Author: nyjtl

Rodney Dinkins has traveled the world extensively.

“The only place I have not been yet is the Far East,” says Dinkins, a former Account Manager for British Airways. “You meet different people, and see different ways of life.”

The satisfaction he achieves by his global encounters mirrors the joy he experiences at home. As a Tennis Coach for NYJTL’s ACES After-school Program, Dinkins has met countless students from all walks of life.

“I love tennis, and I really like kids. I find it very gratifying being around them,” he says.

His Senior Tennis Program Manager, York Chu, says Dinkins really connects with the kids.

“He is super into bettering the life of any kid he comes in contact with through tennis or any walk of life. He has a great heart,” he says.

Dinkins has worked with NYJTL for much of the last decade, and says he stumbled up on it by chance. He had been independently teaching tennis, and happened to be passing a tennis court where an instructor was incorrectly teaching a skill to youngsters.

He approached the site director to ask to help, and the director jumped at the chance, noting the challenge she faced in recruiting someone to come to Staten Island to instruct kids.

“So I volunteered,” said Dinkins, who was born on Staten Island and still lives there. “I was invited to be the instructor, and then became site director for two years at Port Richmond High School.”

He later was transferred to the program at P.S. 302 in East New York, and then P.S. 250 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where he has now worked for the last three years. Each week, he helps about 100 students – in kindergarten through fifth grade – with their homework, and then leads them in warm-ups and tennis drills.

He points out many kids don’t think they can run fast, so he holds races and awards prizes, and tells them that “even if you aren’t the fastest runner, you can compete.”

Working with the children year-round, he watches them grow and prosper, bringing a smile to his face. “Watching kids blossom like a flower is a great thing,” he says. “They build confidence, self-esteem.”

NYJTL is dramatically changing their lives, he says. “Schools today don’t have a big physical fitness component,” he says. “So a lot of them would be at home playing with their thumbs. I hope programs like this are always available to children.”

Few things thrill Joyce Short more than watching the kids she coaches at the Roosevelt Island Community Tennis Program learn and grow.  But there’s added significance for her when she sees girls, in particular, excel.

Joyce grew up before the 1972 Title IX legislation created equal opportunities for girls to participate in sports. She played tennis and competed in citywide tournaments as a one- and three-meter springboard diver in her hometown of Columbia, South Carolina. She was the City Champion in the 16-and-under category. But her high school had no varsity teams for girls. As a University of Georgia co-ed, she was only allowed to use the diving board in the “men’s pool,” two hours per week.

Today, Joyce relishes the opportunity to be a role model for all young people, but especially girls. “I hope that the fact that I’m here coaching as a female athlete will speak volumes to them about their potential,” she says.

So it’s no surprise that even with a busy career in the business world – which included a position as Salomon Brothers’ first ever female bond trader – she has continually made time to coach youth sports.

In 1988, she was coaching a little league team and giving private tennis lessons when a youngster on Roosevelt Island asked her to start a youth program.  She agreed, and the next day he came back with 35 of his friends, eager to learn the game.

Two years later, Skip Hartman opened the Roosevelt Island Racquet Club and enlisted her to create a NYJTL program.  Every year since, Joyce has directed the club’s NYJTL winter program, and has run the other seasonal programs as often as her other job responsibilities have allowed.

For the most part, she says, the kids today are the same as they have always been, with one noticeable difference: “With the Internet and cable TV, they now follow professional tennis a lot more, which is great because it makes them even more motivated to play.”

Joyce’s current role is wide ranging.  As the Site Director, she manages a staff of three, creates the curriculum, and instructs youngsters who come to the program from all over the city at 6:00am on Saturdays and Sundays.  As NYJTL’s District Developer for Manhattan and Eastern Queens, she recruits schools and helps them to incorporate tennis into their physical education curriculums.

“If we can get kids bitten by the tennis bug while we have a captive audience in school gyms, there’s a better chance they’ll be motivated to come out and participate in the programming that will enable them to build their skills and become lifelong players,” she says.
Despite her many responsibilities, Joyce always makes sure to have time on the court, teaching the game that she has loved for over sixty years to the next generation of players.

“We teach the kids tennis, but also skills that they can apply in the real world,” Joyce says.  “In a sense, we’re building character one point at a time.”