Brett Stephens

Professionally, he started at Essendon under 19s and later the Reserves, although he failed to crack a senior game with a team that was a powerhouse at the time. He then went on a nine year journey playing football in Tasmania, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia before joining Fitzroy and debuting in the VFL/AFL at the age of 26.

He played a total of 133 senior games, which places him 60th on its all time players’ list.

This journey taught Brett many skills about resilience and determination, as well as the need to get the body and mind right. These are the skills he took into his post-football career as a coach travelling the world working on the Professional Tennis Circuit, including time with Pete Sampras and Mark Philippoussis. 

As well as the highlights with people like Sampras, he has countless great stories about lower ranked players who achieved their best and surprised themselves. To Brett, all his players were Numbers 1s regardless of their rankings because most of them completed their careers understanding how to give it their best.

Brett is an engaging speaker who can talk about self belief, understanding your potential and Keeping it Simple as guides to achieving your best.

As he says, embrace the journey and don’t think result think best effort.

Highlights

• Worked at more 80 Grand Slams and was involved in more than 40 Grand Slam Finals.
• Worked with World Number 1 ranked players in singles and doubles, including Pete Sampras during the last five years of his career which involved living in LA. During that time Sampras broke the world record for Grand Slams and in his last tournament won the US Open.
• Worked with the Zimbabwean Davis Cup Team who as major under dogs beat Australia in Australia. 
• Married Cara Black from Zimbabwe who went on to win 10 Grand Slam titles in doubles, achieving ranking of world number 1 in double.