A recent article in CopaNews featured our coach, Mark Presdee
LOCAL HERO
Mark Presdee
A shining example of someone who really loves his job and working with kids; Mark Presdee has been coaching tennis to Copa locals for thirty-one years. Although Mark lives at Niagara Park, he is a fixture at the courts here, coaching kids and adults, and as he says ‘I’ve been invited to quite a few weddings here in Copa and I’m now coaching the kids of people I taught back in the day.’
Mark has had a long career as a player and was the Junior Boys Singles Champion on the Coast at age 16; a State ranked junior playing the likes of Wally Masur and later Todd Woodbridge and the Gosford District Open Mens Singles Runner Up four times. One of his biggest wins was the Mid North Coast Open Mens Singles in 1986. He played local inter-district Blackwall Cup for Gosford, following in the footsteps of players like Ken Rosewall and John Newcombe who used to play for district and state teams in the fifties. Mark nominates Ken Rosewall as his favourite player and recalls being selected to do a special training squad with him when he was a junior. Mark said ‘I learned a lot from him and was privileged that he spent the time and effort on me. I’ll never forget that experience.’
Mark started coaching at the age of nineteen, and it has been a full-time job for him since 2000. In 2003 he had one hundred and ten students at Copacabana. He coaches every weekday afternoon and Saturday mornings. His students have included State ranked players, including Abbie Nugent, who ‘played all her tennis at Copa’ and was Regional Champion
(Northumberland) for three years and won a State title. Mark currently has thirty-six students at Copa and says that through the pandemic, other sports weren’t available to kids and adults and the courts were just about booked out eight hours a day.
Mark also teaches a ‘Sporting Schools Tennis’ unit at Copa school during first term, an eight-week program. He recalls arranging for former seven times Grand Slam Doubles title winner and Davis Cup player and captain, John Fitzgerald, to visit the school as part of the program in 2018 – the only school on the Coast he visited.
Of the present-day players, Mark admires the great Roger Federer and was also a fan of Pat Rafter, the former world number one Australian player who won consecutive US Open Singles championships in 1997 and 1998. Pre-Covid, Mark regularly attended the Australian Open in Melbourne with a ground pass from Tennis Australia. He hopes to get back there in 2024.
Although Mark is a qualified plant mechanic, he says if he wasn’t a tennis coach, he’d like to be a PE teacher because he likes working with kids and being in the outdoors. Sporting skills run in the family: Mark’s Dad used to play rugby league reserve grade for the Tigers and Mark has happy memories of watching games at Leichhardt. He’s still a Tigers fan (although he admits he’s not having a great deal of joy this season). Living on the Central Coast provides a perfect lifestyle for Mark as he’s also a keen fisherman.
Tennis Club stalwart, Lorraine Parks, says ‘Mark has been intimately involved with Copa Tennis Club basically since the courts were built. He is totally professional and reliable, and very well-liked by his students and their parents. He makes a wonderful contribution to our community and the Club wouldn’t be where it is without him.’
Mark says he really enjoys his involvement in the Club and says of Copa, ‘It’s a good community, with fantastic families and great kids. Their behaviour is fantastic.’
Many people have Mark to thank for their skills and love of tennis and we are lucky to count Mark as an ‘honorary’ Copa local.