Sophomore Bringing Free Tennis to Passaic Kids

The most endearing quality of the local tennis community is that it is, in fact, a community. If you look around the New York-Metropolitan area you can find people throughout who are willing to donate their time and energy into growing the sport of tennis, and contribute to the greater good of the sport.

One of those is teenager John Walentowicz of Montville, N.J., who, earlier this summer, created a free tennis program for kids in Passaic, N.J.

“I really wanted to bring tennis to kids who had no exposure to the sport,” said the 15-year-old Walentowicz. “My dad is from Passaic, and he thought it would be the right location because there are no indoor facilities and no coaches there. We both thought it would be a good idea to do it there and give back to that community.”

With the desire to give back in mind and the right location found, Walentowicz set out to bring free tennis programming to outdoor courts in Passaic, at the Howard Avenue Tennis Courts in 3rd Ward Veterans Memorial Park.

One of his first steps was to contact the town’s Recreation Department to see if they would be interested in the idea, and received great feedback from Passaic’s Superintendent of Recreation Jessica Lezcano.

“She was very excited and thought it was an amazing idea,” Walentowicz recalls. “She made a flyer and gave it out for kids ages eight through 12. The group of kids grew each week, and they were extremely enthusiastic and all showed improvement over the weeks.”

The Passaic Recreation Department recruited the kids to the program, and John and his family provided the rackets, balls, towels, hats and even water for the program’s participants.

Walentowicz, a top-ranked junior tennis player in his sophomore year at Don Bosco High School, gave these lessons twice a week throughout the summer.

“I had a lot of fun,” Walentowicz said of volunteering and running the programming. “Especially seeing the smiles on the kid’s faces as they ran to the court each day. Seeing them all happy and wanting to learn was a great feeling. It was fun for me too because they were well-behaved, didn’t give me any problems and listened and followed directions. It really worked out. Two of the parents even asked me to give private lessons to their kids when the programs were over.”

With the first year of his free program in the books, Walentowicz plans to continue volunteering and giving back next summer, and wants to build off of the success of his inaugural year.

“I definitely want to do it next summer as well and I’m going to try and get more kids into the program,” Walentowicz said looking ahead to next year. “This summer we had the classes go for an hour and 15 minutes, twice a week for four weeks. Next year, we may try to push it to an hour and 45-minutes per lesson, if they can handle that, and more lessons per week.”

While he has thrown his hat into the coaching ring, he continues to focus on his own tennis career as well. He’s currently ranked number three in his age group in New Jersey, and hopes to eventually reach the Top 50 in the country.

“I’m working really hard right now and it’s showing,” said Walentowicz. “Hopefully I can get my ranking higher, and play against better players in order to see what they do better than me, and continue to incorporate that into my game.”

But coaching is certainly something in Walentowicz’s future, and he dedicated much of his summer to do so at no cost for young players, and as his program continues to grow, so will the sport of tennis in Passaic. Although it wasn’t his goal when he set out to volunteer, his energy and passion in giving back to the community is something to be applauded.