Fun with Tennis

Last year, I was fortunate enough to have been in the right place at the right time to be introduced to Michelle Skipwith, the USTA Tennis Service Representative for Sonoma County. She was giving a presentation on bringing “QuickStart Tennis” into elementary schools to get young students more involved with the game of tennis. We placed an order for our school sites and for a very low cost we were able to supply our school sites with over 160 tennis racquets of various sizes for our students! We also received numerous types of tennis balls, tennis nets, and curriculum that will show our AmeriCorps members how to teach our students in tennis.

This Fall we had 3 tennis trainings, 3 hours each, for all of our school sites. At these trainings, mentors were taught the basic fundamentals of tennis and how to make it fun and interesting for kids. Now our AmeriCorps mentors have the tools and supplies to teach our students tennis and with this wonderful 75 degree December weather in Santa Rosa, we are fortunate enough to be able to continue playing tennis in the beautiful sunshine.

by Katie McCormick, CalSERVES Coordinator