AMHERST, MA - There was very little doubt that Nate Whitaker was going to make tennis a prominent part of his life well into adulthood.
You certainly wouldn't expect anything less from someone whose first racquet was a wooden "lay-away special" and who often walked two miles to play with friends at a public court while growing up in the Virginia cities of Newport News and Hampton.
Nate Whitaker's tennis journey has taken him to Western Massachusetts, where the University of Massachusetts mathematics professor is heavily involved in USTA League, serving as a captain of two teams.
"I'm not really sure how I became interested in tennis; it may have been as simple as I just saw it on TV and wanted to try it," Whitaker said. "Growing up, I didn't have too much exposure to the game formally, but I did have some friends who were interested and we got together and played when we could."
Funny thing, that connection between friendships and tennis.
"Now, as a League captain, I look for good people when I'm putting together a team," he said. "I could go out and look for the best players and try to put together a winning team, but that wouldn't last long. The group of guys I play with now have been together for 9 or 10 years, and they've become some of my best friends."
Whitaker, who watched top-notch varsity tennis at every opportunity while attending the Hampton Institute, captains 4.0 teams in both the adult and senior divisions.
"A group of us played on a team together, but it wasn't very cohesive," Whitaker said in explaining how he became a League captain. "A few of us decided to form our own team, and they asked me to be the captain. I had seen other people perform the duties needed to be a captain and thought I might like to try it."
Nate Whitaker (back right) has been a model League captain.
Whitaker was a natural, complete with the ability to recognize a good fit for his teams and facilitate what he feels is less of a team and more of a social network.
"The more I became involved in captaining teams, the more I started to realize that it was actually kind of important. A lot of men don't really have these social outlets. It just isn't something we're naturally built to do," he joked. "But, I think League tennis has provided all of us involved with the chance to make some important social connections and make some true friends, friends that end up having a bond built around much more than tennis."
That bond, according to Whitaker, is built through competing together, meeting up for practices or informal hitting sessions and taking to the road together when his teams are fortunate enough to advance to local and sectional championships.
"To get to spend that time together is what's really great," said Whitaker, who co-captained a team to a spot in the USTA League National Championships in Indian Wells, CA three years ago. "It seems that we always have a harmonious group made of nice people."
Whitaker and his teams also look forward to what he calls the best part of playing League tennis - their annual team trip to New York City to spend two days at the US Open.