish all the the
(09:26):
players and staff with gear for those and we also will market
those camps. So there's a plethora of things
that we can do in the space to help coaches make money.
And really I think that the a lot of coaches that are taking
advantage of the platform right now, you know, pretty much
James, they're saying, I wish I would have done this earlier.
(09:48):
So you know. You know, reach out to us.
We will help you along the way. The beautiful part of this is I
have a phenomenal college team. We have Sandy Franz, our new
director of of our college at UTR.
We have, we have Will Carroll, Regina Escandola, Jim Boder, We
have a full group in our collegedivision that's going to help
(10:10):
you every step of the way to make sure you get the support
that you need to get those events off the ground.
You know, if you actually think about this, right, every year in
the fall, you go into your administrator's office as a
coach and you sit down and you go over your budget for the
following fiscal year. If you actually think about
(10:31):
this, if programs use and work with UTR, how they could be, am
I right in saying you actually don't really need to request a
budget? Obviously you're going to ask
for a budget, but if you use us the right way, you you actually
don't. Correct.
I mean, you can essentially write your own budget, to be
(10:54):
totally honest with you. I mean, you look at what some of
these coaches are doing across the country.
Give a shout out to Derek Racineat University of West Florida
down in Pensacola. I mean, James, he's running
pickleball tournaments every Friday night.
You know, he's founded, found a way to really leverage the
platform and put himself in a position to be successful.
But you're right, I mean, in terms of giving you and your
(11:16):
program opportunities and the ability to, maybe you want to
take that extra crib, maybe you want to put yourself in a
position where you want to get those players a higher match
count. And for me, when I was a coach,
one of the benefits that I felt from a, from a UTR perspective
as a college coach was just trying to increase that match
count as much as humanly possible and do it on your home
(11:37):
courts. As you know, Jane's travel is
good for teams in terms of building a bonding experience.
But at the end of the day, if you can deliver a high match
match count on your own campus, then you put yourself in a
position where you know, you're giving yourself a bit of an edge
there. So you know, whether you're
using it from that perspective or you're just looking at it
from a community engagement standpoint, you know, every
(12:00):
college tennis facility throughout the country has a
community that really wants to support, but you have to go into
that community and find ways to bring them in.
And UTR allows you to do that. So reach out to
mechase.hybridsutrsports.com andI'll, you know, get with you and
and build a strategy to to really help the program.
(12:21):
Tell us a little bit about the future here.
What's coming up with UTR and and how are we?
How are you helping college tennis?
Yeah, so you know, every day that's what we wake up and and
say is, is how can we help college tennis.
And you know, one of the things that we have coming up October
31st and November 2nd in beautiful Rome, GA, if you
(12:44):
haven't been to the Rome Tennis Center, you need to check it
out. It's one of the best facilities
in the country. We're going to be putting on UTR
Tennis Fest and what that's going to be is it's going to be
4 events going on at one time. We will have our our Flex League
national championships going on.We'll also be doing our first
ever college tennis showcase. We have college coaches coming
(13:06):
down to to really recruit and scout the talent.
For those that aren't aware of showcase allows players to get
on the radar, college coaches. During that showcase.
We're going to have UTR verifiedmap play for coaching to see
these players compete. We're going to have some Q&A
sessions with coaches. We're going to have pretty much
the the full throttle. You know, if you're a parent,
(13:27):
you need to be at this because you're going to learn everything
about what I need to do right now to put my son or daughter in
a position where they can play college tennis.
And then the other two events that we're going to have is
we're going to have the NJCAA, which is the Junior College
Athletic Association. We're going to have their
national individual championships going on at the
same time. And then to top it all off as
well, we're going to have the NAIA National Singles
(13:49):
Championships going on 4 events.UTR owns and operates all four
of these one location and this is something that we're
extremely excited about. In addition, looking into the
spring of 202026, we have 4 events that we're really excited
about. It's going to kick off in in
March with our BNPUTR CollegiateChampionships, which is going to
(14:12):
feature 4 incredible programs inthe United States vying for that
that championship. In addition, we're going to be
heading into our fourth ever NITNational Championships.
This is something that we've been doing and and piloted in in
2022 and really excited for this.
It's going to be an opportunity for teams that don't make the
(14:35):
NCAA Division One Championships to compete for a national
championship. We'll do that first class.
In addition, we'll have the UTR National Junior College Athletic
Associate Association National Championships that's in May and
then we'll have the NAIA National Team Championships
presented by UTR Sports as well.So doing everything we can to
(14:56):
help elevate this sport and and take it to the next level.
And you know, if, if you're a coach and you have an idea, a
creative, innovative idea, reachout, let me know and our team
will see what we can do to to build something special.
I. Tell you what, I'll be honest
with you. I have worked for UTR for a year
and when you list everything offthere about what you're doing,
(15:21):
I, I, I don't know about people listening, but that is just
incredible. I got a little.
More I got one more to miss. Oh, we've.
Missed one here, let's go. So during the BMPII like to call
this the Heisman of college tennis, the Heisman award.
And if you don't want to know what the Heisman award of
college tennis is, that is the Herd award.
