Breaking Serve: From Championship Coach to Prison — and the Journey Back
About this ebook
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.
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About the author
Michael’s life is a powerful testament to resilience, redemption, and growth. A former all-conference athlete and championship tennis player, his greatest legacy emerged in coaching. He’s the only coach in Division I history to lead four programs into the NCAA top 10, amassing more than 500 career wins, 10 Conference Coach of the Year honors, and developing 38 All-Americans. His crowning achievement came in 2019, when his team won the NCAA championship.
But that same year, his life was turned upside down.
Caught in the national spotlight of the Varsity Blues scandal, Michael faced one of the darkest chapters of his life. The intense fallout could have crushed him. Instead, he turned inward—drawing on the very leadership principles he had taught for decades. Through pain came clarity, through pressure came strength.
Now, Michael channels his journey into helping others rise. He knows firsthand the weight of adversity—and the power within us to overcome it. Whether speaking to individuals, teams, or organizations, his mission is the same: to find and expand your comfort zone and unlock the full potential.
You are capable of more than you know. Let Michael show you the path forward.
