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By Ayanna Eckblad

Longtime Albert Lea coach Neil Chalmers last Saturday was awarded the honor of the Class AA State Assistant Tennis Coach of the Year.

He was given the honor at the Minnesota Coaches Association Hall of Fame awards banquet. The banquet celebrated many distinctions given by the Minnesota Coaches Association, including inductees into the Hall of Fame, distinguished officials and other service awards.

Chalmers said about 400 people were in attendance that evening, including his wife, Aimee, and two daughters, Grace and Abigail, who joined him to celebrate his big win.

Chalmers, who describes himself as “a big guy with a big voice and high energy,” said members of the Minnesota Coaches Association look for coaches who have built positive relationships with their own team, opposing teams and other coaches.

“I’ve developed pretty good relationships with the coaches in our section,” he said.

Chalmers began his teaching and coaching career in Blue Earth in 1996. It was there he began coaching tennis. Although he had played baseball, football and basketball as a student, he had never played tennis, so this was his first experience with the sport. He said he had a great assistant coach his first year in Blue Earth. That year, his team went to the state tournament.

“I’ve always been around great teams,” Chalmers said.

He found he liked coaching and continued with both boys and girls tennis teams. This carried over to his career in Albert Lea High School.

“[I’ve been] helping kids get better through coaching for over 40 seasons,” Chalmers said. “It’s not something that I just do, it’s a big part of who I am as a person … I have learned so much from coaching, and from sports in general.”

Everyone has a different reason for being involved with a sport, he said. Some students’ favorite part is the sport itself. For others, the social aspect of being on a team is their motivation. He said listening to the students, forming relationships with them and learning about where their passions are is one of the most important skills he has learned as a coach over the years. He wants to help students become better versions of themselves.

It should be hard, he said, and it should take dedication.

Chalmers tries to follow this example as well. He explained he is always trying to learn more about coaching through taking classes, reading books on the subject and looking for other ways to improve himself.

“If I’m expecting kids to get better, I have to be getting better as well; and if I’m expecting the kids to sacrifice, then I should also be sacrificing,” he explained.

Chalmers emphasized the importance of listening to members of the team and taking the views of others into consideration.

“It helps you recognize things you may not have noticed before,” he said.

Chalmers said he was shocked when he learned he was being recognized as the State Assistant Tennis Coach of the Year and couldn’t wait to tell his family.

“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give” is a Winston Churchill quote Chalmers said he has always resonated with, and he tries to bring this philosophy to his teaching and coaching whenever he can.

After learning about being Assistant Tennis Coach of the Year, Chalmers decided he wanted to do whatever he could to set a good example and “earn” the title he was receiving.

Some of the ways he did this was by donating cases of tennis balls and other equipment to the school, attending a coaching clinic and teaching tennis to students over the summer.

He also worked with the United States Tennis Association to bring summer programs to Albert Lea. He worked with Cal Carlson, assistant women’s tennis coach and assistant director of tennis and life camps at Gustavus Adolphus College, to help get scholarships for students to participate in these tennis programs.

“I’m hoping to get more scholarships for this summer,” he said.

This year, Chalmers is not coaching tennis, but is the coach for mock trial at Albert Lea High School. He hopes he can get back into coaching sports in the near future.

“I would like to coach some youth or high school basketball,” he said.