We hear about coaching retirements many ways, but few as classy as the e-mail Monroe boys tennis coach Jim Bartholf sent us recently to let us know that he was calling it quits after 44 years with the Cheesemakers.

Jim coached boys and girls tennis for most of his career, turning the girls program over to Stephanie Miller a couple of years ago. He coached his final boys tennis team this past spring.

Here is what Jim listed as his greatest career highlights:

• My three sons playing tennis for me, one getting as high as sixth in the state tournament in doubles.
• Winning the Division 2 boys state team championship in 1996.
• Having the girls tennis teams in the team state tournament six straight years in a row  including two second place finishes.
• Winning 22 boys conference championships.
• Having  individuals place  in the state tournament as high as second.
• Sending one or more individuals to the state  boys tennis  tournament 42 out of 44 years.
• Having the 3rd best winning  record in the state at 365 wins and 110 losses.

"You know when the time has come to depart from something that you truly love," Bartholf wrote in his e-mail. "I have been involved in tennis for 55 years.   My basketball coach at Burlington High School  more or less forced me to go out for tennis  my sophomore year claiming that it would help my skills in basketball.  This was in 1956.

"I played tennis  four years at the U of Platteville, started tennis in Marshfield (1962-65), and coached here at Monroe for 44 years.  (17 years as girls tennis coach)

"I am what I am today because of four things that have happened along the way: I have been blessed with great kids that dedicated themselves to tennis,  a high school athletic department and school system that supported my program, a parks department that is second to none in keeping the courts in the parks top rate,  and Swiss Colony who for 20 or so years allow my players to play on their indoor courts free of charge."