With his wide-brimmed hat and ever-present smile, Vence N’Tcha is a familiar sight around the tennis courts at Eastern Yacht Club. In some ways, that’s nothing new. N’Tcha says he was “pretty much born on the tennis courts.”
Originally from Benin in West Africa, N’Tcha is now in his fifth season as a tennis pro at Eastern Yacht Club. Dan McCormick, a friend and the former tennis director at Eastern Yacht Club who hired N’Tcha, said “Vence has an infectious positivity that I’ve never seen before. He brings a great deal of energy with him whether he’s walking on the court or into a room.”
By the time N’Tcha, the youngest of three children, was born, his older sister Niba was already competing. He considers his mother his biggest influence.
“My mother didn’t want to shuttle three children to different activities, so everybody played tennis,” he said. His mother would drop them off at Friendship Stadium, a huge sports complex with six tennis courts, two soccer fields, 12 basketball courts and an area for volleyball and soccer. N’Tcha found ways to occupy himself: picking up balls for members, serving as a ball boy or umpire, making friends and essentially living around tennis. After winning his first
tournament, N’Tcha made Benin’s national team and traveled around West Africa.
“Back home you wanted to be on the court as long as possible. You wanted to be a ‘grinder’. You wanted to grind. Over here it’s more about the bigger shots,” NTcha said. “We call them ‘moon balls,’ which send balls as high as you can,” he added.
His path to the United States began with his sister, Niba, who had moved there several years earlier. Faced with the choice of turning professional or attending college, Niba chose Samford University in Alabama. Her decision inspired her brothers to pursue college tennis, N’Tcha said, partly because it could help pay for their education.
“You’re pretty much competing for your own degree,” he said. N’Tcha eventually followed the college-tennis route to Alabama A&M University in Huntsville.
The differences weren’t limited to playing style; the courts themselves were different.
“I grew up playing exclusively on hard courts in Benin. In the U.S. you have hard, clay and grass. My favorite in competition would be hard courts. My favorite to coach on would be clay courts. Hard courts are much faster. You want to have a fast game on hard courts and the matches aren’t as long. On clay courts the ball bounces and slows down a bit. It’s very physical. The good thing about clay courts is that it doesn’t reflect the heat. I can be on the courts for eight hours and my feet are okay.”
N’Tcha arrived in the United States in January 2020 and began applying for tennis jobs. What followed was a fortunate chain of connections: an application to Winchester Country Club led him to Vic Cran, who put him in touch with Dan McCormick, then Eastern’s tennis director. McCormick hired him, and by the summer of 2022, N’Tcha had found his way to Eastern’s courts.
N’Tcha had intense coaches growing up. He learned that competitive players sometimes need someone who pushes them. But he also learned the importance of encouragement. McCormick showed him another way to coach — patient, positive, joking, encouraging. N’Tcha, who teaches players ranging in age from 3 to 93, now combines the two philosophies.
“I have a mix of both. I try to be a little bit intense and we keep going,” he said.
“I love everything about the Eastern — its traditions, colors and the cannons. I’ve never heard so many cannons going off in one day,” he said laughing. “My first summer here in 2022, I was always jumping, jumping, jumping every time a cannon would go off. The more I saw the flag and burgee go up and down, I recognized it as a sign of respect. People are adventurous here and are well-traveled. Marblehead has a very rich history. You can feel it in the architecture.”
“Vence approaches every day with a smile on his face, is always willing to try something new and creates a sense of ease and excitement about everything he’s involved in,” Director of Racquets Vic Cran said. Cran particularly remembers Vence’s first Marblehead winter after years in Benin and Alabama.
“Even though he could barely feel his fingers, he was out there every day shoveling snow, learning a new sport — platform tennis — and making the most of all the new people and experiences he was having. I feel very fortunate to not only work alongside Vence, but call him a friend,” Cran added.
