At Sankaty, tennis traditions thrive with Vaughan Machado
BY STEVE SHEPPARD INDEPENDENT SPORTS EDITOR

Vaughan Machado (above) likes what he sees from his students during mid-afternoon drills. Right: Machado with fellow instructors Marsh Chambers (left) and Jack Martin.

"Perfect. Great shot."

"You're learning a skill right in front of my eyes."

"We're talking about discipline."

Such are the encouragements offered by Vaughan Machado at the Sankaty Head tennis club, where he has held center court as tennis pro and instructor for 27 years. Under his guidance, the program has grown into a first-rate center of tennis, where students learn that a serious approach to the game reaps dividends.

It's a real teaching environment that is attractive to both teachers and students. Year-round 'Sconseter Marsh Chambers, for instance, started teaching with Machado seven years ago because he relishes the atmosphere. He grew up playing tennis as a court rat at the 'Sconset Casino and now helps coach the successful lacrosse team at Nantucket High School. What Chambers likes the most is that the emphasis at Sankaty is on learning - and improving. He and Machado both agree that the lessons students learn on the court can help them off the court as well.

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"We teach sportsmanship," Machado says, "and they're learning some life skills." Skills like perseverance, and dedication.

Although he is an expert at the game, Machado never played tennis until college - "never even walked on a court," he says. Growing up on Nantucket, tennis was primarily the domain of summer people. His roommate, however, was on the college team and encouraged him to play. "I learned I could serve very easily because it's the same motion as throwing a football," the former Nantucket High School quarterback noted.

But music was his first love, and for years he earned a living playing around New York. Working nights, however, gave him time during the day for exercise and he turned to tennis. He took to it so well that he eventually became a licensed pro, and after a long career in show business, he decided to give tennis a try.

"It was New Year's Eve in 1980. I played a job that night and the next day was teaching tennis."

Machado worked at the Tiger Racquet Club in Secaucus, N.J., and moved on to a general manager's position at the Meadowlands Tennis Center. Before moving back to the island in 1983, he worked summers at Sankaty Head, helping to get the budding program off the ground. Now, assisted by fellow instructors Chambers and Jack Martin, Machado oversees a diverse group of students who range in age from six-years-old to adult, and includes children of club members, members, staffers and sometimes island children. "I welcome juniors," Machado says. "If we have space we'll take a town kid. I love to have townies here, because I'm one."

He's taught several young Nantucketers through the years. He speaks with pride of Jessie Glidden, now an island attorney, who began at Sankaty and who, with playing partner Amy Stiga, has emerged as a nationally ranked paddle tennis player. "Our highest ranking was tenth," Glidden says. "We're working our way back up."

Glidden fondly remembers taking lessons at Sankaty with Machado. "I think I was six-years-old when I started out there," the 1992 Nantucket High School graduate recalled. "He has such a great way of making it entertaining; it doesn't feel like it's work."

Machado is now teaching the children of some of his first students. And there are the students who go on to become teachers themselves.

Teachers like Martin, who took lessons at Sankaty when he was 12, and became a coach in the program at 16. He's been coaching with Machado for six years now and is entering his senior year at Skidmore College where he is (no surprise here) co-captain of the college's tennis team.

"It's not just about winning and losing," Machado emphasizes. "We're treating them like athletes."

Machado's steady hand has established a tennis tradition at Sankaty Head, similar to the traditions he absorbed as a player, and later as a coach, at Nantucket High School, and to the long-standing programs at the Casino and Nantucket Yacht Club. Two highlights of Sankaty's season, in fact, are the matches with those clubs.

The greatest highlight, however, is the awards ceremony where trophies are given to the most improved player, the most dedicated player and to the player who exhibits the spirit of sportsmanship. Those awards symbolize the lessons Machado most wants to impart.

"I'm very proud of this little program," he says. "We're one of Nantucket's best kept secrets."