There’s No Place Like Home: Competing, Coaching and Representing Austin
For Austin Ignite player Meredith Geiger-Walton, this month’s Champions Series event offered something especially meaningful: the opportunity to compete at home.
Following the Austin event, Meredith shared what it meant to represent her city, the lessons she carries from coaching into competition, and why the relationships built through team sports have become such an important part of her WHY. Below, she reflects on the experience in her own words.
There is something different about competing in your hometown. It carries an added sense of pride, responsibility and commitment. You want to perform at your best not only for yourself and your teammates, but for the people who have come to support you—local fans, friends, club members and, most importantly, family.
Playing in Austin with Austin Ignite gave me the rare opportunity to bring several parts of my life together on one court: athlete, coach, wife, mom and Director of Racquet Sports at Austin Country Club. For my family, it was an opportunity to see a different side of me. My sons got to see “Mom” as a fierce competitor and athlete, fighting for every point alongside my teammates. Remarkably, it was only the second time my husband has watched me compete in person. Looking into the crowd and seeing my family, then looking beside me at teammates and team owners who have become another family, made the experience about far more than wins and losses.
That is one of the things I value most about team competition at this stage of my life. The relationships matter. The camaraderie matters. The people standing beside you—and the people cheering for you—become part of your WHY.
It was incredibly rewarding to represent Austin and Austin Ignite in front of our hometown supporters. It was equally meaningful to represent Austin Country Club and see ACC members come out to support me. I hope that when members see me compete, they see that the pursuit of improvement never has an expiration date. There is always another level to reach, another skill to develop and another opportunity to challenge yourself. If my commitment to competing encourages even one member to enter that tournament, move up a level, commit to training or simply believe they are capable of more, that is incredibly rewarding to me as a coach and director.
Tennis is still very much part of my daily life. In fact, Friday morning before our team practice, I was on the tennis court teaching a ladies clinic. People sometimes ask whether it is difficult for me to move back and forth between tennis and pickleball. It really isn’t. The court is second nature to me. After competing in college and on the professional tennis tour, I fell into coaching—and I have never stopped. Over the years, coaching has shaped not only my career but also the competitor I am today. When you spend years teaching players how to recognize patterns, manage momentum, make tactical adjustments, control emotions and stay committed under pressure, eventually you realize those same lessons apply to you. I better practice what I preach.
At this stage of my competitive journey, the WHY has become increasingly clear. Yes, I love to compete. I love the pressure, the challenge and the opportunity to test myself against great players. But the experience has become about something bigger. It is about teammates becoming friends. It is about family seeing you pursue something you love. It is about representing your city, your club and the people who support you. It is about continuing to grow as both an athlete and a coach. And sometimes, it is about your sons getting to look across the court and discover that Mom still has a pretty fierce competitive side.
Playing at home reminded me that competition isn’t separate from the other parts of my life. It connects them.
Photo Credit: Brad Evenson
Meredith’s experience in Austin captures something at the heart of the Champions Series: the opportunity to keep competing at a high level while bringing along the people, relationships and experiences that make the game mean even more.
For players across the Prime 40+, Premier 50+ and Masters 60+ divisions, competition is still very much part of the story. And as Meredith’s weekend in Austin showed, sometimes the most meaningful moments happen when the different parts of your life come together on the same court.