After-School Tennis: Taking It to the Streets

On school play yards in San Diego’s barrios and inner city neighborhoods, the once foreign sound of a racket cracking a tennis ball is emerging.

It can be heard regularly amid the bells and school ground chatter at Memorial Junior High School in predominantly Hispanic Logan Heights and at Bell Junior High School, which draws nearly half of its 2,400 students from southern San Diego’s Filipino community.

The two schools are among 20 citywide participating in an after-school program designed to bring a country club sport to inner city youth. At the same time, it offers the elementary and middle-school children a healthy diversion.

“I like how you feel when you play,” said Elizabeth Contreras, a ninth grader at Memorial. “I like being friendly with my friends. You don’t think about problems that you have. You only have to play.”

The year-old after-school program is sponsored by San Diego Tennis Patrons, a 500-member group that promotes youth tennis locally and sponsors a dozen tournaments.

“We wanted to take away all the reasons why kids don’t play tennis,” said Bill Rennie, the program’s director.

It appears to be working. Of the 350 students involved in the program, more then 50 percent represent various minorities, and for most of the children it is their first tennis experience.

“In the past ... tennis was a very elitist sport,” said Kathy Willette, a patrons’ vice president and board member. “Kings and queens played the game in lush surroundings. It just wasn’t a playground sport.

“Those traditions and that way of thinking has made everyone feel that tennis is not a sport played in the streets or neighborhoods. It just doesn’t make sense to keep that tennis racket in a country club atmosphere.

“The after-school program is designed to bring tennis to the neighborhoods, so kids can play, mom knows where they are, and they don’t have to pay exorbitant fees to make it happen.”

Toward that end, the patrons provide tennis rackets, balls, and liability insurance coverage as well as pay the instructors, many of whom already work at the schools as teachers or administrators.

Children in the program pay $45 per semester, or three months of tennis instruction for the cost roughly of an hour-long private lesson.

Organizers said they felt a nominal fee was important to foster a sense of commitment and to help the program support itself. Children whose parents can’t pay the fee are given “scholarships.”

“No child is turned away because they can’t afford it,” said Willette, who this month received a community service award from the United States Tennis Association for her role in establishing the after-school program.

Rachel Ingber, a USTA spokeswoman, said the San Diego program is part of a growing national movement to develop more recreational tennis programs and expand tennis opportunities for minorities and anyone else who wants to learn the game. She said it is a movement the USTA actively encourages and promotes.

The San Diego program started last January in six schools, adding 14 more in the past 11 months. It now costs about $15,000 a year, and the patrons hope to expand it to schools countywide.

At 1,150-student Memorial Junior High School, the 25 tennis students are all on scholarship. They are instructed by principal Antonio Alfaro during a noontime “club” hour on the school’s asphalt tennis courts which have chain-link fences for nets.

Alone among the participating schools, Memorial offers the tennis instruction during school hours because, Alfaro said, gang activity and drug pushing around the campus make it too dangerous to hold the sessions after classes.

Alfaro said the tennis program, in place since September, is much more than a recreational outlet.

There was some resistance at first.

“Very few know anything about tennis,” Alfaro said. “It’s like I’m starting from scratch, so you just have work with them. I’ve convinced them that they want to be here.”

His offer to teach tennis initially was greeted by skeptical students who dismissed it as “a white man’s sport,” Alfaro said.

But he has won them over with stories of Arthur Ashe and Pancho Gonzalez helping to break down racial barriers years ago while citing Zina Garrison as a current role model.

“The main thing is their self-esteem,” Alfaro said. “Anything that can help them with their self-esteem, that’s what we need to do.”

At Bell Junior High School, 50 children are participating in the tennis program instructed by Hale Maher, an English teacher. Last year, Maher had 20 tennis students.

A former collegiate tennis player, Maher said he remembers the sense of accomplishment he felt playing tennis in his youth.

“I really want the same for these kids,” he said. “(Before) in the middle grades there was absolutely no programs for these kids. I just thought if they were given the chance, and coaching, and some money was put into the program ... there was just no reason why they shouldn’t have this sport.”

As the children at Bell have mastered the tennis basics, they have embraced the sport. Several have won local tournaments and graduated to high school teams.

“It was kind of strange. It was just like the first day of school,” recalled Major Latimer, a 13-year-old ninth grader who took up tennis at Bell. “But I’ve been enjoying it so far. It’s just like studying for a math problem -- you’ve got to finish one problem and be prepared to go on to the next question.”

Aside from uncovering hidden talents, the program has helped the students in the classroom while teaching them social skills and sportsmanship.

“Some of my tennis players say this was the thing that made them want to come to school,” he said. “I have some students who were chronically sick last year. They haven’t missed a day (this year).”

Willette said when she hears of such responses, “it makes everybody who is involved feel like were going in the right direction.”

“We’re trying to teach the whole child,” Willette said. “Tennis is just the vehicle being used to reach out to the kids. I think we have a higher vision than just producing champions. There’s a lot more things to tennis than just winning trophies.”