YORK COUNTY, Pa. — It's one of the best values of the summer for local kids that enjoy tennis. In 1990, Hank Merges and John Davis created the Tennis for Kids program to introduce the game to the younger generation.
Now over 30 years later, the free clinics are conducted in 20 York County locations and two in Adams County to over 1,500 kids.
Funded by private donations, tens of thousands of kids have taken part in the program with unforeseen benefits.
"It teaches the kids a lot of perseverance, how to keep pushing along, teamwork, getting along with the other kids," explained Program Director Tim Law. "It’s good to see kids stick with something that we know is really good for them, physically, mentally, emotionally, that to me is really gratifying.”
The site director at Northeastern High School is King Igwe, a Northeastern graduate and now a student at Millersville University. He started in the Tennis for Kids program at six years old in York and anticipates playing a game he now loves his entire life.
“Tennis is perfect. I don’t know what it is honestly," Igwe said. "I started playing it and I haven’t stopped since. It’s everything to me.”
It’s the perfect sport for King and has proven to be the ideal activity to bring kids in York and Adams Counties together for the past 33 years.
“It's a free program for anyone that decides to join for anyone from ages like five to 13 is what we mostly see," according to Northeastern Assistant Site Director Laiba Khan. "Our instructors are mostly from the high school tennis team that come and volunteer their time to show kids how to hit a forehand, backhand, play a game, things like that. "It’s just for a couple of hours in the morning, it’s weekly and we just have fun with that.”
Northeastern 7th grader Luke Koliscak is in his third year with the program. He's caught the tennis bug and plans on playing on the school team in middle and high school.
“Before I got here, I knew nothing about tennis," admitted Koliscak. "Backhand, forehand, I learned everything. If you want to make a play in tennis, you just do it, you don’t have to talk to anyone about it, you have the freedom to do whatever.”
"Whenever you see them pick up on it, it’s like a click, you see it on their face," Khan added. "They’re like, 'Oh, that’s how you hit the ball.' It’s really rewarding for both parties to experience.”