Clarification: Coach Mazella will continue to coach tennis at Newton County Academy. His job at Northeast Park will not affect coaching duties at the school. We apologize for the error and are happy to set the record straight.
For the last 10 years, tennis coach and instructor has only been a part-time job for Pete Mazzella.
While working full-time in the restaurant business, Mazzella has turned Newton County Academy into one of the state’s private-school powerhouses.
Now, Mazzella will get a chance to follow one of his life-long dreams and be a full-time tennis pro. Mazzella recently left his full-time job at Subway to become the teaching pro at Northeast Park in Meridian.
Mazzella replaces Bill Autry, who was the long-time pro at Northeast until he passed away from a sudden heart attack in April.
“I knew Bill and respected him a lot,” Mazzella said. “When I heart he had passed away and they had built a memorial to him at the court, I went out there to visit and there were people playing. I called the pro at Northwood to tell him that the courts were available to teach on. He asked me to call him back and he told me they were going to need someone to go out there and run the tennis center. It took us a couple of weeks to get things worked out.”
Mazzella said it was a huge decision from him and his family, leaving a full-time job.
“It was a huge decision,” Mazzella said. “I am leaving a safe, decent-paying job. I just kept going back and forth on it. My wife asked me one day if I had prayed about it and I hadn’t. So I prayed about it and asked for some guidance and that was the best sleep I had gotten in months. When I woke up the next morning, it was clear to me. I will always have the restaurant business to fall back on. But this opportunity will probably never come up again and that was part of the thinking.”
Mazzella will now give lessons full time as well as groups, clinics and camps.
“It has been a dream that I haven’t pursued because I felt like I would have to move off to do something like this,” Mazzella said. “And I felt like if I move off, I would have to work as an assistant pro. This is a dream of mine. I have been on cloud nine ever since I made the decision.”
Mazzella has been a certified teaching pro for ten years but said he realizes he will have to step up his game.
“I’ve been trying to improve what I’m doing,” Mazzella said. “I’ve been watching some videos, trying to pick up some new drills and new ways of teaching things. I’m just excited about the opportunity.”
