Maryland's Junior Tennis Champions Center named 2024 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.

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.