National

Maryland's Junior Tennis Champions Center named 2024 NJTL of the Year

April 17, 2024

Eight advocates for the sport of tennis at the grassroots and local levels were honored with national awards at last week's 2024 USTA Annual Meeting and Conference in Orlando, Fla.

 

WATCH: Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Md. named NJTL of the Year

The Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Md. has been introducing players of all ages to tennis for 25 years. For its work specifically with under-served youth as a National Junior Tennis and Learning chapter through the USTA Foundation, JTCC has been named the NJTL of the Year.

 

The mission of JTCC is to transform lives in the communities it serves through sport and education by providing tennis for everybody. For 25 years, JTCC has helped grow the sport of tennis by providing a comprehensive tennis pathway for players of all abilities that emphasizes excellence on the tennis court, in the classroom, and in the community.

 

The pathway starts with ‘Game On!’, which delivers free tennis and education to K-12 youth in Maryland and Washington, D.C., providing students with a unique combination of athletic, academic and social learning. JTCC partners with D.C. Public Schools, Prince George’s County Public Schools, D.C. Parks and Recreation, Maryland National Capital Parks and Planning, and Prince George’s County Police Athletic League to identify schools and recreation centers for programming. The program served more than 800 youth between September 2022 and August 2023.

JTCC is exemplary in its mentorship model and emphasis on giving back. High-performance players and coaches devote significant time each year to coaching in ‘Game On!’. Through volunteering, older students become role models for the younger generation and exemplify what the younger student-athletes can achieve through hard work and perseverance on and off the tennis court.

 

JTCC provides financial aid to any family with vetted needs based on income, household size, and other factors. Since 1999, JTCC alumni have earned more than $23 million in scholarships to top schools, including Harvard, Duke, Howard, UCLA and Williams, and many have gone on to pursue tennis at the collegiate or professional levels. Its most famous alumni include Frances Tiafoe and 2021 junior US Open champion Robin Montgomery.

 

“We are proud to honor the work being done at JTCC as they celebrate their 25th anniversary,” USTA Foundation CEO Ginny Ehrlich said. “Through its impactful programs, JTCC is not only making the sport of tennis more accessible to diverse audiences, but it is also helping the next generation of leaders reach their goals in sports, in school and life.”

Photo by CameraworksUSA/USTA.

The USTA bestows the NJTL of the Year Award to chapters that positively impact youth through the powerful combination of tennis and education. Founded in 1969 by Arthur Ashe, Charlie Pasarell and Sheridan Snyder, the NJTL network is a nationwide group of more than 250 nonprofit youth development organizations. Supported by the USTA Foundation through financial grants, scholarship opportunities, curricula, technical assistance and training, the NJTL network provides free or low-cost tennis and education programming to more than 150,000 under-resourced youth nationwide.

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