By Holly D’Addio, Source Sports Writer:
Madison’s Joe Giantonio grew up loving the sport of
tennis, but after a basketball injury ended his career in high school, he
wasn’t sure he’d ever return to his beloved sport. Fast forward several years
when Joe met his wife—a lifetime tennis player and experienced coach—and he
found himself engulfed in the sport again.
Not only has Joe
learned more about tennis and shared his knowledge with local youth over the
years, but he is currently working to bring a new trend to tennis tournaments
in the area, starting first with New
Haven’s own Pilot Pen.
Joe grew up playing
tennis in New Britain at Walnut Hill
Park public courts. He
played tirelessly with his friends during the summer and took pride in teaching
himself the sport.
“I remember vividly
going into the Sports Authority and getting my first aluminum racket,” says
Joe. “After that, my friends and I all self-taught ourselves and learned from
there.”
In the middle of his
high school career at New Britain
High School, Joe suffered
an injury playing his second sport, basketball, and was sidelined for the rest
of his tenure.
“I was playing in a
YMCA league and I remember I went for a fast break down the court,” says Joe.
“I ended up into the wall and my ankle took the brunt of it. I had to do a lot
of rehab after that and my ankle just didn’t recover.”
Joe attended Central Connecticut State
University after high
school and focused on getting his undergraduate degree in business
administration with a minor in computer science. To keep busy as his ankle
continued to heal and keep him off the tennis courts, Joe worked at a local
college radio station to pass the time.
After college, Joe’s
life turned around for the better. He met his wife, Kim Butun, in 1996—a woman
who played tennis in high school and at Mount Vernon College
and who also has been an instructor for more than 20 years—and quickly found
his way back into the sport.
“She got me back
into tennis pretty quickly,” says Joe. “She taught me a lot of the fundamentals
that I already kind of knew but never had the instruction on and she really
filled in the blanks for me.”
Joe got his first
shot at coaching when he became the assistant coach of the women’s tennis team
at the University
of New Haven when his
wife was the head coach. That season, the duo took the team to its first
winning season in the school’s history.
Continuing to grow
as a coach, Joe got involved with his wife in some tennis summer programs in
the area, followed by becoming an assistant coach to his wife when she led the
Cheshire High School women’s team. He got his first shot at head coaching last
spring as the Daniel Hand High School boys’ tennis team head coach.
“I was originally
going to assistant coach with my wife at the Hopkins School in New Haven,” says
Joe. “A couple of parents from Madison came into the shop and asked me if I had
any interest in coaching the boys’ team at Hand after the head coach retired so
I decided to step up and fill the void for them. I had a great experience. We
didn’t quite make it to states because we were challenged by injuries and
absences, but next season will be a good season to build off of.”
Currently, Joe runs
a summer program at Owenego Tennis and Beach Club in Branford, is a private
instructor in Madison, and is a member of the United States Racket Stringers
Association, which happened after opening his retail tennis shop last year
called the Madison Tennis Hut.
Because of his
store, Joe is involved with the Pilot Pen tennis tournament this summer with a
company called Campus Customs.
“I suggested the
idea of public racket stringing at the event this year,” says Joe. “Usually,
racket stringing is only offered to the pros, but this year it’s also offered
to the public. It’s been well-received and people really seem to be interested.
Hopefully it’s something that will be carried through to other tournaments. We
do a stringing demo and are stringing rackets for the public for a fee—people
typically come in and see me stringing and ask me if they can have theirs done
as well. It’s really become a trend here. I’m having a blast doing it and enjoy
the process myself—it’s kind of like doing a puzzle and it’s fun to share with
other people.”
Sidelines with Joe
Giantonio
What is your most
memorable sports moment?
We had a small
banquet for tennis at the end of last season. One of the co-captains, Jeff
Hanrahan, said it was his most memorable season at Hand High and that meant a
lot to me because it’s not always about winning and even though we didn’t have
the best record, we all bonded and I had a great time with the team.
Who would you like
to thank?
Hand’s Athletic
Director Craig Semple for giving me the opportunity to coach—it meant a lot to
me that he gave me a shot at it. I’d also like to thank the secretary to the AD,
Jackie Gardner, the families of the players, who were very supportive and came
out to a lot of the games, and my wife for giving me the background and inside
into coaching and for getting me back involved in tennis again—without her,
none of this would’ve ever happened. I would also like to thank Joe Coben from
Campus Customs for having me down at the Pilot Pen all week, it was a very
enjoyable experience for me.