John Morris is Director of Tennis Operations at Amelia Island Plantation in Florida. Before embarking on this career he played tennis at - and graduated from - Boston College. Before being hired by Amelia Island Plantation he worked at several summer tennis camps.

My first job teaching tennis was with a company called All-American Sports, which ran summer tennis camps on college campuses.

I liked the job and the lifestyle, and when I graduated I wanted to do it full-time. I've been doing it ever since.

You have to work your way up from the ground floor. Some people just want to teach tennis, but there are a lot of other things to learn. You have to enjoy doing things like court maintenance, merchandise sales, and public relations. You have to have good people skills in this business. I've also had to learn and keep up with a lot of computerization. New, updated cash registers and accounting systems, for example.

Another thing people should know is that the schedule is pretty tough. The hours aren't especially long, but you don't get standard vacations. Christmas and other holidays are our busiest times. The same is true of Easter and other major holidays - resort employees usually have to work.

While it has been financially satisfying, the main draw has been the lifestyle. I get paid to do what I love - playing and teaching tennis. If you don't love the sport, this isn't the job for you. You also should enjoy the other aspects - the court maintenance, the merchandise sales, and working with people. Sometimes we hire great tennis players, but unless they have good people skills, they end up failing in the business.

If you love tennis and you have good people skills, and if you're willing to start from the ground up, you can work your way into the business. The best way is to start as a coach in a summer program like I did, or do a summer internship.

Another way in is through professional training. I got most of my training on the job, but some schools these days are offering courses for tennis program managers. Schools like Hampton University in Virginia, Methodist College in North Carolina, and Tyler College in Texas offer professional tennis management courses. Sometimes we hire summer interns from schools like that. If they enjoy it, some of them go on to make tennis management a career, like I have.

Other than the things I've already mentioned, people know that it's part of the job to be friendly and to interact with the guests and the members. Some of the people who come here are pretty lonely - they want to talk to someone. So the staff goes to a lot of functions, they hobnob at parties, and they chat with guests during tournaments - that kind of thing.

We try to emphasize to our employees that famous people should be treated just like everyone else. Princess Caroline of Monte Carlo has been here, and so have Bill Cosby, David Robinson, and lots of other celebrities, but everyone is paying the same amount for their lessons, so everyone gets the same amount of attention. If you treat people differently because they're famous, it usually backfires.

Other guests get resentful because they feel like they're getting less help. Most celebrities would rather be treated like everyone else anyway.

Usually I spend the whole day doing a variety of different things - court maintenance, tennis lessons, staffing the shop, making sure there aren't any major problems, that sort of thing. I spend most of my spare time at home, but I play a round of golf, play a game of tennis, or lounge around sometimes. The younger staff who don't have as many other responsibilities use the facilities more often than me, but I still find time to relax and play.

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