What borough do you live in?
I am from Queens and have lived in Queens my whole life.
How did you learn about NYJTL?
I originally learned about NYJTL from my middle school, PS/MS 219 Paul Klapper School.
How many years have you been with NYJTL?
I have been with NYJTL for 3 years, and have loved every minute of it!
What school did you just graduate from?
I just graduated as the valedictorian from PS/MS 219 Paul Klapper School.
What school will you be attending in the fall?
The high school that I will be attending in the fall will be Stuyvesant High School.
What borough is your high school in?
Stuyvesant High School is on the lower west side of Manhattan.
What grade/year of school will you be entering?
I will be a freshman at Stuyvesant in September, I am really excited!
What is your favorite part about NYJTL?
My favorite part about NYJTL is the tennis. Soon after I first discovered tennis I realized that it was my favorite sport, and that I have really learned a lot from the game.
What do you like the most about tennis?
My favorite part about tennis is the life lessons that I learn with the game, like perseverance, determination, and self-confidence.
What is your favorite tennis shot?
My favorite tennis shot the two-handed backhand.
When was the most memorable match in tennis to you?
The most memorable match in tennis for me was the Australian Open Final in 2010 between Serena Williams and Justine Henin.
What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to my teachers, my coach, my family members, my friends, and anyone else who has ever supported me in my life.
Do you have any mentors in NYJTL, if so who?
Yes I do have a mentor in NYJTL, my amazing coach, Oscar Gonzalez.
Was there a take away from the program that helped you academically?
The program has assisted me in building up my confidence and determination, which has helped me academically. Without being determined and confident in who I am, I would have never been able to succeed, and will never be able to succeed in life.
What will you miss most about NYJTL?
I think that I will miss the NYJTL family the most, all the wonderful teachers and students that I have met throughout the years.
What do you want to major in when you go to college?
I would like to major in both Math and Science, they have been my favorite subjects for as long as I can remember.
What career would you like to pursue when you grow up, and why?
Since I enjoy Math and Science so much I think that a career in Computer Science would be a perfect fit for me.
Category: The Racket
Beacon High School Claims Mayor’s Cup Varsity Team Division
Beacon High School in Manhattan continued its unprecedented win streak taking home the varsity boys’ title for the sixth time in eight years at the Mayor’s Cup All-Scholastic Tennis Championships, the largest annual free interscholastic tennis tournament in the nation. Beacon defeated longtime rival Horace Mann in the final.
With 600 entries, comprised of 14 team and individual events. representing public, private, and parochial schools from the five boroughs of New York City, the Mayor’s Cup is open to students in elementary, middle, and high school and is the only opportunity for many schools to compete against each other.
In the Elementary School Team division, PS 289 defeated PS 187, and in the Middle School Team division, Hunter defeated MS 167.
In addition to on court performance, the Mayor’s Cup recognizes outstanding sportsmanship and academic excellence with awards and scholarships:
KYLE BARTON AWARD FOR A GRADUATING SENIOR DEMONSTRATING LEADERSHIP AND SPORTMANSHIP
Tawhid Choudhury – The Ogburn School
BRIAN WATKINS AWARD FOR LEADERSHIP – GRADUATING SENIOR $250 COLLEGE STIPEND
Calvin Chung – Horace Mann School
Gabriel Sifuentes – St. Francis Preparatory School
JANA HUNSAKER MEMORIAL AWARD
Kyra Bergman – The Beacon School
KAE JONES VARSITY SCHOOL SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD
Tyler Kats – The Beacon School
Isabella Hartman – Grace Church School
CLAUDETTE TOWNSEND MEMORIAL AWARD – OVERALL SPORTSMANSHIP -ALL GRADES
Imani Jean – Philippa Schuyler Middle School
