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A Roller coaster ride with the Williams
7/16/2002 11:24:00 AM
by Dave Rineberg
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| Rineberg describes seven years as a roller coaster. |
Web posted Friday, July 12, 2002
4:47 a.m. CT
Dave Rineberg: Served as hitting coach for Venus and Serena Williams from 1992-99.
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A roller coaster ride with the Williamses
By MIKE LEE
mlee.amarillonet.com
Dave Rineberg almost lost his seven years of fame in the trash can.
The Wichita, Kan., native was a tennis instructor at a public facility in Deerfield Beach, Fla., in 1992 when the call came.
"One day around Christmas I came in from a practice and had a message on my answering machine," Rineberg said Thursday. "It was some guy named Richard Williams, saying he had two daughters he'd like for me to work with. I took down his phone number.
"It didn't register with me at first who he was. And he mispronounced my name on the message so that didn't set too well with me. I looked at my log book and I had a full plate of lessons.
"I threw the note in the trash."
Early the following morning, it dawned on Rineberg who Richard Williams was. Rineberg suddenly realized he was the father of the two young tennis phenoms he had heard stories about.
"I raced off to the office the next morning," Rineberg said. "They emptied the trash every morning at 6, and I didn't get there until after 10. But thank goodness it was during the holidays, and they were a little late.
"I got his number out of the trash. It was a good thing because calls like that don't come again. He would have gone on to the next coach."
Thus began a seven-year ride that Rineberg never will forget as hitting coach for Venus and Serena Williams, currently the Nos. 1-2 women's tennis players in the world. Rineberg, 36, stopped Thursday at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Amarillo, promoting his new book "Venus & Serena, My Seven Years as Hitting Coach for the Williams Sisters" (Frederick Fell Publishers, $22.95).
The first time Rineberg hit tennis balls with the Williams sisters, Venus was 12 years old and Serena 10. "They hit the ball as hard as any guys that I was hitting with," said Rineberg, a former collegiate tennis player who hit mainly with male collegiate players and aspiring professionals.
"It was uncontrolled, but they hit as hard as the guys.
"The bells went off in my head. I thought, 'Wow! This is unbelievable!' They were so athletic, even at that age. They could walk around the court on their hands."
Rineberg immediately recognized the potential for a book of his experience at some point down the line. Before they were teen-agers, Venus and Serena were commanding as much media attention as the top players in the world - thanks largely to Richard's promotional strategies.
America was in need for the new torchbearer of women's tennis since Jennifer Capriati had flamed out at an early age. Even internationally, the Williams sisters were coming along at an opportune time, with Monica Seles sidelined because of her stabbing injury.
Something out of the ordinary seemed to occur almost daily in the Williams camp. Only a month after becoming their hitting coach, Rineberg was summoned by Richard to a car wash to discuss the next move for Venus.
"He wouldn't talk until he put the money in the machine and started spraying his car," Rineberg said. "He said it was to drown out the noise so we could talk. He said everybody wanted to know what his next move was going to be with Venus - even the FBI. He thought they had his car and his house bugged.
"The spray stopped and he stopped talking until he put more quarters in. It was just one of his quirky things. He had it set in his mind and he believed it. That day, with him talking about being bugged by the FBI, that got me to keeping notes" for a possible book.
Rineberg never knew what to expect when he reported for the Williams sisters' daily practices. One day there might be lights and cameras all over the court because the sisters were shooting a commercial. One day the television show "60 Minutes" was there for a story on the tennis phenoms and their eccentric father.
"It was a constant circus," Rineberg said. "I'm amazed sometimes that the sisters were able to keep their focus on tennis as well as they did."
Rineberg decided to roll with the flow, something which fit his laid-back personality. He knew if his ego clashed with Richard's, he wouldn't be around long. "I wanted to ride this roller coaster and see where it would go," Rineberg said.
For all of Richard's eccentricities, Rineberg credits the father/coach for much of his daughters' success. He didn't burn out Venus and Serena by making them play junior tennis, and he often pulled them from the court for five weeks at a time, taking them to Disney World or the beach. He also made the sisters hit against boys from the get-go.
"It was like he had two personalities," Rineberg said of Richard. "He was a good-hearted father and well-mannered. He controlled the girls with a steel hand early on. He was promotional, but he kept them focused and out on the court practicing.
"He's staying out of the limelight now, and hopefully, this is where he breaks it off and lets the girls go. If so, it would be another great move on his part."
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