Athneal Philip: A Recipe for Success

Athneal Philip used to serve up meals. Now he’s serving up success.

Athneal is a tennis coach and site director at New York Junior Tennis and Learning. The Queens resident works with elementary students in the after-school ACES program at PS 215 in Gravesend, Brooklyn.

“This is an important program in New York City,” he says. “There’s lot of parents who really don’t have the finances available to be able to afford to teach their kids tennis and have them play on courts. The ACES program allows the parents to work while their kids have a place to go.”

Athneal was employed as a chef at hotels in Antigua for years, before moving to Wayne, Pennsylvania in 2001, and then New York City a year later. In Antigua, he had worked as an assistant tennis coach as well, and continued to coach in the United States.

“I love the game of tennis,” he says. “I started when I was nine years old and I’ve been playing every since.”

Athneal first started with NYJTL nine years ago, working part-time in the afternoons as a tennis coach at PS 19 in Corona, Queens. “I love to see kids play tennis, the smiles on their faces when they hit a ball over the net, especially the young ones,” he says.

Additionally, he works with NYJTL’s Community Tennis Programs, serving as a site director at the Manhattan Plaza site, and coaching at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, too. This summer, he will be at Manhattan Plaza and Brandeis High School.

He enjoys watching youngsters learn and grow in the after-school program.

“I think it’s a good program; its helps the family,” he says. “The kids are not just sitting there, but they are learning something valuable they can take with them the rest of their lives.”

And, he still enjoys cooking dishes reflecting all ethnicities. “In the Caribbean, you have to cook international dishes because you have visitors from all over the world,” he says, “so I like to cook everything.”