Great Neck North tennis team hopes fundraiser will score win against MS

Mindy Alpert is not one for the spotlight.

As assistant coach for the girls varsity tennis team at John L. Miller Great Neck North High School, her place is on the sidelines of the court.

For one day, however, Alpert is happy to have attention focused on her at the Play It Forward for Multiple Sclerosis Tennis Tournament, a fundraiser to benefit research and raise awareness scheduled for Nov. 6 at the high school; at press time, the effort had raised about $2,000.

A former high school and college tennis champ, Alpert, 59, of Great Neck, gave up playing in 2006 because of MS, an autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system.

The same year, Peter Hugo, then Great Neck North's athletic director, who was aware of Alpert’s impressive tennis career, called her and learned about her employment and health status. He offered her the job of head coach for the team.

"I said to him, ‘I would love to, but with the MS, I don’t know if I’m coming or going half the time,’ " Alpert recalled.

In the end, Alpert agreed to take on the role of unpaid assistant coach.

During 15 years coaching at Great Neck North, including assisting on the girls basketball team, she concluded that if her career hadn’t been waylaid by MS, she probably wouldn’t have had the opportunity to coach.

"Maybe this is what I was supposed to do," she mused. "Maybe this is hopefully how I’m going to make a difference in people’s lives."

Living with uncertainty

Working as a senior vice president for investments at Smith Barney, Alpert’s health had gradually declined, and she was diagnosed with MS in 1998.

Three years later, at 38, she retired from a decadelong finance career that included five years at Merrill Lynch.

"I hung on for as long as I could," Alpert explained, adding that she was having memory loss, difficulty finding words and other cognitive issues at work and her doctor recommended she quit, since the stress was making her sicker.

"I had terrible fatigue, beyond, ‘I’m tired’ fatigue. This was to-the-bone tired, you-can’t-function tired," she said.

Looking back, Alpert said there were signs she had MS when she in college.

"I never understood why I was so much more tired than everybody else," she said.

In November 1996, she had developed optic neuritis — frequently an early symptom of MS — and lost vision in her right eye. After taking steroids, Alpert’s sight returned within a few months.

Like many autoimmune conditions, MS is diagnosed through testing and eliminating other possible diseases, such as cancer, Alpert explained.

For Alpert, MS makes life unpredictable. Some mornings, she said, she might feel fine but then can’t function by the afternoon. To cope, she carefully plans her days, scheduling ample time to rest.

"Overall strategy is: prioritize what’s important to me, which is the coaching and volunteering," Alpert said. "And … seeing friends and family."

As part or her advocacy, Alpert served on the board of the Long Island chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society from 1998 to 2019, six years as chair. When that group became the Greater New York City-Long Island chapter in 2019, she bowed out; she remains on the board of the National MS Society.

Alpert has always been a supportive resource for others, noted Andrea Kantor, Alpert’s spouse of seven years.

"A lot of people will call her and say, ‘My kid, my cousin, or my whatever, was just diagnosed with MS. What do we do?' " said Kantor, 57, a banking professional. "She gets a lot of those calls."

All-around athlete

Alpert took to tennis when she was introduced to the game at the age of 8. The athleticism, competitiveness and the fact that players only needed one other person for a game were reasons she loved the sport.

At 10, she was competing statewide; at 11, she was taking lessons at Port Washington Tennis Academy, known for nurturing tennis luminaries John McEnroe, Tracy Austin and Mary Carillo.

The young Alpert was ranked 25th in the East for 14-and-under, but gave up competing in tournaments when she was too busy playing on multiple high school teams — tennis, field hockey, basketball, softball, track and field, and volleyball.

"I think I still hold the record for the number of sports played in one year," Alpert said.

When she was in ninth grade, Great Neck North’s girls varsity tennis team — the one she now coaches — won the county championship for the first time. They went on to win the next three years, all while she was on the team. As a high school junior, she was one-half of the best doubles team in Nassau County, going on to rank sixth in New York State.

At Cornell University, where she majored in business and psychology, Alpert played tennis and basketball freshman year, continued with basketball in her sophomore year — but had to drop out in her junior year when she was diagnosed with mononucleosis.

After college, she played in tennis tournaments on Long Island and in Westchester — until she was gripped by unrelenting fatigue.

Nevertheless, Alpert doesn’t wallow in self-pity.

"I never thought, ‘Why me?’ because, ‘Why not me?’ I’m no better than anybody else," she reasoned.

Alpert, who coached badminton for a dozen years and will start as an assistant coach for boys varsity tennis team in the spring, contends that she gets more out of coaching than those she coaches.

"I know six days a week, every afternoon, I’m going to go and focus on something positive, and hopefully give back and hopefully make a difference in high school kids’ lives," she said. "To me that’s one of the greatest things you can do in your life."

Besides tennis skills, Alpert tries to impart what she calls "Mindy’s Life Lessons" — how to win and lose graciously, get along with teammates, put away selfish interests and practice good time management.

Alana Shapiro, co-organizer of Play It Forward and junior at Great Neck North who has played tennis in middle and high school, noted that Alpert teaches about sportsmanship and to always play fairly.

"I think she’s an amazing person and coach, and she brings so much to our team," said Shapiro, 16. "Even if she’s struggling with her illness, she’s still so positive and encouraging to our team."

Mike Kazin, head coach for boys and girls tennis at Great Neck North who has worked with Alpert for 10 years, said he considers her an equal.

"I value her insight with tennis strategy, knowledge," Kazin said, noting that she was a member of the last Great Neck North Nassau County championship team in 1980.

When the coaches do postmatch analyses and discuss strategies for practice sessions and future matches, Kazin said, "She can always offer me insight and angles that I might not have seen in some of the matches."

For the past eight years in a row, the girls varsity tennis team has made it to the Nassau County playoffs, reaching the county finals twice in the past five years.

Team rallies

Great Neck North junior Sophie Frenkel, a tennis team member and co-organizer of Play It Forward, has known Alpert since freshman year, when Frenkel started playing basketball.

"Every year my team usually dedicates a match or a game to raise money for MS, but the money only comes from a bake sale," explained Frenkel, 15. "We decided to plan a bigger fundraiser and see what impact the community could really make on MS."

Added Shapiro, "We hope that in the future our teammates can give back to her and show their support, even after we graduate."

When Frenkel and Shapiro approached their tennis coaches with their fundraising concept, Alpert recalled responding, " ‘The fact that you two thought about it on your own and came to Coach Kazin and me about this, I can’t tell you how much it means to me.’ "

Alpert is eager to spread awareness about MS, even on the tennis team, telling players about her condition, encouraging them to ask any questions they may have.

"I wanted to let them know that if I wasn’t there, it’s probably because I’m sick at home and can’t get out of bed," she said.

Though she doesn’t miss many games or practices, Alpert says that MS makes every day a challenge.

Coaching the team, she said, is "so good, even if I’m not feeling that great, I get there, because I know it’s just going to be so positive."

Over the years, Alpert has established strong bonds with team members and their parents, staying in touch with many after players leave the team.

"One kid said, ‘You’re one of the two adults who’ve made a difference in my life,’ " she recalled. "How can you not just love that?"