Brandon Day graduated from Ferris State's Professional Tennis Management program in 2022. Four years later, he's the assistant director at a 31-court tri-racquet club, and he's not even 30.

He's at North Hills Club in Raleigh, North Carolina, running programming across 22 tennis courts, 6 pickleball courts, and 3 padel courts. He got there by cold-calling Jarrett Chirico for an internship, starting at the bottom at Royal Oaks Country Club, and working his way from teaching pro to director of programming in under three years.

In this conversation, we get into:

• Growing up playing summer tennis to avoid the angry babysitter, and how that turned into a career
• Cold-calling Jarrett Chirico for an internship and getting an offer letter on the spot
• Starting at Royal Oaks making zero dollars and building a lesson book from scratch
• The member who taught him what service actually means (hint: it had nothing to do with tennis instruction)
• Programming across tennis, pickleball, and padel without the three sports eating into each other
• What certifications actually do for your career vs. what's just letters after your name
• The real math of what young pros make, from $30K to $150K depending on region and contract
• Why burnout in racquet sports is a leadership problem, not a work ethic problem
• His goal to be a director by 28 in an industry where the average director is 55+

If you're early in your racquet sports career, thinking about getting into the private club world, or trying to figure out how people actually move up in this industry, this one's for you.



ABOUT COURTSIDE
CourtSide is the podcast about the business side of racquet sports. Tennis, pickleball, padel, squash. If you own a facility, run programs, coach players, or operate in this industry, this show is for you. Host Evan Dechtman sits down with facility owners, directors of racquets, head pros, club managers, and operators across the country for honest conversations about what it actually takes to run a racquet sports business. No scripts. No highlight reels. Just two people talking about what they've built, what's working, what's not, and where they think this whole thing is going.

New episodes every two weeks. Subscribe so you don't miss one.

Want to be a guest? Book your spot: https://topspindigital.co/courtside/book Email Evan directly: mailto:evan@topspindigital.co

CONNECT WITH BRANDON DAY
North Hills Club: https://www.northhillsclub.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-day-dca-crse-918271183/