The ball can bounce twice on the tennis courts where Carlos Roldan teaches, but that’s the only exception he gives his students.
Until recently, Roldan, with the Lamar Tennis Center at the Paula G. Manship YMCA, has offered free tennis lessons for wheelchair-bound athletes every Saturday since 2003. It’s a passion that began for Roldan in Argentina, led to his position as that country’s coach for its wheelchair tennis team at the 2000 Paralympics in Australia and finally to his position in Baton Rouge.
But coaching tennis for athletes in wheelchairs isn’t about adapting the sport or even providing an outlet for those with disabilities to Roldan; it’s about the individual players and their love of the sport.
“I’ve always been coaching tennis; I’ve been playing since I was 9 years old in Argentina,” Roldan says.
After years of coaching tennis, he was invited to watch a match between athletes in wheelchairs. That was when his love for the sport began.
What made him different, Roldan says, was that he “didn’t really feel sorry for anyone because of their condition. I just saw them as tennis players.”
The sport isn’t any different from regular tennis. The only exception is that players are allowed to let the ball bounce twice before making their return hit across the net to their opponent.
Despite not letting his students’ disabilities change how he coached them, he was touched by the exceptional dedication and love of the sport his students expressed. In particular, one young man impacted Roldan more than any in his almost 24 years of coaching.
“The very first student that I had here was a 12-year-old boy. The second time he showed up, he was wearing sunglasses just like mine,” Roldan said. “I asked him what that was all about and he said to me, ‘I want to look like you. I’m a tennis player now.’ That is the kind of thing that touches your heart, and it never leaves you.”
Age: 37
What is your best business advice?
“Do what you love if you can. Work like you don’t need the money. And try to make yourself different than everyone else in the crowd.”
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