Former Redwood coach gets Hall of Fame call

Tennis has brought great joy to the life of local teaching pro Carrie Zarraonandia, including the recent news that she’d been named to the 2011 class of the .

But there’s a bit of sadness, too, something the former San Rafael High standout player and championship coach wishes she could remedy.

“My favorite tennis memory is waking up at 6 in the morning and playing tennis with my brother Mike at Boyd Park,” the San Rafael native recalled recently. “It was a tiny little court right down the street from where I lived. A single court with fences five or six feet from each line. If you served it wide, it hit the fence.

“I drive by it today. It’s not resurfaced. There’s a bench in the middle of the court. It’s really sad.

“If I had the time, I’d do some fundraising and get Boyd Park resurfaced.”

If all it took were a few dollars from each of today’s Redwood High students to fund the project, it would be well worth skipping that day’s stop at Starbucks in order to reward an athlete whose coaching prowess as a Giant helped land her the prestigious Hall of Fame honor.

Oh, she was a pretty good player, too. But don’t look for all of Zarraonandia’s achievements in the San Rafael record books under “G” for Girls Tennis. That’s because perhaps her greatest claim to Bulldogs fame was as the No. 3 player on the boys’ Marin County Athletic League co-championship team in 1976.

“For some reason, they let the girls choose if they wanted to go on the boys’ or the girls’ team,” the 53-year-old said of her senior season at San Rafael. “I chose to play with the boys. Only two other girls in the county played for the boys’ team that year.

“I remember playing Alex Gelleri for No. 3 (on the San Rafael team). Apparently he was so upset I beat him, he went home and put his fist through a wall, and that was the end of his season.

“I really enjoyed working out with the boys. They were totally accepting. To co-champion with Redwood … I was very happy to contribute.”

The winning got contagious. Zarraonandia returned to the female circuit for her collegiate career, helping College of Marin claim two state titles and U.C. Davis capture a pair of Division III national championships. She earned All-American honors as an Aggie.

Wait, there’s more. Zarraonandia went on to coach at Dominican University and then at Redwood, where she led the Giants to six MCAL boys titles from 1993-2004, while at the same time teaming with her sister Anne, a 2005 Marin High School Sports Hall of Fame inductee, to win three age-group national doubles championships.

“My first call was to Anne,” Zarraonandia said of getting word of her 2011 enshrinement, which will take place Nov. 5 at the Embassy Suites Hotel in San Rafael. “I said, ‘Hey, Anne, they didn’t forget about me!’ It was one of the better surprises I’ve ever gotten.”

If her sister had responded, “Ah, you got lucky,” it wouldn’t have been a total shock. You see, even as doubles partners, the Zarraonandia girls have a longstanding rivalry.

“Anne has always been the older sister. When we played doubles, when she told me to run after the lob, I ran after the lob,” Carrie claimed. “We’ve played each other I can’t tell you how many times. We played for the No. 1 spot at San Rafael High (girls team), at College of Marin and at Davis, and also the 35s (35-and-under division) in Northern California.

“She probably has a winning record over me. She knew how to beat me.”

Zarraonandia, who currently works out of the Rafael Racquet Club and the Scott Valley Swim and Tennis Club in Mill Valley, hasn’t given up trying to beat her sister. But if she can’t do it, she’s trying to develop someone else who can.

“It’s a wonderful thing to give back to a sport,” she said, noting that she’s given instruction at a variety of clubs in Marin over the past 30 years. “I see so many of these girls who really have talent. It’s OK for them to be jocks. It’s wonderful to see.

“And now I’ve been teaching in the country so long, I’m teaching some children of students I taught in the ‘80s. It’s heart-warming that I can have a relationship with my students. They’re not 16 or 18 anymore. Now they’re in their 30s. I just chuckle: Look what I’ve been a part of. I think that part is really cool.”

And then there’s the weekly match against her sister at the Rafael Racquet Club.

“We don’t play like we used to,” Carrie admitted. “But every once in a while, there’s a flash of brilliance. We look at each other and say, ‘Maybe we can do this again.’”

And if it were to happen at Boyd Park, that would surely be a dream come true.