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Chris Bellar, third from right, Conway Springs High School tennis coach, talks to his team as they prepare for the Class 3-2-1 A tennis meet this weekend. Conway Springs is one of the top teams in the state.
All access works for Conway Springs tennis
BY JOANNA CHADWICK
The Wichita Eagle
When Chris Bellar played tennis at Chaparral High in the early 1980s, the sport wasn't yet viewed as a privileged one.
In the past 25 years, though, tennis has grown and private lessons have become the norm. But Bellar has worked to keep the sport accessible to all at Conway Springs, where he has coached the Cardinals since 1991.
"I want to keep it local," said Bellar, 41. "That's the fun of being in a smaller community, because you can keep it that way."
In the process, Bellar also built a traditional tennis power.
Conway Springs is one of the favorites to win the Class 3-2-1A boys title at the state meet today and Saturday at Wichita State. The Cardinals won team titles in 2004 and 2005.
In Bellar's tenure as the boys and girls coach, Conway Springs has had 30 girls and 33 boys qualify at least once for the 3-2-1A state tournament. Conway Springs has five in this weekend's tournament.
Nineteen athletes have earned college tennis scholarships and three former players are coaching high school or college tennis.
In the last 10 years, Conway Springs has been to every 3-2-1A boys and girls state meet.
Such accomplishments were rare before Bellar was hired. Conway Springs had one boys doubles championship team in 1979, but that was it.
In his first year he had fewer than 10 boys come out. This season he had 27.
"When he and I came, within a year of each other," Conway Springs principal Brent Davis said, "there basically was no tennis program. It was a recreation deal."
Bellar, who played at Bethel College, set about to change that.
"You have to at first motivate kids to love playing the game," he said. "If you can convince them that it's a lot of fun, not just a lot of work..."
He instituted a summer program, in which he teaches third through ninth graders for three weeks, giving lessons, playing games and ending with a tournament.
Three years ago he increased the summer program to include another two or three weeks where the athletes play competitively through team tennis. It's local, so the athletes don't have to travel around the country.
Conway Springs senior Kody Koester, who qualified in doubles for the state meet, was introduced to tennis by Bellar during a summer program.
"He helped me in the summer and I put in a lot of hours to improve," said Koester, who plays year round at Conway Springs' outdoor courts."... He really makes practices fun and makes it fun for all of us so that we want to work hard and want to succeed in all we do."
Marc Robinson, part of the 1979 championship doubles team, has watched Bellar coach all four of his children.
"I think the enthusiasm he has for tennis is just incredible," Robinson said. "He really goes after the kids and encourages them to go out."
There's no doubt that Bellar is passionate about tennis. He stays late to accommodate all his athletes -- Conway Springs has four new tennis courts, but that's not enough considering the nearly 30 players who came out this season.
He also takes his teams on an offseason trip to Colorado, where they mix in tennis with hiking. And Bellar spends his free time attending tennis clinics, always looking for that edge to pass on to his athletes.
"He's a fantastic teacher and he just extends the classroom," Davis said. "He's teaching on the court all the time."
Bellar could have moved on to a bigger city or bigger school by now. But Conway Springs is where he wants to be.
"I've always had really quality kids out for tennis," Bellar said. "When you make that time commitment, from third grade, you see their development. I have enjoyed the process of it all. You can't get that if you are switching schools every three years."
