Honored Cloquet tennis coach gets personal

Tom Proulx, the assistant coach for Cloquet boys tennis, was recently named the Section 7A 2019 Assistant Coach of the Year Award by the Minnesota Tennis Association. Proulx has been coaching in Cloquet for 18 years. He recently began working at the college level with the Cardinals tennis team at Saint Mary's University. Pine Knot News intern Jordan Allen caught up with Proulx this week to ask him a few questions about his time coaching at Cloquet and where he hopes to take the team in the coming years.

Pine Knot News: What made you want to start coaching?

Tom Proulx: Well, I have always enjoyed playing tennis; I've played tennis my entire life and I like working with kids. I was a junior probation officer for many years and I worked with kids for years. Steve Rickstrom was the coach at the time and I just went out, started helping out with the team, and one thing led to another.

Q What has kept you coming back to keep coaching here in Cloquet?

A I've worked and lived here almost my entire life. It's been fun to give back to the community and to watch the kids grow, not only as tennis players but as people. I've been able to stay in contact with a lot of the kids I coached years ago. In fact, I coached the current head coach, Derek Johnson. He is such a great guy. The kids love him and he gets a lot of respect from them. He goes above and beyond. In the last four years, we've been down to the state tournament together three times and that's really it's been incredible.

Q What has been your favorite coaching memory so far?

A I think my favorite moment was when Robbie Sobczak and Ryan Willgohs made it to the state tennis tournament, because that was the first time since I have been here that we got any tennis players through to the state tournament. That was really exciting and really fun. It was a whole new experience going down and seeing that next level.

Q What kind of goals do you have for the team?

AWell, every year is different. You don't always know who's coming back - you know some of who will be coming back but not always. This year, we got a surprise with three seniors who came out who we had never seen before, and they were all factors in our varsity lineup. So it is always fun to see new faces come in; but we really want to see them out there as seventh-graders and that's one of the things I want to work on in the coming years. I want to do more recruiting in the middle school.

Q If you could meet any three living people, who would they be and why?

AI think that I am going to go with Queen Elizabeth, the queen of England, because of her longevity. She's been there through how many presidents and popes. She has been the queen my entire life. I have always seen her as a constant, strong and fascinating person. My second person I would sit down with would probably be Rafael Nadal. He is a great, classic, all-around tennis player. And my third person would be Roger Federer because he is a gentleman of the game. He's kind of what the game is all about.