Smith Stearns Tennis Academy at Sea Pines

• Where: Sea Pines Racquet Club, 1 Lighthouse Lane, Hilton Head Island
• Phone: 843-363-4789
• Founded: 2002, by Stan Smith and Billy Stearns

The Smith Stearns Tennis Academy is a junior tennis academy inside The Sea Pines Resort on Hilton Head Island, training on the clay and hard courts of the Sea Pines Racquet Club. Stan Smith, the former world No. 1 and Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion, founded it in 2002 with Billy Stearns, and B.J. Stearns directs it today. Some people know it as the Stan Smith Tennis Academy, or just Smith Stearns.

It is built for juniors, from young beginners to players chasing a college scholarship or a pro career, and it is deliberately small. It is also searched for as the Smith Stern Tennis Academy; it is the same place. For adult clinics and court time, see the Racquet Club, and for all the options, see tennis in Sea Pines.

Smith Stearns Tennis Camps for Visiting Juniors

The part most families on vacation will use is the camps. The academy takes juniors by the day or the week in summer, fall, winter and spring. A day is $250 and a week is $1,195, or $375 a day and $2,095 a week with housing. Whether a child joins a camp group depends on their level rather than their age, so call ahead and describe their game. Private lessons are also available.

Younger players, roughly 4 to 10, start in the Future Stars group, which uses smaller courts and slower balls. Children move up to the full courts when they are ready, anywhere from about 7 to 10.

The Full-Time Smith Stearns Academy

The full-time program runs the length of the school year, 9.5 months (August 10, 2026 to May 21, 2027 for this year). There are two versions. PM Only is for students who go to school in the morning and train in the afternoon. All Day is for online-school students and those in Hilton Head Preparatory School’s midday program, with a morning and an afternoon session. The week also includes fitness, strength training and an injury-prevention session. On rainy days training moves to the academy’s Sports Performance Center at Sea Pines Center.

For 2026-27, PM Only is $25,000 for a day student and $47,000 for a boarding student, and All Day starts at $32,000 for a day student, plus a $400 apparel package. Check the academy’s tuition page for the full schedule and deposits.

Boarding and Housing

Instead of a dormitory, boarding students live in four single-family houses on Morgan Court, each with house parents who live there full-time, cook, do the laundry and handle transportation. The academy picks up students flying in if you send the itinerary ahead.

College Placement

College placement is the academy’s main pitch. By its own count it has trained more than 2,000 juniors since 2002, sent players to more than 300 college programs, and helped them earn more than $15 million in college scholarships. Those are the academy’s figures, not independent ones, but they tell you what the program is built around.

Courts and the 2027 Plans

Preliminary plans reported by the Island Packet in July 2026 would replace the Racquet Club’s clay courts with a smaller mix of tennis, pickleball and padel courts, with construction from 2027 into late 2028 or early 2029. No source yet says how that affects the academy, so if you are enrolling for 2027-28 or later, ask the academy where training will take place. The Racquet Club page has what is known.

Around the Academy

The Racquet Club is a short walk from Harbour Town, and Sea Pines Center, where the academy’s gym is, has cafes and shops for the parents waiting on practice. For the rest of the plantation, see things to do in Sea Pines, and for courts elsewhere on the island, see tennis in Hilton Head Island.