by Jim Plautz
“Move your feet, Pete, come on, move your feet. Take small steps when you are back-pedaling.” Petie tried it again, but his overhead was off the frame of the racquet and sailed long.
“Pete how many times do I have to tell you to get your racquet back early. Let’s try it one more time.” Gregg hit another lob and this time Pete was in perfect position and crunched the overhead at Gregg’s feet. Pete and his friend Kyle had been hitting overheads for 15 minutes and Pete was bored.
“Let’s play some points,” Pete suggested.
“Okay, we will play some points as soon as we play a little four-ball,” Gregg replied with a grin. “Kyle, you first.”
Kyle and Pete both groaned. Even though they took turns this was still a tough tennis drill. Gregg had four balls in his hand. The first was a deep shot that you returned from the baseline and tried to get to the net. The 2nd ball came to you at the service line where you did a split-step and volleyed deep, continuing to the net. The 3rd shot was a volley that you tried to put away and the 4th was a lob over your head that forced you had to back-pedal to hit the overhead. If you screwed up any of the four shots, you went again.
Four-ball was more of a conditioning drill than a drill to improve your strokes. After five or six turns, Pete was just trying to survive. After 15, Pete and Kyle were exhausted.
Mercifully Gregg called a halt and the two friends headed for the water. “Hold it! Let’s try a few serves fellows. You need to learn how to serve when you are tired. Believe me, it’s different serving in the 3rd set when it’s 90 degrees and you’re exhausted.”
Twenty minutes and 50 serves later they got their water break. “Guys, you are looking pretty good. I think you both are ready for the tournament this weekend. Let’s go inside and have a coke, I want to talk a little strategy. Go on ahead and I’ll catch up to you.”
After two hours of drills, Pete and Kyle didn’t need any coaxing. They grabbed their tennis bags and headed for the snack room.
Gregg had noticed Mrs. Simpson watching from a distance and went over to talk with her. Keeping the parents happy was part of being a club pro, but in this case it was different. Mary and Jim Simpson were a pleasure to work with, and Pete was the type of player that came along only once or twice in a club-pro’s career.
“Mrs. Simpson, it’s nice to see you. How did Pete look to you?”
“Hi Gregg. I thought his volleys and overhead looked pretty good, a lot better than they did a couple weeks ago. What do you think?”
“Every part of his game has improved, especially his two-handed backhand. He doesn’t miss. I can’t believe how far he has come in the last two months. Those private lessons you gave him sure paid off.”
Mary was pleased with the job Gregg was doing with Pete and his willingness to work with her. Most tennis pros would have objected to Mary giving Pete private lessons with another pro, but Gregg had supported her. Gregg had a traditional one-handed backhand. Going to a pro that used a two-handed backhand made sense to both of them and Gregg had even given Mary a list of teaching pros she could call.
“You are working them pretty hard, Gregg. Are you concerned that they might burn out?”
“I’m watching for the signs, but so far they seem to be okay. All kids complain, but Pete and Kyle are disappointed when I don’t work them hard. Has Pete said anything different to you?” Gregg asked apprehensively.
“No, Pete seems to be having a lot of fun and is looking forward to the tournament this weekend. How do you think he will do?”
“I’m hopeful, but it’s hard to tell. It’s his first tournament and he will be nervous.”
“Whatever happens, it’s important that he has fun and comes away with a good experience. I just hope he isn’t blitzed,” Mary added.
“This is a pretty small tournament and I don’t think Bollettieri or Saddlebrook will send any of their kids. Pete should do okay.”
“How much longer are you going to keep them tonight, Gregg? He has his bike, but I was wondering when to start dinner.”
“I just need them for another 30 minutes. I wanted to talk a little about strategy, and then spend some time on court etiquette. It’s important that they know how to act if they get a bad call and stuff like that.”
“I agree, Gregg. Will I see you at the tournament Saturday?”
“You sure will. I wouldn’t miss it. I will be more nervous than Pete.”
“You and me, both,” Mary replied as she headed for the car. It would be hard not to show Pete how nervous she was, but she would do her best. After all, she thought, this was his tournament, not hers.
