Three hundred youngsters from 12 sites across underserved areas of Washington D.C. and Prince George’s County, M.D. were introduced to tennis during JTCC’s spring community outreach GEICO Game On! and Advantage Prince George’s sessions.
The participants received weekly instructors from JTCC coaches between April – June and at the six locations in the District this was also supplemented by Academic Creative Engagement (ACE) classroom sessions. ACE is a nationally accredited out of school time program designed to support and encourage academic achievement, health, wellness, and strengthen life skills.
A group of outreach students with JTCC’s Tyler Delaney at Kentland Community Center
Twenty-four kids from the spring program were identified as being particularly motivated and hard working. These players now have an opportunity to attend a free outreach ‘Phase 2′ program at JTCC on Sundays throughout the summer. This will give them an opportunity to receive further instruction from both the JTCC coaching team and high performance players who volunteer their time to give back to the game.
This 6-10 year-olds will go onto have the chance to join JTCC’s highly acclaimed pathway program as they enter into the appropriate Red and Orange ball classes for their level from September. These are the same steps as current USTA National Girls’ 14s Hard Court Champion Robin Montgomery followed when she was introduced to tennis by JTCC.
The players from spring outreach will have their summer sessions alongside 16 youngsters of similar ages from JTCC’s partnership with Prince George’s County Police Athletic League (PAL).
The PAL participants were selected after a tryout day hosted at JTCC and the kids involved will also have the same access as those from outreach to JTCC programming later in 2018.
Some of the participants at the PAL Summer 2018 tryouts
“JTCC continues to make it a priority to offer talented young players financial support wherever possible,” said JTCC Community Outreach Manager Annessa Taylor. “We are grateful to our supporters who enable us to provide these opportunities and are very excited to watch these two groups of enthusiastic players continue their growth at JTCC as they begin their journey towards earning college scholarships.”
