SPORTS
Game of
URVIVAL
80-year-old
Leonard Karpeles
has been coaching
tennis, squash
and racquetball
for 55 years.
KIMBERLY LIFTON
Staff Writer
T
he first time Leonard
Karpeles saw a tennis
match, he was a bit
confused.
It was 1933; he was 22. He
had been playing football at
a field which abutted some
courts and watched intently
as the players volleyed the
ball for nearly four hours
before completing a game.
"It intrigued me," he
says. "It seemed like there
was an easier way to play."
Soon after, Mr. Karpeles
went back to the same court,
this time complete with his
newly purchased racquet
and balls. He found a wall
and hit the ball 50 times
against it without a miss.
He spent months going
back to that wall, hitting the
ball at various angles until
he found the most accurate
shots. By the time he took to
the courts, he was confident
his strategy would succeed.
And within a year, he was
winning tournaments.
"You just hit it hard on an
angle; you let the ball
bounce and hit it," Mr.
Karpeles says. "You must
never let that ball remain in
play for four hours."
His fascination with tennis
has lasted a lifetime, one
which earned 80-year-old
Mr. Karpeles a reputation
for being a king on any court
—tennis, squash or racquet-
ball.
After mastering tennis, he
learned racquetball; later,
he picked up squash — each
without a lesson. And since
retiring from the grocery
business 25 years ago, he
has taken up full-time
coaching.
"I know every angle on the
court," he says. "If you play
every ball the right way,
winning will come. I've lost,
but not often."
Mr. Karpeles — once a
champion in all three sports
who has taught hundreds of
disciples the art of racquet
sports — has been nomi-
nated for the Michigan Jew-
ish Sports Hall of Fame.
"Even at age 80, he main-
tains remarkable racquet
skills," says Dr. James
Bragman, a squash player
who learned the game from
Mr. Karpeles. "Leonard is
not interested in personal
self-aggrandizement. His
greatest triumph is teaching
young people."
Among those Karpeles
followers is five-time world
professional champion rac-
Leonard Karpeles
has coached
hundreds of young
superstars.
quetball player Mike Yellen.
Also rated as Karpeles
success stories are several
Jewish Community Center
squash team players, among
them Dr. Bragman, Dr. Jeff
Deitch, Dan Werner, Skip
Parker, Jeff Yellen, Mark
Yellen and Sheldon Yellen.
"He makes it all seem
simple," Mike Yellen says.
"He's been very instrumen-
tal in my success. He taught
me the game, mental
strength and strategy."
For Jimmy Bragman,
Mike Yellen and others, Mr.
Karpeles — referred to by
most as "Coach" — is an in-
spiration.
"His philosophy of
teaching is not only germane
to racquet sports and
athletics, but to the game of
life," Dr. Bragman says. "He
is a very pragmatic man
with a conservative
philosophy that playing the
odds on the court are ap-
At 80, Leonard
Karpeles can still
hit a racquetball
with a certain
accu racy.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
45