KCTL in the Press & No Class on Saturday, July 6th!

Reminder no class this Saturday due to the July 4th holiday!

DNAinfo.com covered our Davis Cup event last Saturday! Read the article, 'Global' Tennis Tournament Teaches Bed-Stuy Kids Backhands and Borders.

"Kids from The Marcy, Tompkins, Sumner and Lafayette Gardens houses broke into teams representing Russia, Japan, France and Spain and hit the courts, learning facts about their respective countries along the way.

"We try to use tennis as a way to get kids out there - get the kids active, get the kids thinking," said league founder Michael McCasland. "Tennis is the instrument to teach life skills."

KCTL Davis Cup Recap

Last Saturday, we had a very special class as we put on our first ever, intraleague Davis Cup. All four teams gathered at Marcy site to play in a global competition. We let all the kids warm up and then had a brief introduction explaining what the Davis Cup is (a global competition where tennis players play as teams for their country to score points and win the tournament.) We pulled out a map to show the kids the different countries we had chosen for the site. Marcy and Lafayette Gardens were Japan and Russia, and Tompkins and Sumner were France and Spain.

We broke the kids up into different age brackets: 10 and over, 9 and under. Marcy played the defender since they were hosting the event at "their house" and didn't compete for points. The other teams took turns getting on to the court as the challenger in King-of-the-Court style play. France took home the win for the 10 and over bracket and Russia took home the win for 9 and under kids.

It's always a great day when we bring all the kids together and watch them compete and have fun playing tennis, so really, everyone was a winner on Saturday. We're hoping to have another intraleague game day this season in August. We think these in-class events prepare the kids for the end-of-season tournament, the ups and downs of winning and losing, and the need for perseverance and practice.

View more photos of our special KCTL Davis Cup on the KCTL Facebook page! (Don't forget to "Like" us, while you're there.) Huge thanks to Sam Hasan for the photos!

KCTL in the Press: Wall Street Journal

What Kings County Tennis League is all about:

"This isn't a program for kids who have a hard time finding courts or rackets," said Michael McCasland, the league's founder. "This is about starting tennis in places where there was absolutely no tennis."

Read the full story at the Wall Street Journal, A Tennis Project for Brooklyn.

Don't Forget: KCTL Davis Cup tomorrow!

Wimbledon 201

Wimbledon only started yesterday, but it's already seen a few big surprises! Rafael Nadal lost to Belgium's Steve Darcis (ranked 135th): 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (10-8), 6-4. Stanislas Wawrinka lost to Australia's Lleyton Hewitt: 6-4, 7-5, 6-3. And in women's singles, Maria Kirilenko lost to hometown-girl Britain's Laura Robson, 6-3, 6-4.

Check out USAToday's Wimbledon 2013: 10 things to know for some fun facts about this year's Major.

If you want to learn more about the history of the game, check out the KCTL Calendar: Wimbledon. And check back next for the Jon vs. Jon Wimbledon bracket. (Here's the Jon vs. Jon French Open results.)

Class Recap: Forehands & Backhands

Last Saturday was so much fun. We worked on forehands and backhands, progressing towards rallying in preparation for this week's Davis Cup competition between all four sites. Lafayette Gardens came out in full force, with 6 volunteers and 20 students. Marcy even started working on serves!

This coming Saturday, we'll be holding an intra-league Davis Cup at Marcy site! Stop by and see how the kids are progressing!

HUD's Father Day Initiative

As part of the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development's Father Day Initiative, Van Dyke Community Center and NYCHA held a Father's day event on Saturday, June 15. KCTL set up a 10 and Under net in front of the Van Dyke Community Center in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Our "tennis court" was right next to a moon bounce, and the kids still couldn't resist playing tennis! We were out there from 11am to 3pm and had about 25-30 kids stop by and play!

HUD's Father's Day Initiative is to show an "ongoing commitment to improving the quality of life for children and encouraging fathers to be responsible."

View more photos on our Facebook page!