After 11 years as the coach at Merimbula Tennis Club, there is no doubt he will be missed, as evidenced by many positive comments on social media and a list of tennis groups wanting to take him out to say farewell and good luck.

While James is leaving tennis coaching, he will return to Merimbula after an extended break which includes getting married to fiancée Megan at Hamilton Island and returning to the UK to see family and friends.

James moved to Australia in 2005 after coaching at summer camps in the USA, a David Lloyd tennis centre in the UK and in Kos, Greece. Following six years coaching in Far North Queensland he arrived at Merimbula in 2011.

"It's gone so quickly; I bump into kids that I used to teach and now they're married or having kids," James said.

He sees the number of kids playing tennis as a key marker for a coach and James' junior development programs have been a testament to his expertise.

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"One of the things I'm most proud of is for five years in a row we had a junior in the Australian Open Super 10s, the national U10s competition held at the same time as the Aus Open," he said.

"Logan, Macca, Holly, Paige and Luca, all coming from a small country town, that was big. You have to be one of the top four U10s between here and Wollongong and including the ACT to make it.

"I want to thank Foster (Ofati) too who was a big part of the juniors program," James said.

Rather than juniors and adults being separate groups, juniors were encouraged to be part of the adult night comp, which James ran, quite often being lowly ranked, despite their very obvious talents but always arriving with impeccable court manners.

While some clubs struggled to find sufficient people for their night comps, Merimbula remained popular and always had 40-50 adults playing.

Coaching wasn't just at Merimbula with a one term a year weekly visit to Towamba Public School.

"I did the last one on Friday and the kids were lovely; they each wrote a card to me. I will miss going over there.

"The committees have always been good too, understanding what was good for tennis."

He says it's a great job but feels it's time for a career path change and like many people the pandemic gave time for reflection.

A new coach Hans Zeegers of North Sydney will be taking over the role at Merimbula.

"Hans is moving here with his wife and three-year-old daughter and the handover will be on July 4. I think Hans will be keen to continue the junior development and the night comps," James said.

"I'm extremely confident that I'm leaving the program with a great coach. Hans will be in touch with all the students after I leave and will carry on with the same programs."

James said it had been a pleasure to be the coach in Merimbula for the last 11 years and thanked clients past and present and the committee members who had given him "so much support".

"I'm not leaving the area so will be keen to see the progression of tennis on the Sapphire Coast," James said.

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