Laurel Oak tennis director named regional "Professional of the Year" by the USPTA

The phone call Ty Braswell received on July 11 was one he never expected.

It was from the United States Professional Tennis Association Florida chapter, and it informed Laurel Oak’s tennis director he had been named the USPTA Florida Region 8 Professional of the Year.

The award is voted on by his peers, which makes the honor even more meaningful, Braswell said. He believes the club has a strong reputation in the area as a “good group of pros,” and as a place where people know they’re welcome. Laurel Oak invests in its students, Braswell said. It has also been the site of big-name tournaments, including the USTA Pro Circuit-level 2018 Sarasota Open in April, won by Hugo Dellien. The event will return to the club next April.

Despite his name being on it, the award isn’t about him, Braswell said. It represents the work his team at Laurel Oak — head tennis pro Tony Acosta, instructor Steve Martin, pro shop manager Samantha Abel — do, and have done for a long time. Abel joined in 2014, but the other three have worked together since 2007. It’s the consistency that’s allowed the program to grow, Braswell said. Everyone at the club deserves credit.

“It’s a family atmosphere,” Braswell said. “People are attracted to that.”

Braswell’s point was proven in 2011 when he was hit with a series of infections in his large intestine following an emergency appendectomy. He was unable to work for six months. He’s not sure how he would have managed without the support, both emotional and financial, of the club. Laurel Oak held special events to cover his medical costs, like the the Ty Braswell Medical Benefit Round Robin, held in conjunction with Braswell’s alma mater, Florida State University, which raised $5,000.

It wasn’t just the club itself. He would receive checks in the mail from random members, he said. Over those six months, Braswell realized what a special place Laurel Oak was. Since then, it’s been all team, all the time.

Braswell’s career could have gone down a different path. He played tennis at FSU after being a top recruit, and many of his FSU teammates tried their hand at the pro game after graduation. Braswell didn’t. He felt his game hadn’t progressed as much as he wanted during college, he said, and getting it to that “next step” would cost both time and money, two things Braswell didn’t want to spend. Instead, he turned to coaching, something he’d always enjoyed doing even then, at youth camps and the like. Braswell’s FSU doubles partner, Davidson Kozlowski (now the head men’s coach at Drake University), was the son of then-Laurel Oak tennis director Dave Kozlowski, and that connection got him his first assistant job at the club in 1999.

“It was part of God’s plan for me,” Braswell said.

After leaving the club to be an assistant at FSU from 2000-2004, Braswell returned to Laurel Oak as an instructor. He enjoyed coaching at the NCAA level, he said, but he was starting a family, and needed a job where e could be home more. He was named the tennis director in 2005 and has never looked back.

“It’s the relationships you develop, with people of all ages,” Braswell said, on why he loves his job. “You connect with them. You have an impact on their lives.”

They’ve impacted his, too. That symbiotic relationship is now officially award-winning.