Coming Back From Love 30

Written by: on 5th July 2013
Alison Riske
Coming Back From Love 30  |

There is an extra amount of determination on the courts of the Junior Tennis Championship Center this day. As the tennis students battle hot sun, humidity and the dust of the red clay courts, their energy is connected to the grass of Wimbledon some 3,657 miles away — as the tennis ball flies.

On that grass it is a good day for the JTCC as Denis Kudla – who trained here for eight years — is winning his first match at Wimbledon.

When you start out Love-30, so to speak, against the established tennis facilities around the world in training young individuals to seize their love of tennis, getting to Wimbledon is a great achievement. Kudla is a visible example of how the JTCC –, mixing fun, fortitude and focus – has turned it around on their courts, as well as in the non-Wimbledon grass strewn, concrete cracked courts of inner cities.

“We started 30 years behind the Europeans in training techniques. We are changing the score, said Marco Impeduglia, program manager at JTCC. “That, to us, is tennis.”

Results back Impeduglia’s view.

The JTTC has produced over 30 National Champions and over 10 number one ranked players in the country in its 14 years of existence. Those players include Francis Tiafoe, who is considered the #1 ranked boy’s 14s in the world after he won the Les Petit As World Championships in 2012.

Denis trained at JTCC from age 8 and turned pro a 16 in lieu of playing college tennis. He has been playing exceeding well these past six weeks, winning three qualifying matches on clay – a mainstay at the JTCC facility — to earn a spot in the main draw of the recent French Open. And he handled the tricky transition to grass well, reaching the quarterfinals of the prestigious Wimbledon tune-up at London’s Queen’s Club before falling to No. 7 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Nevertheless, he was not granted a wild-card slot at Wimbledon but won in the qualifying rounds. Even though Denis lost in the second round, he is likely to move into the top 100 for the first time in his career after reaching the second round of a Grand Slam for the first time.

He is not the only JTCC trained player showing skills in Wimbledon.

Alison Riske, who advanced to the third round of the women’s draw (play is pending), currently trains at JTCC whenever she is in the Washington, D.C., area. Her junior coach was Yves Boulais, now a senior director at JTCC.

Another JTCC student, Luca Corinteli, is in the junior Wimbledon draw that starts the week of July 1.

This summer about 200 students will be training on the JTCC courts, some through the tennis academy and others through a program part of the affiliated tennis club. There are nine hard courts and six clay courts, outside, including two red clay courts that are like those in the French open. It is the only facility it the region with red clay courts.

There are also 15 indoor courts (10 hard and five clay), a training facility and the academic area, where students take normal school classes as part of the academy instruction.

At JTCC, you will grow as a player and as a person,” Impeduglia said. “Tennis is more than just life itself, it is life. The discipline, commitment, focus, and desire we need to become successful in life mirrors the skills you must have to become a successful on the courts.”

That, to the JTCC, is also tennis.

JTCC is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1999, offering a wide range of programs for students ages eight to 18. Every youngster selected to be a part of JTCC’s program should expect to earn an athletic scholarship to a Division I school if they commit to the necessary hard work and maintain JTCC’s academic requirements. JTCC values strong performance in school, and makes participation in the tennis program contingent upon good academic standing. JTCC was founded on the following principles: academic achievement, excellence on the court, positive character development and the importance of giving back to the community. JTCC believes that the synergies between education and tennis will help youngsters achieve better results in school and in life.

Since its inception in 1999, JTCC has placed all 95 of its graduates at top universities, with graduates earning more than $1.6 million in athletic scholarships.

“You got to love the game and they do,” said Kyle Bailey, Director of College Recruiting.

The JTCC talks about “point of contact;” with the ball, point of contact is a needed tennis skill for sure. Yet that philosophy extends beyond their training courts, to taking the merits and joys of tennis to area of the region where the sport is not considered and the facilities less than inviting.

For example, among those being driven by Bailey on the red clay courts this day is 13-year-old Pasquale Procaccino. He, like all JTCC students, participates in an outreach program called Game On. That program teaches tennis to inner city children ages 5 – 12. When found himself teaching his peers tennis on courts that were cracked, full of weeds and covered with trash, he decided to act. He organized an event that raised $2,000 toward his goal – and he is ready to host another. “It will be a tournament with adults playing students” with some sponsors, Pasquale said.

The next day, five of his fellow students are in the gym at Sacred Heart School in the Adams-Morgan section of Washington, D.C., running 15 youngsters through a second day of tennis drills.

“Hug your racquet,” Shaun says with a smile. “Tap the ball.”

Bigger, softer balls, smaller nets, and other adjustments are all designed to make the point of contact happen easier and with more certainly and clarity. It works. What drives the desire to succeed on the high-level courts at JTCC eventually permeates those concrete cracked outposts of beginning tennis or the scratched basketball courts in an inner-city school.

Next the youngsters race from one end to the gym to the other, and then back, balancing the ball on top of their racquet. There is lots of good cheer, good support and positive reinforcement.

And of course, that again, to the JTCC, is also tennis.

“We are going to make you good tennis players,” Shaun says.

At JTCC, no matter what court they are playing, “good tennis players” are always the result.

Next up: the U.S. Open in August.

Kudla and Riske will be in the U.S. Open Main tournament. And at least four JTCC students are likely to compete in the U.S. Open Juniors. Stay tuned.

 

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