Students teach local kids lessons through tennis

The elementary schoolers from William Byrd all kind of hung out in the corner of the Thalhimer Tennis Center with the most shade.

Thanks to the Lobs and Lessons program started by students from VCU’s Sports Center, the group had been learning nearly everything about tennis from service lines to Serena Williams’ serves.

But between rain showers, snow and Spring Break, three weeks had passed since the last time the kids had a chance to hit the court.

The program, sponsored by Richmond-based Genworth Financial, was heavier on the lessons than the lobs, as group members and volunteers spent time at William Byrd tutoring the elementary schoolers on Thursday afternoons.

Kathleen Bowles, a former tennis player at UNC Wilmington and a product of VCU’s Sports Center, was named director of the program earlier this year. Since the program kicked off last September, she’s been joined by six grad students from VCU’s sports leadership program.

The group has gone from working with about 50 kids to having to handle nearly 120, encouraging reading and writing skills in a part of Richmond such things may be overlooked.

Ebony Ford, who’s been a group worker with William Byrd for nearly a year, said Bowles and her groups have had a huge impact on the kids since they’ve started.

Ford said, “The kids look forward to the tennis on Monday with the Lobs and Lessons, learning the skills of tennis and how important those skills are to the game and towards life.”

Building from the concept of the Young Authors programs across the country, Lobs and Lessons started Books at the Byrd to get the students reading and writing on a weekly basis, exposing them to different topics and eventually proofing and binding the works into books the children can have as keepsakes or pass along as gifts.

As the program spreads from William Byrd to the Sacred Heart Community Center, Bowles and her team are looking for more tutoring volunteers.

Ford said the relationships the kids have developed with the tutors are just as important as the lessons they’re learning.

“Maybe some don’t have that role model or that one-on-one and they all desire that one-on-one,” Ford said. “They get that with the tennis players.”

Junior sociology major Kathia Sturdivant, the only one of the regular tutors who isn’t a part of the sports leadership program, regularly takes time out of her week to go with her group to mentor the students.

“It feels like you’re actually doing something positive,” she said.

Bowles has plenty of help on the tennis side with members of VCU’s men’s and women’s tennis teams coming out every week between matches, plus getting the help of a few local tennis buffs.

Sports Center student Wil Yow admitted that getting the kids excited about tennis was tough at the beginning but “they’re more open to it.”

It helps, of course, when you take them to seen two of the world’s top women’s tennis players.

The kids got a chance to travel to the Stuart C. Siegel Center last fall when Serena Williams and Jennifer Capriati squared off in an exhibition match to benefit the Massey Cancer Center.

They watched as Lobs and Lessons assistant director Daniel Casquero went back and forth with Serena, who has become a role model for young athletes after she and her sister played their way out of Compton, Calif. and onto worldwide stardom.

Now, Ford says the group’s excited, constantly asking “Are they coming today? Are we playing today?”

They consistently come and share that bond with the kids.

Having not played in three weeks, they bounced around last Monday, antsy as 7- and 8-year-olds are after snack time, the kids and their instructors were about to find out how much they remembered after all the time off.

At one of the four workstations there was Travean Williams who spent time working on his backhand. The 7-year-old’s style was less Pete Sampras and more Pete Rose, as he turned a coupe of volleys in to would-be base hits down the third baseline.

On another court, 10-year-old Chalries Jones led her classmates Casquero wiped the three weeks of rust off their serves. Sure her stroke was on point, but Chalries already the special umf of only a select few tennis stars, like Monica Seles or Maria Sharipova, making noise after all of her shots.

Thalhimer buzzed for most of that Monday afternoon, as the kids let loose after a day’s worth of schoolwork.

Casquero, who celebrated his birthday with the kids at William Byrd, said, “Tennis is a sport that not everyone can play. It’s also a lifetime sport.

“You never know. We could have the next great tennis player right here.”