Stern Taskmaster Still Cultivating Mililani Tennis Stars

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May Ann Beamer returns a pass during a training session on the Mililani High School tennis courts. Photo by Byron Lee, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

In May Ann Beamer’s world of tennis, practice ends when practice ends. One of the most sought-after private tennis instructors on the Island, the long-time coach never goes by the clock when it comes to tutoring her students.

“It takes a lot of sacrifice on the parents’ part,” says Beamer, who also is the head girls tennis coach at Mililani High School. “They have to give over their child with no questions asked. They just drop them off. How much longer will she be? As long as it takes for her to make me happy about her game. There’s no time limit and no age limit. It’s their ability and love of the game and potential that I’m interested in.”

Beamer’s success as a coach is evident in the number of players who have gone on to win high school state championships with her help. She doesn’t keep statistics on her own milestones, but a former assistant coach once put the figure at 12. Four-time state champion Erin Ho of Punahou (and the University of Washington) is among those on her honor roll.

Since Beamer took over the Mililani program 19 years ago, the Trojans can practically sign their own figure to the OIA West Conference checkbook, winning the division every year in addition to capturing 12 overall league titles.

As Beamer reaches her 70th year in 2009, she shows no sign of slowing down. On the occasions she has tried to broach the subject of retirement with Mililani athletic director Glen Nitta, he simply walked away from her.

So what keeps her motivated to coach every day?

“I enjoy working with the players, and I love the game,” said Beamer, who is known to her friends as “Cotieng” and to her players as Lola (Filipino for grandmother, she points out). “I love seeing players meet their potential. I like to fix what’s wrong, but I try not to impose myself on their game - unless I’m their private coach.

While assertive and detail-oriented in the coaching environment, tennis probably needs Beamer more than she needs tennis. Her three grown sons - Lono, Alika and Kekua - all remain active in tennis, having learned from her, so the sport has been a healthy outlet for the family. And yet there’s a sense that she has enough interests to have existed just fine without having ever set foot on a tennis court.

On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in the summer - the so-called off-season for the Trojan prep teams - Beamer gives lessons at Mililani.

“On Tuesdays and Thursdays, my days off (from coaching), you’ll find me working in my yard,” she said. “I play the piano to keep my fingers limber and my mind active. I also play classic guitar, and now that I’m retired from teaching, I do a lot of art work. I have a studio in my house. Tennis is just a sideline.”

Beamer’s art work has been shown in exhibitions, but there was no direct line to her becoming an artist. “As a young girl, I was always interested in art,” she said. “I dabbled in doing sketches and whatever. My parents said you can’t make a living doing art and that I should get a practical job. They sent me to Philadelphia, and Temple (University).”

Still, she likes painting the most. “The subject matter is mostly portraits and figure drawing. I do water colors and acrylic.”

Beamer was a standout at Punahou in tennis and quickly rose to the position of No. 1 singles at Temple. Soon after, she was named the Owls’ player/coach in a surprising turn of events.

“The coach at the time was someone from the (University teaching) staff, and he didn’t really want the job. Then, he quit entirely. I was the No. 1 player, so they asked me to be the player/coach. I asked them if we could do that. I’d never heard of it.”

After she graduated from Temple, Beamer and five others moved to New York City where she settled into a marketing research job.

That job was short lived, especially after she found out they were auditioning dancers for a Hawaiian Review Show at Hotel Lexington.

“It was 9-5 and it was such a boring job,” she said of the marketing work. “In New York, it would be dark when you got out of work. I figured if I couldn’t dance, I could hold a palm tree in the background, and that would be better.”

Beamer danced for “three or four years,” but found something longer lasting than a career in entertainment during her time in New York - she found a husband.

“My husband (Uncle Keola Beamer) was the choreographer,” she said.“We’ve been married for 47 years.”

As for her marriage to tennis, it continued when the couple moved to Wahiawa in the late 1960s to live in the community where she grew up. She would give tennis lessons to her sons, and soon other parents were talking to her about coaching their own kids.

“I told them, ‘OK, bring a couple of cans of tennis balls and we’ll form a group. When we moved to Mililani in 1970, it was the same thing.”