“Let’s get started, folks. We’re not making any money sitting in this room rehashing the weekend and I have a 1:00 o’clock tee time,” I lied, knowing that Ken would be jealous and wondering why he hadn’t been invited. It was my way of retaliating in advance for the grief he gave us at every staff meeting. “Sally, start us off.”
Monday morning staff meetings were informal and a good way for everyone to find out what’s going on in the other departments. Sally had equipment leasing, Roger was commercial mortgages and Ken was special projects, which now meant the Mexico sports complex. Each manager took their turn, highlighting major activities in their respective domains. Occasionally they would bring up problems, but not unless they had already discussed the problem with me. Our goal was to be done in one hour. The record was twenty minutes when Ken had laryngitis.
Sally remained sitting. “Business is still looking good even though interest rates are rising. It’s tougher to get a bank loan, which is forcing more people to lease the equipment. We currently are working on 78 lease applications totaling about $4.4M. That’s about $56,000 per deal, Ken, with another $1,900,000 approved and waiting for installation.”
“$56,410.25,” corrected Ken who was notorious for his ability to work math problems in his head and irritate the heck out of us.
“Children, let’s not argue,” I interjected. I could see Roger using his calculator to check Ken’s number, but Sally and I knew from experience it was a waste of time. He was always right. “Sally, please continue.”
“I decided to add another person to concentrate on track-leasing, anything with wheels such as construction cranes, fork lifts, trucks and so on. We have turned away too many deals lately and decided to give it a try. It’s a different business. Our average deal will be over $1M but the margins are small, probably in the neighborhood of 1% versus the 4% we get now. Questions?”
“Thanks, Sally. Roger, you’re up!”
“I can make this real quick. Business is good, I have all the people we need and profit is 20% over budget. There is $370,000 in commissions due in the next three months for deals that are approved, but not funded. We are working on 12 deals that are likely to close this month worth approximately $188,345,212,” Roger explained, looking at Ken in anticipation of another quip.
“$15,700,000 per deal is higher than normal, isn’t it?” asked Ken. Are we still getting our 1% commission?”
Everybody chuckled at Ken’s one-upmanship, but it was a good question.
“Thanks for rounding it off, Ken, but yes, we are averaging just under 1%. We only got ½% on the $55M condominium deal, but we got 2% on several of the smaller deals.”
“Whatever the market will bear,” Ken added with a nod of approval.
“Ken, your turn.”
“Not much to report since last week, Jim. As everyone knows, we finalized the agreement with Mexican government, and Sven’s group has agreed to provide a $300M, 6%, 2-year, interest-only construction loan. We break ground next Monday.”
“Tell Roger and Sally what our risk and upside is, Ken. They obviously have a stake in this.” Everyone knew that a deal this size could kill the company if it went bad. It had almost happened with the Cabo casino.
“We are providing $45M to the project secured by our 10% stake in the Cabo Resort and Casino. Theoretically, our only exposure is the loss of the $45M and future revenues from the
casino, but we all know that this could change if the project goes bad. We have 24 months to pay off the bridge loan. It can be extended for one more year, but the interest rate jumps to 16%, which we cannot afford to pay. Sound familiar?”
“Without dwelling on the negative, I estimate our upside on this deal to about $500M.”
“Wow!” Sally exclaimed. “How did you come up with $500M? Is this real or did your internal calculator finally lose a synapse?”
Ken smiled at the dig. “It’s real, Sally. Our contract states that at the end of the project, the State of Mexico will buy the project back for 80% of the as-completed appraisal, which I believe will be in the neighborhood of $1.25 billion dollars. Do the math,” Ken grinned.
“If we are done with Ken, I have on more bit of news to pass on. I hired a new construction manager, Marco Noah, who will be responsible for the Mexico City sports complex and all other construction projects. He starts Monday. You can’t believe how many opportunities I have passed up because we didn’t have someone to manage the work.”
“Where did you find him?” Sally asked.
“Alberto heard about him from a business associate in Paris. Marco has 20 years experience with several international construction firms. The last five years was with Bouygues, the French construction giant.”
“Okay, if there is nothing else, let’s get to work.”
“Who are you golfing with?” Ken asked as we walked out of the conference room. I just smiled, enjoying his torment.
Chapter 5
First USTA Tournament