Breaking Serve
From Championship Coach to Prison - and the Journey Back
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A national championship coach. A public arrest. A federal prison sentence. And a fight for redemption. For three decades, Michael Center was one of college tennis's most respected leaders-coaching at Kansas, TCU, and Texas, where he built the Longhorns into a national powerhouse and a rock-solid reputation. Until March 2019, when the FBI stormed his home. Caught in Operation Varsity Blues-the federal investigation into Rick Singer's admissions scheme-Center was shackled and arrested in front of his family. Overnight, he lost his job, his identity, and eventually, his freedom. While the team he...
A national championship coach. A public arrest. A federal prison sentence. And a fight for redemption. For three decades, Michael Center was one of college tennis's most respected leaders-coaching at Kansas, TCU, and Texas, where he built the Longhorns into a national powerhouse and a rock-solid reputation. Until March 2019, when the FBI stormed his home. Caught in Operation Varsity Blues-the federal investigation into Rick Singer's admissions scheme-Center was shackled and arrested in front of his family. Overnight, he lost his job, his identity, and eventually, his freedom. While the team he built went on to win the University of Texas's first-ever NCAA Tennis Championship, Center watched from the sidelines-unemployed and spiraling. A guilty plea sent him to Three Rivers Federal Prison, just as COVID swept through the country. Alone in a sweltering solitary cell, he made a choice: survive-and rebuild. Breaking Serve is Center's raw, redemptive memoir of losing everything and fighting his way back. He shares what really happened at Texas, his harrowing experience in court and prison, and the deep emotional toll on himself, his friends and family. But this isn't just a scandal story-it's a roadmap for resilience. At the heart of his comeback are the Five Pillars that transformed his life: Empathy, Role Clarity, Purposeful Process, Standards Over Goals, and How to Compete. If you've ever faced life-altering failure, shame, or adversity, Breaking Serve is proof that you can get up-and come back stronger.
