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Is anything more exciting than discovering that the Club
tennis pro is a second generation tennis pro? Mike Rahaley says he has tennis “in his blood" from growing up in a tennis-pro family who wintered in Vero Beach, Florida and summered in Northern Michigan at the club his dad pro’d at for 44 summers!
Mike began playing tennis when he was 2 years old. He played tennis for Marquette University, where he
also earned a degree in business administration, and played and taught squash as well.
Mike was already out of college and working
as a tennis pro the day he played his first game of platform tennis. He picked it up fast, ranking 10th
and 11th in the U.S. in 2002, 2004 and 2005. Recently, he was the 2016 Illinois State
Platform Tennis Champion.
Mike joined Exmoor as Director of Racquets and Tennis Pro in
2003, after successful stints at Chicago’s Saddle and Cycle Club, Viking
Athletics, The Lake Forest Club and Onwentsia Club. Upon joining, he became Exmoor’s first
platform tennis pro as well. Exmoor was
the first club in Chicago and the fifth in the nation to offer
platform tennis, back in the early 1970s.
Exmoor was a founding member of the Chicago league. “Originally platform tennis was a way to play tennis in the winter. Now platform is as popular as regular
tennis at Exmoor because of the longer season. Kids are actually starting with platform tennis.”
Mike's philosophy and goals for the Exmoor Racquet
Program? “We hope to create lifelong tennis and platform tennis players by creating programming that is fun and inviting to players of
all ages and skill levels, including getting new players to try it. The lifelong love of any sport
is a true gift. With racquet sports, you
never need to stop playing. You can play your whole life. We have 5-year-olds playing pickleball with
their grandparents.”
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