14-07-2025
Ken Herrmann and The Fort training the pickleball stars of tomorrow
Over the past 11 months, Monica Centonze has put more than 55,000 miles on her Volkswagen Atlas.
Much of that mileage has been spent driving her 19-year-old son Jae Centonze five hours -- from Ocala to The Fort in Fort Lauderdale -- so he can hone his pickleball skills under the tutelage of Ken Herrmann.
'We go down there at least two or three times a month,' Monica said. 'We wake up at 3 a.m. Jae sleeps in the backseat while I make the drive. We get there by 8:30, and he's ready to play for several hours. Usually by 5 p.m., we make the drive back.'
Monica, a single mom, works two jobs -- mostly remotely -- running a home-inspection business and also serving as a wellness supervisor for her local YMCA.
'When you want something so badly, you will do whatever it takes,' Monica said, 'and I've never seen Jae so motivated.
'He was a really good tennis player until he got burned out at age 13. In tennis, he did just enough to get by. But in pickleball, he's doing all the extra stuff. He watches pickleball videos; he gets professionally stretched; he goes to a chiropractor; he has a trainer …'
Jae Centonze, who turned pro a year ago, is obviously all in on pickleball – and he's not alone.
Herrmann is training dozens of aspiring pickleball pros at The Fort's APP High Performance Academy, which is designed for players ages 12-to-18. On average, Herrmann said, he has been tutoring 24-to-28 players per week.
But there's more.
On August 18, Herrmann plans to start a pickleball boarding program. Young student-athletes will take on-line classes, and they will train for several hours per day at The Fort.
'My vision is to rent a home for the initial six players and have an adult supervisor on staff be in there with them,' Herrmann said.
'This will be the first Nick Bollettiere-type boarding program … but for pickleball instead of tennis. This is a pilot program for us.
'It's exciting. It's a big first step.'
Herrmann said about 15 students have expressed interest, some from as far away as Australia, England and Costa Rica.
However, Herrmann wants to restrict the number of students in this first year to no more than six.
'We want to make sure we are successful,' Herrmann said.
The odds are in Herrmann's favor.
After all, Herrmann -- a 60-year-old Chicago native who grew up playing tennis -- has had a long and successful track record as a coach. In fact, in 1994 he started working as a staff member for the USTA High Performance National Development program, helping to train and coach future tennis stars such as Andy Roddick, Mardy Fish and the Bryan twins, Bob and Mike, when they were all about 12-to-14 years old.
In 1999, Herrmann – seeking a better work/life balance -- left that organization. He then bought and created one of the largest tennis clubs in Chicago, building 10 indoor courts on the city's North Shore.
As it turns out, the 'Herrmann Tennis Academy' helped more than 50 kids earn college scholarships for tennis.
Herrmann sold that business in 2011. By late 2015, he had investors lined up to open a new academy.
'I took my plans to the executives from Wilson,' Herrmann explained. 'They said: 'Where are the pickleball courts?'
'They said the sport was booming in Arizona, California and Florida, and they highly recommended I made space for pickleball.'
Herrmann quickly did his homework. He starting playing pickleball, and he got certified to teach the sport.
'The people at Wilson were right,' Herrmann said. 'The growth of pickleball, the profits, the sheer joy we were seeing … ,' Herrmann said.
By 2018, Herrmann ran his first pickleball tournament, the Chicago Open, with a $25,000 purse, which was quite good for those early days. More than 500 players competed.
After that, Herrmann noticed that there wasn't a pickleball tour. So …
In June of 2019, Herrmann founded and launched the first USAP-sanctioned professional pickleball tour. The APP (Association of Pickleball Professionals) made its debut that fall in Chicago.
The APP Tour has since grown into a multi-million-dollar business, both domestically and internationally, with corporate offices located in Chicago.
For Herrmann, the missing piece at that time was finding a spot to open a high-performance player development headquarters. But after a friend told him about The Fort, Herrmann got a meeting with co-founders Brad Tuckman and Rich Campillo.
The rest is history as the Fort and Herrmann teamed up in January and immediately started attracting top players, including juniors.
One such example is Bella Houghton, a 14-year-old from Minneapolis.
Houghton and her mother almost immediately moved to Fort Lauderdale. Since January, Houghton – who has is home-schooled – has been training six hours a day at The Fort.
'I love the community here, and the coaching is amazing,' Houghton said of The Fort. '(Herrmann) has a bunch of different perspectives that help me get better. Most of the things he has taught me have clicked quickly.'
Those words surely thrill Herrmann, who has been coaching tennis or pickleball for 40-plus years.
'I've always had a passion for developing players,' Herrmann said. 'I remember sitting with (tennis Hall of Famer) Billie Jean King, and she said: 'Each generation inspires the next one.'
'That's what we hope to do here at The Fort.'
