With more than 760 career coaching wins, Charlie Painter, Wittenberg University class of 1969 and recipient of the 2018 Dayton Agonis Club Don Donoher/Mike Kelly Coach of the Year award, was inducted this year into the Ohio Tennis Coaches Hall of Fame.
As founder and president of the Miami Valley Tennis Coaches Association (MVTCA), Painter has advanced the sport of tennis and coaching to new levels in the region. His many achievements include creating an all-area tennis team for both boys and girls, developing a college scholarship fund, and instituting an association area-wide scrimmage at the beginning of the tennis season that just last year had a record 24 girls teams registered.
Tennis has long been a part of Painter’s career and life. He often tells his students that tennis is like life: “Every day you go out and compete,” he said. “Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. When you win, you can’t be too pompous about your victory, and you can’t be too sad about your losses. Get up the next day and do it again. Be ethical and make good calls. Sometimes you’re up big and sometimes you’re down, but you have to make your way through the entire match. Nobody ever goes undefeated in life.”
Painter owes a lot of his success to the skills he developed at Wittenberg. Impressed with Wittenberg’s beautiful campus, Painter was recruited to play football by legendary coaches Dave Maurer and Bill Edwards, who solidified his choice to attend. Both Maurer and Edwards treated him with respect and always made him feel like a viable asset to the team. He feels that being on the team and getting to know the coaches were among the greatest experiences of his life, as they taught him how to coach and gave him valuable and sage guidance.
A physics and math major at Wittenberg, Painter said that his academic experiences were rigorous and comprehensive. He teaches his own students and players with the same care for their well-being that his professors once showed him.
In addition to his recent induction into the Ohio Tennis Coaches Hall of Fame, Painter was the recipient of the 2014 OHSAA Sportsmanship, Ethics, and Integrity Award. He is a member of the Dayton Amateur Tennis Hall of Fame, the Miami Valley Tennis Coaches Hall of Fame, the Dublin Coffman Athletic Hall of Fame, and the Dublin City Schools Hall of Fame.
Today, Painter continues his dream job coaching tennis – and nearing his 800th career coaching win – at Archbishop Alter High School in Kettering, Ohio. For 50 years, he has had the opportunity to do what he loves – teaching math and coaching tennis. Along the way, he has had several outstanding students and players. Painter also recommends that everyone find something they love to do and be happy doing it. As his father once told him and he now tells others, “Find out what you love, find someone who will pay you to do it, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
- By Mallory Moss ’20, Office of University Communications
