Tennis is in his DNA

Patriarch Gil Howard is a living legend in the United States Tennis Association. Sons Mike and Scott Howard are both teaching professionals in the Bay Area, and sister Susan is one of the top club players in Northern California.

It is Kevin Howard, however, who may be considered the black sheep in the family. Kevin Howard, who works in the IT department for a Belmont company, grew up playing tennis — even playing on the professional tour for a few years — before giving up the game. For 20 years.

Due to health concerns, he picked up the game again three years ago to get back in shape and has quickly established himself as one of the top doubles players in the country in the 45-and-over and 50-and-over divisions.

Sunday, Howard, along with his partner Byron "The Flash” Nepomuceno, captured the Mill Valley Super Category II 45s nationals tournament championship — beating brothers Mike and Scott in the semifinals.

"It’s terrible to play them, unless we’re playing in the finals,” Howard said. "There was no satisfaction at all. I felt more like crying.”

Only a couple hours later, Kevin Howard was facing brother Mike and his partner in the 50-and-over tournament.

"We’d never played each other in 40 years and we played each other twice within three hours,” Kevin Howard said, who is 19 months younger than Mike.

Howard said much like riding a bike, once you know how to play tennis, it’s easy to pick up the game again, regardless of the layoff. In November, however, Howard had to have "Tommy John” surgery on his elbow — which is a ligament-replacement procedure. The normal recovery time is 12 to 16 months, but Howard was playing this tournament, his first since the surgery, in just over six months.

So how does an IT guy, who plays tennis, blow out his elbow ligament? Arm wrestling, naturally.

After winning over $300 in a bar challenge, Howard was arm wrestling a friend, who, in his haste to beat Howard, wrapped his legs around the table legs in an effort to get more leverage. When everyone heard a loud "pop,” it was assumed the table broke.

Apparently, it was Howard’s ligament snapping.

But that’s just par for the course for a member of a group who grew up playing tennis on the hardscrabble courts of Golden Gate Park.

"We grew up with some crazy characters,” Howard said, adding he’s had his share of scrapes during his life.

"But I’m a good guy now,” Howard said. "We grew up at Golden Gate Park. We were a lot different than the people coming out of the country clubs.”

Despite the hard edge Howard, his family and the rest of their colleagues displayed, they could play tennis. So much so that the Howard family knew all the top ranked players in both college and on the pro circuit. When Howard was 10, he was awaken by tennis great Arthur Ashe, who went out on the town with Howard’s father following a match.

"He woke me up and said he wanted to meet me,” Howard recalled.

Although Howard is approaching 50 years old and he took 20 years off from playing tennis, it’s a game that is in his blood and he’s proud of what he has accomplished.

"There is definitely satisfaction there,” Howard said.

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I’m now six weeks into my body transformation at B Street Boxing and while the weight is coming off slower than I would like, I can’t complain. Everything is a lot better than when I started, even better than my one-month anniversary, which I detailed in this space.

The biggest difference is my stamina, both cardiovascular and muscle-wise. I can now work the heavy bag for an entire three minutes. Just a couple weeks ago, I would have to stop because my shoulders just could not take the work. While I may not be the fastest when throwing punches, I’m at least steady and can make it three minutes.

As for my cardiovascular conditioning, I’m still tired and winded following a workout, which is to be expected, but I find that I can train much harder for much longer and need shorter rest breaks. My recovery following a workout — which used to last upward of 20 minutes — now takes about five.

All in all, I’m glad I took the step to get in (better) shape. Now if I could just drop more weight, everything would be perfect. But that will probably require me to monitor my eating habits better and cutting down on the beer, which I only drink on the weekends (most of the time).

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Notre Dame-Belmont is looking for a junior varsity head volleyball coach for the fall season. For more information, contact athletic director Jason Levine at jlevine@ndhsb.org, or call 595-1913, ext. 255.

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Menlo-Atherton announced last week Paul Snow and Steven Kryger have been named co-athletic directors. They replace Mary Podesta.

Snow, who teaches history at M-A, is also the coach of the girls’ varsity soccer team. Kryger, who teaches math at M-A and held the AD position at San Mateo for several years before moving to M-A, coaches the boys’ varsity lacrosse team.

Nathan Mollat can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 117. You can also follow him on Twitter@CheckkThissOutt.