The Texas Tennis Hall of Fame is choosy about its members, selecting only a few each year for the honor.
This year, Houston’s Bev Taylor was one of two Texans inaugurated into the Hall at a November 10 ceremony in Waco.
Bev’s tennis prowess (although she is an avid and consistent player) wasn’t the criteria for the award. Instead, her selection was based on her volunteer tennis activities, and most recently, with HTA’s National Junior Tennis & Learning program, which has inspired, educated, elevated and encouraged youngsters (many of them in the city’s underserved community) to believe in themselves and set goals for their future.
The HTA NJTL program is administered through the Houston Parks and Recreation Department’s Director of Tennis Emily Schaefer and her staff and assisted by a host of volunteers.
Bev has chaired the HTA NJTL committee for 10 years and volunteered on the Linda Lorelle Scholarship Fund for HTA the 10 years prior. She’s been instrumental in recruiting other volunteers and raising funds for the program, scholarships, equipment and instructors. Her dedication to the children has generated many success stories.
Lara Lehmann, HTA board member and chair of the annual fundraiser, catalogued four such stories about youngsters who benefited from the program and how they have been influenced to give back to the community.
Caitlin Luper, now a biology teacher and the head tennis coach at Northbrook High School, said “NJTL provided me the opportunity to lead at a young age. This opportunity allowed me to grow and helped prepare me for even larger leadership roles.” Caitlin encourages her graduating senior tennis players to work as NJTL instructors to help them learn responsibility and leadership skills.
Jose Alejandro Garcia joined the program when he was 12 years old. He attended Prairie View A&M University where he double majored in architecture and construction management, earned a Masters of construction from Texas A&M and went to work as a project manager for a construction company. “Tennis changed my life. Thanks to tennis I was able to receive a tennis scholarship to Prairie View A&M. Thanks to tennis I got my first job (working for NJTL).”
Rafael Chapa started with the program when he was 7 years old and continued until he was 18. He received NJTL scholarship funding for college and graduated from the University of Houston with a degree in economics. He credits HTA NJTL with providing life coaching and says he plans to continue to volunteer and learn by working for the program.
Rebecca Williams, who joined the program at age 13 and is now a communications major in her third year at Texas Southern University, has been an NJTL instructor for the past three summers. During her first year of college Rebecca became a community activist determined to improve the courts at Sunnyside Park Community Center, one of the NJTL sites. It took Rebecca’s persistence to complete the process—a work order, going to a district meeting, speaking with her city councilman and much more. The courts were resurfaced and the nets replaced this September because of the generosity of the professional players participating in the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship at River Oaks Country Club and others. Rebecca illustrates an alumna taking the opportunity to improve her community and park courts so others can enjoy learning and playing the game of tennis.
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