On October 23, the Racquet Sports Professionals Association awarded former BYU Tennis Head Coach Dave Porter with a spot in the Tim Heckler Hall of Fame as their 2025 recipient.
Porter, a longtime RSPA member, is one of collegiate tennis’s most accomplished coaches, with 1,438 career wins and 11 national championships at BYU–Hawaii. He also led BYU men’s tennis from 2020–2023 and has earned multiple ITA National Coach of the Year honors.
Porter’s influence goes beyond college tennis as he helped coach China’s women’s doubles to Olympic gold in 2004, guided Grand Slam champions and helped shape modern tennis instruction through RSPA programs worldwide. A BYU graduate, he holds a bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate in physical education.
Read more from the RSPA here: Dr. Dave Porter Inducted into the 2025 Tim Heckler Hall of Fame
At the ceremony, Porter reflected on how tennis has shaped the way he approaches life and assisting athletes as a coach, emphasizing that wins and losses don’t define an athlete or individual, but instead are opportunities to learn and grow.
“Well, my favorite sports axiom actually comes from rodeo, and it says, ‘There was never a horse that couldn’t be rode and never a cowboy who couldn’t be throwed,’” Porter said. “So if you’re going to play tennis, you’re going to win, you’re going to lose and that’s the way life is. Whether you fail a test and then do well on the next one, or face challenges at a job, you learn about handling success and failure. That’s a great lesson tennis teaches—maybe even better than team sports—because you’re the one responsible for it. If you focus on winning, you lose sight of the effort and growth. If you focus on helping someone improve and have a good experience, winning comes naturally, and every new player becomes another opportunity to teach and learn. For me, it was just a cycle of, ‘Here’s another blessing that I have to work with someone.’”
At BYU, Porter compiled a 28-35 record over three seasons with the Cougars, including a 21-9 mark at home, coached eight All-Conference players and two nationally ranked singles athletes.