So we do the Herd Awards, which is $100,000 to a female USA
(15:44):
player, 100,000 to a a male American player.
This is really earmarked for players that want to play
professional tennis and that's something that our UTR Sports
Foundation does. And this is something that
obviously we're really excited about.
We've had some incredible winners as you know, James, in
(16:05):
the past. And that's something that in the
past that we've really announcedthat at B&P.
So didn't want that one to go unnoticed, James.
I'll say briefly, if you're not working with UTR, you're missing
out. We want to hear from you.
Our, our phones are on, our emails are, are getting looked
(16:26):
at every day and we want to workwith you.
We want to step in and we want to help.
So that's just incredible. I'm not just saying that
obviously because I work for UTR, but I actually didn't even
know that. I didn't know how much was
coming up here. So I appreciate you advising not
only me, but also and. And I think also one thing I'd
(16:47):
like to mention that we're we'rereally excited about and is our
UTR collegiate rankings. And, and this is something that
it gets released every Wednesday.
Our first ranking will be released February 18th, 2026 for
the collegiate team rankings. And that's something we're
really excited about that actually determines the NIT
(17:08):
selection. And it's an opportunity for
coaches across the country to really gauge.
I know that James, you're very active in, in terms of
displaying that Power 6 to see where you rank against the
fellow teams and. Something.
Yeah, absolutely. This is something that we did
last year and we're going to continue to do.
(17:28):
So. College tennis fans, if you're
listening, be on the lookout forthose UTR college rankings.
Super excited about those. Well, look, that's enough talk
about UTR. Two more questions for you,
Chase. Stewart who?
Finishes higher in the end of year college football rankings
(17:48):
Tennessee or Georgia. That's an easy one.
I mean, Georgia's already got the direct win.
Got to go with the dogs there. But you know, we shall see.
There's a lot of football left to be played and the SEC as you
know, anything can happen from top to bottom.
So be interesting to see what happens.
(18:09):
I mean, I think the bigger question is how many SEC teams
in general will will make the College Football Playoff?
Will that be four teams, three teams?
Who knows? So we shall see.
Obviously there's a lot of otherPower 4 conferences that you
know, Ohio State, etcetera, thatyou know, have something to say
about that so. Were you out in the Georgia
Alabama game? I was not.
(18:30):
I was not. I missed that one, but obviously
Alabama tends to have their number, right?
You know, it's almost like Georgia having Tennessee's
number. You know, it's very comparable.
Alabama tends to step up to a new level every year when they
play Georgia. So last, last.
Thing here, you know, you and I,both former coaches, stepped
(18:54):
away pursuing something else. Look, I mean, I don't know if I
should ask this or not, but the reason why I'm doing this is to
have real conversations. And my question to you is what
what advice do you give to coaches out there?
You know, once you've been a coach and you and you even think
about the outside being out of coaching, it's it's scary
(19:17):
because you don't know what it looks like.
What advice would you give to assistance to associates power
for mid major? Is there anything that you can
share based on your experience? Yeah, I.
Mean, I think that number one is, you know, you got to be
passionate about what you do. You know, I know that you and I
are passionate about what we're doing here at UTR sports.
We're passionate as coaches. But you know, if you can wake up
(19:40):
every day and, and be passionateabout what you do, then there's
no, no telling what you can accomplish.
And you know, I think that if ifyou're a college coach who's out
there and you're struggling a bit and maybe you've lost that,
that passion for the sport or it's something that you're
trying to regain or, or whateverit may be, depending on where
you are in your career, you essentially have to have that in
(20:01):
terms of. Being able to deliver and
obviously, you know, for mental well-being and, and just overall
happiness in life. So, you know, if, if you're
struggling to find that, you know, go back to when you had
it, you know what, what was different at that time?
How can you get back to that point?
And, you know, even even with coaches that have gotten out of
(20:21):
college coaching and they're, you know, in the business world
or, or what have you, you know, I personally think that the
skill set that you need as a college coach can apply to any
area of business or any area in the career in in.
So, you know, I think that, you know, don't sell yourself short
in that regard. College coaches are the
(20:43):
different breed and you know, they're passionate individuals,
they're competitive individuals,But at the end of the day, you
know, your skill set is you can pretty much accomplish anything.
So believe in yourself and continue to be passionate.
You do those two things, Sky's the limit.
Well, I don't know if you're going to get much better advice
than that, but appreciate that Chase.
(21:04):
My, my, my thing just to add on is, look, you win some, you lose
some, but if you're doing thingsthe right way and, and you truly
love the people that are around you and you love coaching your,
your student athletes, I think that's all you can do.
Work hard, Don't get too highs, don't get too high on the wins
and don't get too low on the losses.
(21:25):
It's a difficult time for non revenue sports.
But from a tennis perspective and from a college tennis
perspective, we're here to help UTR us.
We we want to help you. Please listen and hear that and
from my voice, we really want tohelp.
Please reach out Chase. We appreciate your time.
Thank you very much. All the best.
(21:46):
I'll see you shortly on another meeting, but it's it's great to
catch up. Thanks for having me on James.
I appreciate it.
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