GREG CARRINGTON SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD – ELEMENTARY
Anthony Abbott – United Nations International School
ANDRE LAHENS SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD – ELEMENTARY
Claire An – Brearley School
ANDREW STRASSER SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD – MIDDLE SCHOOL
William Das – Hunter College High School
ANDREW FEINBERG SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD – CAMP SCHOLARSHIP MIDDLE SCHOOL
Natalie Eordekian – St Sebastian’s School
VICTOR KIAM “GOING FOR IT” SCHOLARSHIP AWARDS
Coney Bank
a. 13 years with NYJTL, attending Queens College in the Fall majoring in East Asian Studies
Jeremy Breland
b. 10 years with NYJTL (2 years coaching) attending Queens College in the Fall majoring in Sports & Fitness
Christian Cirillo
c. 4 years with NYJTL, attending St. John’s University in the Fall majoring in Accounting
Mariana Santamaria
d. 13 years with NYJTL (1 year coaching) attending St. John’s University in the Fall majoring in Biology
Winners in the individual competitions included:
ELEMENTARY BOYS RUNNER-UP
Neel Krishnaswamy – The Gateway School
ELEMENTARY BOYS WINNER
Timotey Stofa – PS 166 Q Henry Gradstein Elementary School
ELEMENTARY GIRLS RUNNER-UP
Caitlin Bui – PS 162 John Golden School
ELEMENTARY GIRLS WINNER
Claire An – Brearley School
MIDDLE SCHOOL BOYS DOUBLES WINNER
Jean Paul Santamaria, Jean Pierre Santamaria – I.S. 119 The Glendale
MIDDLE SCHOOL BOYS RUNNER-UP
Ryuichi Nitta – Ethical Culture Fieldston School
MIDDLE SCHOOL BOYS WINNER
Jace Alexander – Dwight School
MIDDLE SCHOOL GIRLS RUNNER-UP
Sarah Youngberg – Spence School
MIDDLE SCHOOL GIRLS WINNER
Natalie Eordekian – St Sebastian’s School
HIGH SCHOOL BOYS DOUBLES WINNER
Alexander Chiu, Alex Goldstein – The Bronx High School of Science
HIGH SCHOOL BOYS RUNNER-UP
Gabriel Sifuentes – St. Francis Preparatory School
HIGH SCHOOL BOYS WINNER
Noah Edelman – The Beacon School
HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS DOUBLES WINNER
Isha Agarwal, Madison Li – Horace Mann School
HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS RUNNER-UP
Christina Huynh – The Bronx High School of Science
HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS WINNER
Shawnte Beale – Home School
About New York Junior Tennis & Learning
Hosted by New York Junior Tennis & Learning (NYJTL) for 29 years, this year’s final awards celebration was held on the newly opened Victor Kiam Stadium at the Cary Leeds Center for Tennis & Learning, the flagship home of NYJTL, which is the largest youth tennis and education nonprofit in the United States, serving over 75,000 youth annually in New York City. The Cary Leeds Center for Tennis & Learning is located in the heart of the South Bronx with access to 20 tennis courts and two stadium courts. NYJTL offers year-round tennis programming and provides 6,000 hours of free tennis to the community annually. Learn more at www.nyjtl.org
For additional information, please contact Joe Ceriello, jceriello@nyjtl.org.
NYJTL Hosts 29th Annual Mayor’s Cup
New York (May 15) –With two new stadium courts seating more than 800 at the Cary Leeds Center for Tennis & Learning, New York Junior Tennis & Learning (NYJTL) will welcome fans and supporters with free admission to the Mayor’s Cup All-Scholastic Tennis Championships from June 1 – 11.
“The Mayor’s Cup is the largest interscholastic tennis tournament in the nation,” said NYJTL co-founder and Cary Leeds Center General Manager Skip Hartman, who created the tournament in 1988. “It is a unique event because it offers interleague competition for teams and individuals from public, private, and parochial leagues from throughout the New York metropolitan area.”
With nearly 600 entries from elementary, middle school, and high schools, the Mayor’s Cup includes 14 different individual and team events.
“The Mayor’s Cup represents what NYJTL is all about— bringing all the children of NYC together to learn valuable life skills on the court and seeing kids grow with the game of tennis from elementary school through their senior year in high school,” said NYJTL President and CEO, George Guimaraes.
