Considered an icon in the tennis community, his commitment to tennis and loyalty to Yavapai Community College and the Prescott area covers decades
Yavapai Community College Tennis Complex on Prescott Campus
The following is an outline the Blog has created based on information it has received regarding the firing of Chris Howard. Neither the Community College leadership nor any members of the Community College Governing Board have provided citizens with an explanation about firing the 68 year old employee. Requests for information from the Community College’s Public Relations department, as suggested by the Governing Board Chair at the April 11 Governing Board meeting, were met with a statement that the College does not comment on employment related matters.
- Howard was 68 years old when he was fired in March 2023 by Yavapai Community College.
- Howard has worked diligently for over 40 years with the Prescott tennis community.
- He is a USPTA elite Master tennis professional, which puts him in the top 10% of professional tennis players in the country with knowledge and experience.
- At age 68 he still competes on a national level, winning in 2022 what he describes as a “couple national titles.”
- He has won many Southwest Region tennis events and was once ranked #1 in the nation in the 65 doubles.
- During his career, Howard has worked in every type of tennis setting including: Five star resorts, tennis colleges, private clubs, country clubs, colleges, high schools, private courts, and subdivisions.
- Howard’s experience encompasses tennis club owner, sports director, tennis director, multipurpose club manager, tennis professional, tennis camp director, high school and college coach, adjunct, professional tennis services, tournament director, racquet stringer and repair, etc. He has been involved maintaining and building tennis clubs and tennis facilities from the ground up.
- During his career, Howard has managed up to 25 staff members at one time.
- Howard is past President of the Yavapai Tennis Association and was one of five creators of the Prescott Area Tennis Association in 1993. He is still a board member.
- He has written a weekly tennis column in the Prescott Daily Courier for at least 30 years, which is called, “My Point.”
- Howard began teaching at the Yavapai Community College tennis facility in 1982.
- Howard was among a group of volunteers who along with George Reynolds helped maintain the tennis courts at Yavapai Community College from 1999 until 2014 when the next tennis complex was built.
- Howard was a member of the planning committee for the new Yavapai Community College tennis complex before it was constructed in 2014.
- Howard helped raise an estimated $200,000 from the Prescott area community, which was donated to support the construction of the new Yavapai Community College tennis complex in 2014.
- Howard considers the Yavapai Community College tennis complex “special . . . even with a small seven court facility. A place where everyone feels good to come, an easy way to make a reservation, to join a class, lesson, or clinic.”
- He was hired to manage Yavapai Community College’s tennis complex since it opened nine years ago.
- He was lauded and specifically recognized by Yavapai Community College for his “generous commitment of time, support, and inspiration in advancing the sport of tennis in the Prescott Community.”
- Since building the new tennis courts in 2014, the College has locked the courts when it snowed until they were safe to play on again, which Howard strongly agrees is appropriate.
- Despite numerous requests, the College refused to give him as the manager of the complex formal access to the courts following such events as a snowfall so he could get in to clear the shaded areas at times, which needed to be cleaned of snow. Howard wanted to assess when the courts could have been playable. Because he could not access them and remove the snow, many times they were not playable when if the snow had promptly been removed they would have been playable.
- On many occasions, Mr. However believes there was no one at Yavapai Community College who would come take care of the courts at a time when they should and could very easily be reopened by getting rid of the slush before it refroze during the night.
- Howard says that the College created a problem because of the inability to property remove slush on a court during the day before it would refreeze. This resulted in many Community College classes being unnecessarily canceled, patrons not being able to timely use the courts, and tennis professionals losing days of giving lessons.
- He tried to have the College set up a meeting with his new dean and also with the Head of the Facilities Department to discuss the delays in cleaning the courts. The College refused to provide him with that meeting.
- Around eleven months ago the College Leadership team, without consultation with Mr. Howard, apparently decided to take two of the seven tennis courts and make them Pickleball courts.
- Howard and others apparently requested a meeting with the College decision makers, but the request was denied.
- The Prescott Area Tennis Association (PATA) learned about the College’s Pickleball decision. PATA asked for a meeting with the College where its members could discuss what was perceived as a poor decision and suggest alternatives to the plan. The PATA meeting request was denied.
- PATA members, apparently frustrated at the roadblock thrown up to simply have their views effectively heard by the College, initiated an email campaign in an effort to further express their opinions about the pickleball decision while suggesting several alternatives.
- The emails arrived on the desk of the College President with copies going to the District Governing Board members. It is suspected that the strong outpouring of opposition from the Prescott tennis community ruffled the feathers of the College’s executives who were apparently less than open-minded about a member of the staff, Chris Howard, disagreeing with them over adding pickleball and then informing PATA of the decision.
- The Pickleball idea was eventually withdrawn by the College, however, Mr. Howard and then Dean Scott Farnsworth (no longer with the College) had a meeting where in Mr. Howard’s view the Vice President told him of the VP’s disdain over what took place.
