About
Don
Don Eisenhauer has spent his life inside the lines of Northwest Indiana tennis — as a player, a teacher, a head coach, and the official standing at the net when the match is on the line.
He's the head coach of the Portage girls tennis program and an assistant coach for the boys, a USTA certified coach and referee, an ITA college referee working dual matches across the Midwest Region, and a Northwestern graduate who still competes in USTA play himself.
His teaching philosophy is deliberately unglamorous: consistency first. Rally tolerance, then the ability to handle challenge, then moving your opponent, then spin — and only then power. Players who climb that ladder in order don't plateau.
Beyond lessons, Don runs the operational side of local tennis: adult leagues, open play, brackets and seedings for regional events, and the Portage Junior Tribe Academy that feeds the high school programs. If tennis is happening in this corner of Indiana, he probably has a hand in it.
At the USTA Coaches Open in New York City — the national summit for certified tennis coaches.
Consistency
Beats Power
Don works off the Developing a Player roadmap — receiving and sending skills, technique matched to age and stage, movement folded into time-and-space tactics, and mental skill development running alongside all of it. Power sits at the top of the pyramid, not the bottom.
Gallery
Tournament flyers, match photos, and moments from around Northwest Indiana tennis and the USTA Coaches Open.