Always competitive but without making winning the top priority, Ron Dahlsten touched the lives of hundreds of tennis players during his legendary career as a boys’ and girls’ coach at Lindsborg, later Smoky Valley High School.
Dahlsten, 87, whose teams and players were among the best in the state for more than 30 years, died Thursday, March 5 at his home.
“What he was able to do was take the sport and help every person who played feel good about themselves,” said Bryce Young, a former Bethany College player and coach who learned tennis from Dahlsten in the 1960s in Lindsborg’s summer recreation program. “It never came down to winning or losing a match. It was, ‘Did you have fun today? Then you won. Did you have a positive attitude? You won today. Were you a good sport? You won today.’”
Young went on to a long career as a sports psychologist in South Carolina. Dahlsten coached Mike Young, Bryce’s younger brother, to three state singles championships in the late 1960s.
Coaching almost entirely in an era before team championships were awarded, Dahlsten’s players won 14 state championships in either doubles or singles. Once team championships began being awarded in the mid-1980s, Dahlsten’s Smoky Valley girls won in 1987 and 1988.
Dahlsten was inducted into the Kansas State High School Activities Association Hall of Fame in 1995, and was also a member of the inaugural class of the Kansas High School Tennis Coaches Hall of Fame. He was twice a finalist for National High School Coach of the Year.
Smoky Valley now plays its matches at the Ron Dahlsten Tennis Complex, where the lights were turned on Thursday evening in Dahlsten’s honor. The complex opened in 2010, and the lead fundraiser and project manager was Vikings Coach John Bellah, a two-time state doubles champion for Dahlsten as a player in the 1980s. His doubles partner was Mark Dahlsten, Ron’s son.
“(Donors) might have been able to say no to Smoky Valley tennis, but they couldn’t say no to the Ron Dahlsten Tennis Complex,” Bellah said.
During construction, “We wanted to take care of all the details. We wanted all the things to be perfect,” Bellah said, down to the Viking-ship weathervane adorned with tennis balls atop the restroom/concessions building, and the landscaping.
Growing up with tennis
Dahlsten spent almost his entire life in and around Lindsborg, where he got his first tennis racquet as a $2.50 birthday gift from his sister around the age of 9. He always loved sports and took a quick interest in tennis. Dahlsten was a mostly self-taught player who learned from a few mentors in his youth.
“His nickname was ‘Scrawny Ronnie,’” Mark Dahlsten said. “When he entered the ninth grade, he was 4-foot-9 and 89 pounds.”
Ron Dahlstren worked to refine his strokes and became a top competitive player, finishing second in doubles in the 1956 state high school tournament with partner Alan Leaf, a boyhood pal with whom he always remained close. Dahlsten, Leaf and their wives shared dinner on Friday nights for many years, up until this past December. Leaf used to joke that he covered the alley and left the rest of the court to Ron.
“Ron was just a jewel of a friend,” Leaf said.
Dahlsten went to Lindsborg’s Bethany College, where he studied to become a teacher, played for the tennis team and met his future wife, Sue. In 1959, he was the first Bethany tennis player ever to qualify for the national tournament.
Dahlsten began his teaching career of 50-plus years at Roosevelt-Lincoln Junior High in Salina before moving back to Lindsborg, where he taught high school math and chemistry. He spent brief periods away from Lindsborg when he was earning a master’s degree at the University of South Dakota and, later, teaching at Barton County Community College. Post-retirement from Smoky Valley, Dahlsten taught at Southeast of Saline High School. But he never left his hometown for long.
During the summers, Dahlsten led the Lindsborg summer recreation tennis program and had a house painting business. In the 70s he owned and operated a racquet shop downtown with a partner.
More than just a coach
Known to students as “Mr. D,” Dahlsten had the same relentlessly positive approach in the classroom that he had as a coach. In 1982-83, he was the inaugural Teacher of the Year in the Smoky Valley district.
“He was going to have a joke with you, but you still had to have the assignment,” said Bill Nelson, a former student who was coached by Dahlsten growing up and later went on to be teacher and principal at Smoky Valley High School. “And if you had a question, he would help you any way he could.”
Nelson remembered Dahlsten as a teacher who said hello to every student, by name, as they walked in each day. He made students smile when he would lead a corny cheer in front of the classroom before every exam that included the lines “Let’s go, class!” and “You can pass!”.
“Never did he send a kid to the office. He didn’t have to,” Nelson said. “They respected him from the first day of class.”
Dahlsten was the Fellowship of Christian Athletes sponsor for about 30 years, and in 2000 initiated a coaches’ Bible study that still goes on today.
Among the state tennis champions Dahlsten coached in the 1980s were his children, Mark (three times in doubles); and daughters Beth (twice in doubles) and Sara, a team championship winner. Ron was not a pushy tennis parent and encouraged his children to participate in many sports and other school activities.
“It was always on our terms. It was never, ‘Hey, you need to get out on the courts.’ It was us saying, ‘Hey, Dad, can we go out and hit?’” Mark Dahlsten said.
Diana Ahlstedt-Holloway was a four-time state champion for Smoky Valley, the last three with Dahlsten as her coach. In 1987, Dahlsten coaxed the three-time doubles champion into playing singles to help the Vikings to win the Class 4A team title. Ahlstedt, who won the singles championship and went on to play tennis and basketball for Washburn University, said Dahlsten’s courtside coaching manner was superb.
“I don’t know that there was a negative thing to ever come out of his mouth,” she said. “He was always positive and encouraging. When I was uptight, he would always know what to say to make you laugh. He would give you that ‘Mr. D’ look, or his laugh. He was so good at making you feel like the most important person in the world and that you can do anything.”
Post-coaching, Dahlsten took great pride in supporting his six grandchildren. Mark’s four sons combined to win nine state individual medals and two individual championships for Hesston High School. Mark Dahlsten taught and coached tennis at Hesston for 36 years. His 2015 boys’ team won state, and several others finished second, often to perennial power Wichita Collegiate. Many of the drills and practice plans Mark used were handed down from his dad.
A multitude of Ron Dahlsten’s former students became educators, and several former players became tennis coaches – all inspired by “Mr. D.”
“To me, it was awfully easy to see that if I acted like Ron and had faith like Ron, I was headed in the right direction,” Nelson said. “He was just one of those guys I tried to pattern my life on.”
Visitation for Ron Dahlsten will be 4 to 7 p.m. Sunday (March 8) at Crick-Christian Funeral Home, 103 North Washington St., Lindsborg. A funeral service will be held AT 11 a.m., Monday (March 9) at the Lindsborg Evangelical Covenant Church, 102 S. Washington St.
Note: Tom Perrin, a McPherson native, is a former journalist who worked for newspapers in Kansas and six other states. He is a former tennis coach at Sacred Heart High School in Salina. He is currently a teacher and coaches high school tennis in suburban Chicago.
