Rafael Coutinho, Director of Racquets at Rumson Country Club on the Jersey Shore, joins the BeyondTheBaselines.com podcast.







With just two tennis courts and four pickleball courts, it had been the platform tennis courts that were the pride and joy of Rumson. With over 20 social events during the paddle season, platform tennis was at the heart of Rumson’s winter activities. But with grand designs and planning, and the club having the great idea to incentivize Rafael to build participation across tennis, there are four new tennis courts and a new racquets shop in the plans for 2026.



Rafael has gone deep into the club's software and has measured usage across various fields and demographics. Across all the racquet sports, Rumson, he found, had 325 members step on one of the three various courts - tennis, pickle or platform - in the past year. He took the data, met with the committee and the board, and showed the board the need for an expanded racquets facility. The club responded.



The Task of Educating



We discuss the need for department heads and management to allocate and spend time educating the member board and various committees. Through discussion,



Join Rafael and our very own Ed Shanaphyh as we discuss using the data and educating the board to gain a bigger budget, add employees, both fulltime and part-time, and to earmark capital campaigns and funds for the racquets facility. Here’s an executive who understands that reporting is just as important as a racquet path.