Dataw's Tennis Director Recognized for Excellence

Warren Florence, Tennis Director at Dataw Island Club, has been teaching tennis in the Beaufort area since late 2001. Recently, unbeknownst to him, he received the Beaufort Gazette Reader’s Choice award for best Tennis Pro/Tennis Club -- a coveted local award exemplifying his teaching skill and friendly demeanor.

“I honestly didn’t know about the honor until a fellow staff member at Dataw asked me how I felt about it,” Warren said. “I asked her to repeat what she said. It was a great surprise.”

After living 15 years in Beaufort, Warren has worked with young -- and the young-at-heart – in many areas of tennis, ranging from technical skills to strategy, to the ebb and flow tennis can teach about life. He said he does not take the accolade lightly.

“There are a lot of great tennis mentors in the area that want to see tennis grow,” he said. “I’m honored that Beaufort and the Dataw community voted for me this year.”

Considering the voters’ recognition further, he said many people and experiences contribute to this nod.

Well before settling into the Lowcountry and its bounty of living, “life’s path” for Warren (whether intentional or not) seemed to have tennis in mind from very early on. Growing up in Greenville, S.C., near Travelers Rest, it was a short bike ride to the back gate of Furman University, where he participated in junior summer camps, which eventually introduced him to college tennis instructors. From then on, he’s spent most of his life outside playing and eventually teaching, learning as much about people as he has the many aspects of the sport.

Warren’s early primer to the tennis industry included working for “great mentors” at the international tennis brand, Dunlop Racquet Sports. For that piece of experience, he didn’t have to travel far. The North American headquarters are in Greenville. But his biggest involvement in knowledge later coincided the business side while writing, editing and traveling for national magazines TENNIS and Tennis Industry in New York, N.Y.

“While at the magazines, you do some teaching and you do a lot of traveling,” Warren said. “I covered a lot of players and wrote a lot about the game.”

But the pro level is only one aspect of what Warren calls the bigger picture in tennis.

He recalled collaborating with tennis pros and celebrities at NYC spots: Wall Street Racquet Club, Central Park, Arthur Ashe Stadium and Grand Central Station…simply on getting more people playing. When he later landed in Beaufort, he continued the same grass roots efforts, teaching at Cat Island, and a few years later as the first tennis director at Palmetto Bluff. Now three years at Dataw Island Club, the message continues to be the same.

“I credit some of my teaching to having been able to talk to some of the best coaches on the planet and learn really how it’s done,” he said. “Sure, take some of those tennis experiences. But it’s mostly about how to inspire, how to motivate and make sure the community continues to embrace the laughter and friendship tennis can produce.”