The Mayor’s Cup finals will be played on June 11 on the Victor Kiam and Pershing Square Stadium Courts, which were dedicated on April 9 in an opening ceremony attended by former Mayor David Dinkins, who has been a constant supporter of the Mayor’s Cup.
“This year we will have a special celebration with entertainment to commemorate the official opening of the new stadiums,” said Mayor’s Cup tournament director Pam Glick.
Student athletes who are interested in participating in this year’s event may apply at https://www.nyjtl.org/events/2017mayors-cup/.
Schedule of play for the week will be posted at nyjtl.org/events/mayors-cup.
About New York Junior Tennis & Learning
NYJTL was founded in 1971 (then, as New York Junior Tennis League) by Arthur Ashe and Chairman Emeritus Lewis “Skip” Hartman. NYJTL’s mission is to develop the character of young people through tennis and education for a lifetime of success on and off the court. Through tennis, academic enrichment, healthy living, and character development programs, NYJTL teaches life skills to 75,000 underserved youth throughout all of New York City. The experience and culture of tennis, along with academic support services, have helped hundreds of thousands of young people improve their performance in school and raise their aspirations, inspiring success both on and off the court. Learn more at www.nyjtl.org
Contact: Joe Ceriello – jceriello@nyjtl.org
Samantha Ippolito, Javits Foundation Public Service Scholarship Winner
Samantha Ippolito graduated this year from Benjamin Cardozo High School and will be attending St. John’s University in the fall. In June, she was one of 10 NYJTL scholar athletes awarded a $5,000 Marian and Jacob K. Javits Foundation Public Service Scholarship. In this essay, Samantha explains why she wants to pursue a career in public service.
By Samantha Ippolito
I would like to pursue a career in public service related to education, specifically a school psychologist. I love teaching and helping children, therefore I am very interested in pursuing that as a career. Psychology is very important. I would like to use that knowledge to help children. Some children have problems at a young age and I would enjoy helping them through their problems rather than them growing. These issues could develop into mental issues if not treated properly.
I have always enjoyed caring for children. I have babysitting experience with two young children at once. One of those two children also had a mental disability, which made the task a little bit more difficult. I didn’t have much of a problem handling this type of situation using my knowledge of psychology by the Advanced Placement course I have previously taken. I knew this child was not much different than others. I was very careful at what I did or said around this particular child, just trying to understand him. His developmental delays made it harder to understand exactly what he wanted, but I managed to come to an understanding with him quite well. I feel that as a psychologist I could be doing more than just understanding children who may have any problems, but help them.
Along with my experience with babysitting, I have also volunteered for many years at NYJTL teaching young children tennis. When dealing with young children playing a competitive sport such as tennis, sometimes they take their anger out on the game or people round them. Besides that there are many incidences where children get into arguments and must be handled. You need to fully understand the child’s problem and with that help them through it. I would love to do this in the future as a career. Children who struggle in school because of outside problems just need to talk or work around the problem. Using psychology could help a lot in those cases.
Pursuing a career in public service related to education will be beneficial in many ways. I feel like with the proper training, I can accomplish a lot in this field. It will help me learn how to interact with children and understand them on a deeper level that will benefit them. It would be a great satisfaction in my life that I would pursue this career.
The 30th Annual Leadership Awards Luncheon Raises over $450,000
On November 3, 2015, the 30th Annual Leadership Awards Luncheon was held at the Grand Hyatt New York, raising over $450,000 to support our free community tennis programs, tournament team training, after-school programming and other tennis and education activities for children and young adults across the city.
At the Luncheon, Leadership Awards were presented to three honorees: Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, photographer, author and consultant, and two-time Olympic gold medalists Gigi Fernandez and Mary Joe Fernandez. Emmy Award-winning sports reporter Russ Thaler emceed the event, which drew over 300 attendees.
