As a Water’s Edge home owner, National Manager for Junior Team Tennis for the USTA, Matt Barnhart frequently drives through Northlake Park. Over time he noticed signs around promoting different sports the Lake Nona Jr. Lions offer. More recently he observed the Junior Lions taking part in their spring conditioning in preparation for the upcoming fall football season. As a specialist in youth tennis it occurred to Matt to reach out to Charles Emanuel, President of Lake Nona Youth Sports, to discuss a potential partnership with the Junior Lions.
“When I found out that there was a Lake Nona Youth Sports Group here, perfect!” thought Barnhart. Not only is the USTA going to be in their backyard, but the Lake Nona Jr. Lions already have the structure set up with a board, parent volunteers and other successful organized sports. “When I realized that there wasn’t tennis, I was like Bingo! I’ve got to reach out and see if they are interested, not just to do this pilot, which I think is a big deal for this area, but also to have a plan (for older kids)… to play the game of tennis here locally,” said Barnhart.
The “pilot” Matt referred to is a national test program only offered to 17 areas around the country for children ages five to eight years old. The goal of the program is to “activate kids into the sport of tennis.” The USTA has very high level tennis instruction for children ages 9 through 17, however this pilot is designed to offer the same level of tennis education and play for younger children.
“When Matt reached out, we immediately responded because we thought it fits exactly with what we do. We are a community based organization, looking to serve the youth here in Lake Nona. We have multiple sports. We started out with football and cheer and have expanded to wrestling, basketball, and Lacrosse. To now have this wonderful opportunity to partner up with USTA… and potentially create a pathway for our youth (in tennis) is exciting for us, and we’re all on board,” said Emmanuel.
Even though the construction of the entire Lake Nona USTA facility will not be completed until later, the pilot program will begin in the coming months. Previously, the USTA has completed three other pilot programs of this kind (two in Texas and one in Minnesota), two of which were conducted on non-traditional surfaces.
“With the five to eight age group and the curriculum we are delivering, it can be done on any hard surface, black top, or on a basketball court. We can do it on a tennis court, but that’s not really our focus right now,” Barnhart said.
The pilot will kick off with a demonstration on June 21 where both organizations are hoping to recruit parents and children to participate in regularly scheduled activities. From there the USTA will create a four- to six-week schedule that will consist of various tennis related activities once per week lasting one hour. During and after these sessions, the USTA will obtain information and feedback from the Lake Nona Jr. Lions and all participants. The feedback received will be used to develop a high standard of tennis programming for this younger age group of children.
If you would like to become involved or have your child involved in this opportunity to learn tennis, the Lake Nona Jr. Lions will be publishing more details in the coming weeks on their website, lakenonajrlions.com.
