Update from Kings County Tennis League - May 2018

Wrapping up the 2018 Winter Program

On Sunday, March 25, KCTL wrapped up our Indoor Winter Tennis Program! Based in Pratt Institute's Activities Resource Center (ARC) Building, this year's program was a huge success. Pratt's indoor tennis courts are located just outside of Bed-Stuy in Clinton Hill, a short distance from the five housing developments we serve. Winter lessons prioritized high-intensity tennis with an emphasis on form, placement, and consistency. 

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KCTL Hosts its Inaugural Team Challenge

On Tuesday, April 24, KCTL hosted a round-robin doubles tennis tournament at McCarren Park Tennis Center to benefit towards Kings County Tennis League's 2018 goals. These goals include the renovation of our Lafayette Gardens site, the enrichment of our tennis and life-skills program which will offer even more students the chance to benefit from extra sessions and the introduction of the new ACE Program focusing on the social and emotional development of our students.

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KCTL’s Junior Board is Hosting a Fundraiser to Help Renovate Lafayette Gardens

On Friday, May 4, KCTL’s Junior Board is hosting their first fundraising event of the 2018 season. Spend Friday night at TBA in Brooklyn for a good cause—renovating the courts in Lafayette Gardens, a housing development in Bed-Stuy. First two drinks are on us!

Our goal is to renovate the Lafayette Gardens site to create a unique training facility for our students and the local community. The project will mean that all five KCTL sites have a physical tennis court and a permanent space for our students to hone their skills. We will build between three and five tennis courts of varying sizes to ensure all students can learn tennis at the same site, regardless of age and ability.

Where: TBA Brooklyn (395 Wythe Avenue, Brooklyn)

When: 8:00pm - 11:00pm Friday, May 4

Tickets are $55 and are available below and at the door.

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Starting up our new Pee Wee Program

KCTL is excited to announce that we are expanding our current programming with the addition of our new Pee Wee Tennis Program! Formed through a partnership with Brooklyn Kindergarten Society, this new program will offer four-year old BKS students at Sumner and Tompkins tennis classes midweek.

These 45 minute classes will take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 10:00AM - 12:00PM from now to November 1, 2018.

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We're heading back to Lafayette Gardens, Marcy, Tompkins, Sumner, and Jackie Robinson

Season Opener: June 2 at all five KCTL sites. Can't wait to see you there!

Student Enrollment: Reserve a space for your child; register here. 

Volunteer Registration: Are you around to inspire kids through tennis this summer? Let us know.

To prep for our summer season, KCTL is once again hosting our annual Play Days at three of our sites.

• Play Day #1: 10:00AM - 12:00PM Saturday, May 5 at Jackie Robinson

• Play Day #2: 10:00AM - 12:00PM Saturday, May 12 at Lafayette Gardens

• Play Day #3: 10:00AM - 12:00PM Saturday, May 19 at Sumner

GoGirlGo!

Starting June 2, we we will be enriching our female students with an all girls tennis and education class that will enable many girls to participate in tennis and life-skills lessons. Our goal is to increase female participation throughout our programming by engaging and empowering our female students. 

Register to Volunteer

Register a Student

Upswing Program

This summer, we are developing our Upwing Program so that it will run at multiple sites during the week and on Saturday afternoons. The Upswing Program will enable many students to benefit from tennis and fitness sessions to improve technique, introduce strategy and matchplay scenarios and further their commitment to the sport. Through the Upswing Program we intend to have our first students compete in USTA sanctioned tournaments by the end of the year.

KCTL Sees Two New Staff Updates for 2018

KCTL is pleased to announce two changes in staff for 2018: Dave Webley, previously Program Manager, has been appointed our first-ever Executive Director. Taking Dave’s place is 2017 Marcy Site Leader Rob Gerstman.

The commitment to KCTL that Dave and Rob demonstrate will be valuable to the organization as we continue to learn and grow in the community. In 2018 alone, we aim to install youth tennis courts at the Lafayette Gardens site, introduce our new Pee Wee Program through partnership with Brooklyn Kindergarten Society, and increase more educational opportunities. 

See what both Dave and Rob have to say about their new roles:

                                        Dave Webley, Executive Director

"I am thrilled and honored to lead KCTL into its next phase of growth. I’m looking forward to working with everyone to continue delivering our mission by providing structured and meaningful tennis and life skills lessons for our KCTL students. By further developing the KCTL pathway, we will work to ensure that every one of our students has access to regular physical exercise and is given the opportunity to follow their dreams.” - Dave Webley

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                                                                   Rob Gerstman, Program Manager

"It was my pleasure and privilege to be the Site Leader at Marcy last summer. I gained a lot of valuable experience and learned so much from the students, staff, volunteers, and families. Lots of fond memories were made teaching in the inaugural season of the Upswing and Go Girls Go! programs and these were just the beginning of a long journey together. Thanks for the opportunity to be your Program Manager. I look forward to sharing in the growth of the KCTL community.” - Rob Gerstman

KCTL Receives 2017 Member Organization of the Year Award from USTA Eastern

On Saturday, January 27, Kings County Tennis League was awarded the prestigious 2017 Member Organization of the Year Award by USTA Eastern at their annual awards dinner. KCTL was recognized for “its innovative use of tennis as an instrument for youth development and community building in underserved neighborhoods in Brooklyn.”