“We are grateful to everyone who attended NYJTL’s 30th Annual Leadership Awards Luncheon to support our enduring commitment to transforming the lives of young people through tennis and education,” said Dr. Deborah Antoine, President and CEO, NYJTL. “Our honorees, Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, Gigi Fernandez and Mary Joe Fernandez, truly embody our values, and are so deserving of our Leadership Awards.”
National Junior Tennis League Founder and International Tennis Hall of Fame Inductee Charlie Pasarell presented Gigi Fernandez and Mary Joe Fernandez, and New York Times sports columnist William C. Rhoden presented Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe.
“We hope that by being here today to support NYJTL, we can reinforce the importance of what NYJTL is doing to guarantee that tennis and educational opportunities for underserved youth continue to expand in the future,” said Mary Joe Fernandez.
“Our stories are only relevant in so far as they prove that achieving dreams is possible,” said Gigi Fernandez. “We hope to continue to make a difference by working with the USTA to promote Hispanic participation by speakingdirectly to the next generation of players.”
“This thriving organization is a testament not only to tennis and sport, but also an example of what it means to live in America and dream big,” said Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe.
The accomplishments of three of our current program participants were also recognized at the event. The student honorees were Alex Chiu, recipient of the NYJTL Achievement Award; Tajimarie Preddie, recipient of the NYJTL Character Award; and Eric Blackshear, recipient of the Irwin Askenase Sportsmanship Award.
The Luncheon’s event chairs were: Lawrence B. Benenson, Peter L. Malkin and Polly Scott, and event committee members were: Peter Bicks, Carole and Donald Dell, Benjamin Doller, Mark Ein, Lisa Askenase Konsker, Dalia Leeds, Suzanne Lengyel, Stacey Locker, Bernadette Longford, Lauren Mallon, Lawrence Mandelker, Beth and Josh Nash, Missie Rennie, Gordon Smith and Madan Suri.
Every dollar raised at the Luncheon will go directly to support NYJTL programs thanks to the generosity of the event’s Presenting Sponsor Lawrence B. Benenson and The Frances and Benjamin Benenson Foundation, who have underwritten the luncheon for the past 30 years. The Arnhold Family also served as a Presenting Sponsor.
The event’s Grand Slam Sponsors were: Tory and Elena Kiam, and CourtSense, The Uehling Family and Zoellner Family. Ace Sponsors were: Caryn and Craig Effron, Deborah Slaner Larkin, May & Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Inc. Peter Malkin (The Malkin Fund), Sidney Migdon (Goldfarb & Fleece), Jill and Mark Rachesky, Polly Scott and Jim Maher, Steven Simkin (Paul, and Weiss Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP)
To view photos of the event click here.
New York Junior Tennis & Learning is Bubbling with Pride in Crotona Park this Fall Season
This week marks the opening of the indoor season at the Cary Leeds Center for Tennis & Learning with the bubbles going up at Crotona Park for the first time.
The two 5-court bubbles were inflated earlier this month at our flagship facility and will remain on site until after the winter season concludes in April. This allows players to practice and compete year-round, and not just during the warmer months.
“Since opening its doors in June, the Cary Leeds Center has become a destination for players of all ages in the South Bronx and beyond,” said Deborah Antoine, President and CEO of NYJTL. “Colder weather shouldn’t mean that on-court instruction ends. Instead, these bubbles allow our programming to take place 365 days a year.”
The $26.5 million Cary Leeds Center opened this June as a result of decades of planning, and a commitment by public and private partners, to create a destination that will touch the lives of an estimated 30,000 students in the South Bronx. NYJTL provides innovative and high-quality programming that helps children grow healthier, smarter, stronger, more self-confident, and become successful on and off the court at the Center, as well as throughout New York City.
NYJTL offers junior programs, adult clinics, lessons and seasonal court time, in addition to free community tennis programs and advanced training programs at the Cary Leeds Center.
You can learn more about the Cary Leeds Center and the programs offered by visiting www.caryleedstennis.org or contacting the Cary Leeds Center at 718-247-7420.