- Howard felt that after that episode, the College began watching him “very closely.”
- Howard was dismissed from his job on March 6, 2023, as the Community College Tennis manager, adjunct and independent contractor because he allegedly broke the policy regarding snow days, which the College calls a “Closed Campus” day. No one is allowed on campus on a snow closed campus day other than authorized personnel. He was not on the list of authorized employees
- Howard explained that he was at the tennis courts on a closed snow day to determine whether the courts would be playable the next day. He had done this hundreds of times before. If he thought the courts could be opened the next day after inspecting them, he would then contact the facilities department and try and persuade them to finish getting the shaded areas of the courts cleaned off so classes could be held the next day.
- When the College learned he had been at the complex on a Closed Campus day, he was fired. He received was is described as some kind of “trespass” ticket. He was also banned from the Community College premises for 12 months. He lost his job managing the complex, his adjunct position and his ability to teach independently using the College complex.
- He apparently cannot even go and pay to play at the tennis facility.
- He believes he was not given a fair opportunity to voice or explain what he was doing at the complex before he was fired.
- Howard feels that the College treated him “more like a criminal” than an employee and is hurt by this treatment because of his strong support and hard work for the College covering more than two decades.
- There was an outpouring of support for him at the Governing Board meeting held April 11, 2023, with from 70 to 80 Prescott tennis enthusiasts jamming the Board meeting room.
- Among those showing support who were given one-minute to speak on Mr. Howard’s behalf were: Eric Mitchell, the CEO of the United States Tennis Association, Southwest section. Fay Matsumoto, a former 35 year employee of the College. Dr. Paul Sadick, former Head of Surgery for the Veterans Administration and Embry Riddle Professor. Elaine Wolff, Ms. Pam Lee, Mr. Bob Florine, plus wheelchair players Ms. Nannette Johnson and Mr. Andrew Bogdanov. Mr. Howard was also given one minute to address the Board and was cut off before he finished his speech.
- Because of the large outpouring of support, the Governing Board ruled that it would only allow nine supporters a minute each to address the Board. Howard was likewise given only a minute to address the Governing Board.
- There was no comment from the members of the Board. All questions were directed to the PR department, which when asked says it cannot comment on firings.
- Howard says the treatment at the hands of the Community College just “can’t be right – not having a conversation to get on the same page, letting ideas flow and going with what makes the most sense.”
- The Community College remains steadfast in its decision and offers no further explanation to Mr. Howard or the Prescott community about its devastating behavior.
Once she was established and familiar with the Community College, President Dr. Lisa Rhine instituted major changes in the Athletic Department’s culture by creating specific written goals for coaches to meet, including goals for fundraising, recruiting, community participation, and “team goals.” For the first time in its 50-year history, the College directed the coaches to focus more heavily on recruiting outstanding Yavapai County student athletes, with a goal of each team being 
made up of about 25% student athletes from the County.
Governing Board Chair Deb McCasland in the September 7, 2022, Verde Independent newspaper, the coaches left because they refused to accept new recruiting and scholarship guidelines instituted by the college. 
District, have raised concerns about the College’s lack of focus on recruiting outstanding local athletes. They also expressed concern about the college’s practice of providing generous taxpayer-funded scholarships to out-of-state and international athletes, while rosters often included few or no local athletes.
five years ago “to focus more attention on recruiting local student athletes (county/state).” A “mandate” was instituted “that required 25% of all student athletes recruited had to be from local high schools,” she said. Furthermore, the coaches were told “that the support for out-of-state and international students will decrease as we increased the scholarship support for local 
student-athletes.” “Those three coaches who decided to leave the college ignored those mandates,” wrote McCasland.
Assistant coach Miles Kizer also announced his resignation from Yavapai College at the same time. Then, in August 2022, the Athletic Department announced the resignation of Doug Eastman as the Head Coach of the Yavapai College softball team. Eastman won 343 games, making him the winningest softball coach in program history. His 300th win at 
Yavapai Community College (also the 800th of his career) came during the 2022 season.
The College hired replacements for the coaches who left an faced issues such as rebuilding a program and quickly recruiting athletes for it. It appeared from the October 2022 presentation to the Governing Board that it was relatively successful in its efforts.
Yavapai Community College has announced the 2022-23 Men’s Basketball schedule. According to the schedule, all of the home games will be played in Prescott at Walraven gymnasium on the Prescott Campus.
Yavapai Community College has hired a new softball coach. She is Kali Pugh and becomes the 11th head softball coach in the College’s history. Pugh was the head coach of the San Diego City College Knights.
Head Yavapai Community College Women’s Basketball Coach Gerrard Carmichael has almost completed building his roster for the new basketball program launched this year. It will have a strong Arizona flavor with at least 11 athletes from Arizona and four of the total 15 student athletes from Yavapai County.