While honoring KCTL for this award, USTA Eastern referenced many of the historic feats our organization accomplished in 2017, including but not limited to completing our restoration project of the Sumner Houses Court, creating two youth-sized tennis courts at the Tompkins Houses Courtyard, and finishing our first full year of tennis programming, which includes fall, winter, and summer seasons. This was all completed while continuing to effectively serve the over 150 students in Bedford Stuyvesant that participate in our programming.

“As a supporter of many tennis and learning programs, the KCTL story is one of our section’s favorites,” said Jenny Schnitzer, executive director and chief operations officer of USTA Eastern. “We are beyond proud of what Michael McCasland started and the continued work of KCTL’s staff and volunteers in making tennis more accessible to children who may not otherwise had an opportunity to play our sport.”

Receiving this award from USTA Eastern serves as a great boost to KCTL as we head full bore into our Indoor Winter Tennis Program which starts this Saturday, February 3, at Pratt Institute. We look forward to seeing everyone on the courts soon, and to continue to build upon all we accomplished in 2017!

Preview of KCTL's 2018 Winter Tennis Program

Serving as a well-timed reprieve from this intense winter weather, we are excited to say that Kings County Tennis League (KCTL) will be back on the courts in less than a month!

On Saturday, February 3, KCTL will kick off this year’s Indoor Winter Tennis Program at Pratt Institute. 2018 will be our second year of year-round programming and everyone is looking forward to returning to tennis with our students!

Registration for the eight-week session reached capacity after just seven days which really goes to show how excited our students are to expand upon the skills they have learned in the summer and fall. Building on this base, this year’s Winter Program will continue to teach the fundamentals of tennis, facilitate strategy development on the court, and introduce specialty shots such as drop shots and lobs.

“The eight-week Winter Program will focus on reinforcing correct grips and technique along with developing hand-eye coordination for the younger students and improving fitness and movement for the older students,” said Dave Webley, elaborating on Winter lesson plans. “A specially designed fitness program will be implemented as one of the stations so the students can look forward to a great Saturday morning workout along with plenty of tennis action!”

Much like last year’s Winter Program, KCTL will once again host a running series of field trips for its students in addition to time spent on the courts. One trip already scheduled is an outing to the tennis expo day at the New York Open on February 10, which is guaranteed to be an action packed day of tennis for all ages.

Alongside a large group of faithful volunteers and our Program Manager, Dave Webley, this year’s Winter Program’s staff will also include Kim Diehl and Shonda Bacchus, who work together at the Sumner site during the Summer Program.

We look forward to seeing you all in February!

KCTL's 2017 Fall Classic Photo Gallery

Saturday, November 4, ended up being a beautiful day for KCTL to hold our 2nd Annual Fall Classic Tennis Tournament. Kids from around the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood and beyond gathered at Marcy Playground for an afternoon of friendly competition in what proved to be an appropriate finale to this year's Fall After-School Tennis Program.

Below is a photo slideshow of the day courtesy of Ephraim Kirkwood.

KCTL Facebook Fundraiser - A How To Guide

As you probably gathered from recent e-mails, social media posts, and our transition to year-round programming, 2017 has been an incredibly eventful and successful year for KCTL. Here is a brief selection of highlights that made 2017 so special:

This is just a small sampling of everything that happened this year, so we now turn our attention to 2018 where there is a way you can help us provide even more programming and continue to grow KCTL. Our major goals are to renovate Lafayette Gardens, increase tennis and educational programming, and to partner with an early education program to offer a new KCTL "Pee Wee" tennis class!

If you are on Facebook and want to help try and raise funds for KCTL and our goals for 2018, there is a very simple and effective way to do this. As the year nears an end we are reaching out to all our past donors with a final ask for 2017. Below is a document that explains the steps:

KCTL 2nd Annual Fall Classic Tennis Tournament

This past Saturday, November 4th, KCTL’s 2nd Annual Fall Classic took place at Marcy Playground in what turned out to be a great finale to this year’s Fall After-School Program. With two divisions split by age and ability, intermediate and advanced, the tournament itself was a great representation of the five, fun-filled weeks of lessons and friendly play that all the kids worked so hard in.

With the fall program being just one pillar of our recently implemented year-round programming, all the students have improved so much and with that their commitment levels have increased, too. This commitment is just one of the factors that led to this year's Fall Classic being such a success.

An exciting thing to note about this weekend is that after plenty of practice during the Fall After-School program, the advanced students served overhead in their matches. This is an important step in these young player’s development for it will prepare them for when they play USTA tournaments in the near future.

Additionally, this weekend featured a first for our organization: KCTL invited students from another tennis organization to compete. We were thrilled and delighted to have four players from our friends, HQ Tennis.

Here are the results of the tournament:

The intermediate division was won by Jamar Thomas (aged 9) from HQ Tennis, who defeated Katelynn Espinosa (aged 7) from Sumner Tennis Club. The advanced final was won by Jonathan Del Rosario (aged 12) from Marcy Tennis Club, who defeated AJ Esperanza (aged 12) from Sumner Tennis Club. 

Congratulations to all competitors for a fantastic end to the Fall After-School Program and a big thanks to staff members Adam Joyce and Gary Robinson for running such a great Program. Go KCTL!