Buhl Park Tennis Center to be renamed in woman’s honor | News

Sue McLaughlin’s love affair with Buhl Park began decades ago.

“I grew up a couple blocks from the park,” the Hermitage resident said. “This was my personal playground.”

It is also where she found her second love, tennis. In sixth grade, she took advantage of the park’s free lessons.

Sue said her parents would allow their children to try anything “as long as we could get there.”

“We would just get on our bikes and go,” she said.

Now, at age 64, she is looking back at a career, not just as a tennis coach and instructor, but as a former guidance counselor and adviser to young people getting ready to find their own callings.

It is a privilege, she says, to have been a part of so many lives both at the park and in the community.

Those she has met along her journey are more than just acquaintances. They have been with her through the good times, and the challenges.

They are family, she said.

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This week the Buhl Park Tennis Center will be renamed in Sue McLaughlin’s honor.

The ceremony will be held in conjunction with the annual Tri-County Boys Tennis Tournament, which Sue has run since 1983.

Park officials are asking those who want to be there to honor Sue to arrive at the courts promptly at 8:45 a.m. Wednesday, with the ceremony planned for 9 a.m. It is expected to last about 30 minutes.

The honoree is humble, those who know her say, so much so that they weren’t sure how she would take such a recognition.

They need not have worried, Sue said.

“I am beyond honored and humbled the Board of Trustees and the corporate board chose me for this,” she said.

But she could not resist a little fun.

“Typically when they name something after someone, they are gone,” she said. “I plan to be here at least until May 2.”

It is all part of Sue’s philosophy – take what matters seriously, but never yourself.

It is one of the reasons why she can still relate to her students – and the answer she gives to those who want to know how she has stayed so vital, so positive and so centered.

“My glass has always been half full,” she said.

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Tennis wasn’t always the only game in Sue’s playbook.

She was a swimmer, too, which led to a couple of jobs as a high school student at the park — first as a locker room attendant and then as a lifeguard.

“I earned 95 cents an hour,” she said.

She remembers taking those first tennis lessons.

“I met kids from all the other school districts,” she said. “We had so much fun.”

She admits that one of the sponsors of the tennis program also ran a root beer stand and made free drinks available after the lessons.

“I think I played tennis because I was going to get root beer,” she said.

So when Sue became an adult, and took over the program at the park as director of tennis in 1983, she promised herself something.

She would share the gift she got with anyone who wanted to learn.

“I said I would always offer free lessons,” Sue said.

And she has, and still does.

But that was not all.

A graduate of Penn State University, she was approached by the Sharon School District about taking on a swim coaching job in 1975.

Along with that came a teaching job, which she did for a number of years.

But Sue said she soon realized that her calling was elsewhere.

And that is when she found guidance counseling.

She went back and got secondary and elementary counseling credentials.

“I found that the older the kids, the better I liked them,” she said.

In 1979, she also became the district’s tennis coach and remained in that role for decades, for both boys and girls.

She loved talking to the students – especially the ones who picked up tennis rackets.

She guided them through the challenges of high school and made sure that they were ready when college time rolled around.

She was firm when she needed to be and supportive always.

And she loved every minute of her work.

“You could be their friend without being their pal,” she said. “There is a difference.”

To this day, Sue meets those former students everywhere, and shares a greeting, a hug and a warm, “How are you?”

So, when she retired from the school district 12 years ago, Sue did not stop working with the students.

Instead, she opened a private consulting service for juniors and seniors.

She is still guiding them through the maze of financial aid and college applications, but she imparts some life lessons, too.

“Find something that you are passionate about and find a way to get paid for it,” she said she tells the young people she meets.

After all, it is exactly how she has lived her life.

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Sue is not an early bird.

“I don’t like to go to bed,” she says.

From 8 a.m. to about noon, she is doing her tennis lessons.

Around noon, she breaks for lunch.

If the weather is good, she heads to the golf course.

“I insist on walking and carrying my clubs,” she said. “I take seven clubs and three balls. I love the challenge of it.”

She doesn’t lose many balls, she added.

But even with what might be considered a pretty good game, Sue said she never knows how that challenge will end – in a great score or a really long walk back to the clubhouse.

“On the golf course, I never know who is going to show up,” she said.

Afternoons can be spent working at the pro shop at the Avalon Golf and Country Club or doing something else at the club or park.

At 6 or 7 p.m., it’s dinner time, with meetings with her student clients from 7 to 9:30 p.m.

She doesn’t have much downtime.

“I love to eat, so I have to keep active,” she said.

Sue lives only about a mile from most of the places she needs to go, so when she heads out to work, to run errands or to play, she is almost always on her bike, just like when she was a little girl.

“I just never stopped riding,” she said. “It is my primary mode of transportation.”

And when there is a moment to relax, she picks up a book.

“I love to read – mysteries and biographies,” she said.

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Tennis has become a passion for Sue.

“It has been my entire life,” she said.

There are 4-year-olds and 84-year-olds on her roster.

“No two lessons are ever the same,” she added. “There has never been a person I could not teach.”

She says some instructors teach power. She teaches patience.

“Every point does not have to be a winner,” she said. “You don’t have to knock the cover off the ball. You just have to place the ball where your opponent is not.”

She says she is seeing more and more people moving away from contact sports and to tennis.

“It is a sport for a lifetime,” she said.

She has watched the park evolve over the years.

What makes her happy is knowing that many of her friends and neighbors love it as much as she does.

“I am finding that people have become so respectful of the park,” she said.

When the winter hits and her usual haunts are buried under a blanket of snow, Sue says she spends her time at Avalon, helping out where she is needed and visiting.

“This is my social life in the winter,” she said.

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But the road has not always been easy.

A two-time breast cancer survivor, Sue is still battling the disease and undergoing new, targeted treatments to keep it at bay.

But her spirit remains as strong as it was when she first heard her diagnosis.

She hesitated at first to share the news with her elderly mother.

Sue still remembers what her mother said: “Oh, you’ll take care of it.”

And she has.

“I said, ‘I am going to beat this or die trying,’” she remembers.

And she has done it, she adds, but not alone.

“I could never have gotten through all of this without the support of my friends and the community,” Sue said.

She knows those cancer cells are still there.

“I am not sick,” she said. “I just have a couple of bad cells. I know that I am going to get hit again. There are enough cancer cells.”

But she said, she is ready to do what she needs to do to stay around for as long as she can.

She relies on the power of prayer and a spirit that does not recognize the size of the hill, just gets ready to climb it.

“I am very fortunate,” she said.

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More than 72 children come through Sue’s tennis lessons, and still more complete the special clinics each year.

She is around young people – a lot.

And she respects them.

“I think this upcoming generation are some of the brightest kids I have ever seen.”

She loves their enthusiasm and how they dig into a project or a task without fear or holding back.

But what she wishes for them is what Sue has learned herself – “Don’t sweat the small stuff.”

“The pressure they put on themselves to be perfect — I am almost glad when they get that B,” she said. “That is not what is going to define you.”

She says she will remain on the court and in the students’ lives for as long as she can.

“I am into my third generation now,” she said. “First I taught the parents, and now I am teaching their grandchildren.”

And she has no plans to quit anytime soon.

“I hope I will be there as long as I can stand up,” she said.