Captain Steve Leane, United States Coast Guard Retired
Steve Leane, Master Racquet Technician
Jay Clayton Wilson
Almost every STC member has had Steve Leane restring a racket at one time or another. No surprise there because Steve is a Master Racquet Technician who has played with us and strung our rackets for us more than a decade. But there is more to Steve than many of our members know.
Captain Steve Leane, United States Coast Guard Retired, is a 1961 graduate of the Coast Guard Academy. Much of his duty has been at sea where he engaged in search and rescue, law enforcement and ice breaking operations, confronted numerous foreign fishing ships and intercepted a Russian ship that was in transit to Cuba during the 1962 missile crisis. Here is a very brief look at his brilliant career as a sea captain and as a tennis buddy. It is brief because Steve is not only a rather private person, but also because he is humble.
Steve’s career included duty on seven different Coast Guard cutters: the Duane, the Cape Cross, the Steadfast, the Venturous, the icebreaker Burton Island and as commander of the 378-foot high endurance cutters Sherman and Midgett. While in command of the 95-foot patrol boat Cape Cross, Steve established a security zone around the site of the U.S.S. Thresher, the first nuclear submarine lost at sea. Aboard the Steadfast, many Cuban refugees were rescued from the Florida Strait. As commander of the Venturous, his ship witnessed the explosion of, and provided immediate response to, the S.S. Sansinena, a Liberian oil tanker loading fuel in San Pedro, California. The explosion split the ship in two, claimed nine crewmen and was felt as far away as Los Angeles and made national news. The Midgett made national news when Captain Leane confronted a large Japanese fishing ship illegally taking crab in the northern Bering Sea. This resulted in a tense seven-day standoff while diplomats of the countries negotiated the matter. It concluded when the fishing vessel returned over $2 million in processed crab to the sea and left U.S. waters. Then the Midgett again made national news when Captain Leane launched his helicopter crew on a dangerous mission to rescue seamen whose ship sank in heavy Bering Strait seas. What stories could be told about these episodes. But Steve, in his modesty, asked that details be omitted.
What can’t be omitted is Steve’s certification as Master Racket Technician by the United States Racquet Stringers Association. This prestigious certification is awarded to only a few professionals who demonstrate superior technical competence and product knowledge in racquet sports. Proficiency in stringing is combined with the ability to give professional advice about the type, brand and tension of the many strings and numerous racquets available on the market today. STC is now privileged to have a tennis buddy whose abilities give our players the best of quality strings installed with the finesse of our own certified MRT.
Steve Leane is truly a tennis friend and a valued member of the SaddleBrooke community.