At The Net w/ Jeremy Victoria, Cary Leeds Center for Tennis & Learning

If you look on the Scholar Athlete Program section of the New York Junior Tennis & Learning’s website, you’ll see a collage of players who represent that program.

One of those faces is that of Jeremy Victoria, a longtime player at the non-profit’s flagship facility, the Cary Leeds Center, who is a shining example of its benefits, and representative of the immense impact that the facility that sits in the heart of the Bronx’s Crotona Park has had on the City’s youth.

He is a native of the Bronx and has been going to the Cary Leeds Center since he was a little kid. In his time there, he has developed from someone who was a “knucklehead”, as he says, into one of the leaders that the youngest players in the program look up to.

“Jeremy’s time in our program shows how tennis can develop discipline and dedication that applies off the court as well,” said Raiyan Nafee, the Academic Program Director for the Scholar Athlete Program at the Cary Leeds Center. “When Jeremy focused on his college pursuits, he focused on school work and could often be found completing schoolwork between practices. He also works with younger students during programming, offering tips based on his own experiences.”

When he was younger, Victoria’s first athletic endeavors involved swimming, and he was very talented. As a kid, he became a junior Olympian, but despite his success in the pool, the sport didn’t elicit any passion or love from him.

“You always need to learn how to love something,” he says. “That’s something I looked back on over the years. My mom had to literally drag me by my backpack to go to swimming practice every day. I loved the sport because my parents loved it, not because I truly did. With tennis though, from the beginning, it felt right. I’ll never forget going home after the first tennis practice I had, and I told my mom that I wanted to quit swimming and play tennis. It was a radical change, but as I look back, I don’t exactly know why I made the decision except for the fact that I remember how tennis made me feel. I knew from the first time I picked up a racquet that it was going to stick.”

And from that point forward, tennis became the focal point of Jeremy’s life. He began playing in NYJTL’s ACES Afterschool Program at his school, eventually progressing into more advanced tennis programs through the non-profit.

Ultimately, he worked his way up into the junior tennis tournament circuit and rose through the rankings. He would then be selected to be a part of the Scholar Athlete Program, which provides its participants with in-depth tennis and education instruction as well as college preparedness to create the pathway to college.

“It’s more like a scholarship program that has benefits even beyond tennis,” said Victoria. “It includes players from different programming at the Cary Leeds Center, and is more than just tennis. In addition to the academic and athletic emphasis, they teach a lot of life skills. I learned there that the same things that work on the tennis court can translate to off the court, and the importance of building yourself as a person outside of tennis.”

His as a person and tennis player is proof positive of the impact of these programs, and he is now a freshman at Fordham University, where he has become an A student in his first year, and competes on the men’s tennis team.

Just recently, he played his first collegiate match, which was a monumental moment for him.

“It was a tough match but a great experience. I was so happy, and I’m being sincere when I say this, I remember I started crying,” he recalls. “I couldn’t believe I had gotten to this point in my life, to be playing college tennis. Just the latest chapter of my book.”

It’s a chapter that even he himself would not have believed could have been written many years ago, and he attributes that to the warmth and welcoming environment at the Cary Leeds Center.

For youth in the Bronx specifically but also throughout NYC’s four other boroughs, the Center is more than just a place to play tennis. The staff there is supportive of their students, whether that means helping them with school work, teaching proper tennis technique, preparing them for tournaments or just helping them deal with issues that arise off the court.

“Everybody there has had a pivotal role in shaping who I am, and if I’m being honest I have to put the spotlight on two people specifically, Jay Devashetty and Victor Ayudant, they were like my tennis fathers,” says Victoria. “They’ve supported me through the worst times of my life but also the best. And in general Cary Leeds Center has taken me under their wing, whether it was free court time, free private lessons, free programming, discounts on things, paying for travel etc. I couldn’t be more grateful for the people there that have shaped me into the person I am.”

It’s a home-away-from home, a place to go after school and see friends, a spot where they can do homework and, quite simply, somewhere they can go to keep them out of trouble.

“It’s always been a home for me, no joke,” Victoria confesses. “I’ve never taken it for granted. Sometimes I would go there just to study, or if I didn’t want to go home to my house. It’s a second resort and for a lot of people it’s a first resort. If you wanted to chill out after school, you could. We’ve been so fortunate to have this right here in the Bronx, because Crotona Park was known for a lot of gang activity and didn’t have a great reputation. I think about all the things that have happened in my life, and a lot of bad situations or mishaps that have happened, and what could have been had it not been for the Cary Leeds Center.”

Victoria has taken all the lessons and life skills he learned through his time at the Cary Leeds Center in what he does today. He is excelling in the classroom and on the court, and because he is at Fordham, he remains in the Bronx and oftentimes goes back to the Cary Leeds Center to train.

“Jeremy stays in contact with many of the program’s students now despite starting his college journey,” Nafee added. “As he spent time in the program, Jeremy matured into someone with a strong character and a leader on and off the court.”