A Glimmer of Hope Foundation

Impact

Tennis academy raises over $300,000 for Ethiopia

Thirty-odd years ago, one of the biggest developments in sports history came into being with the advent of the tennis academy. These "tennis factories" changed the way the game was played and even the way top athletes in other sports would develop from that point on.

Today, there are hundreds of them around the world and while much has changed, the basic recipe for success has remained the same: hit thousands of balls a day, add in a healthy dose of competition, stir and repeat.

But what if you're a parent that would rather see your child know a little bit more about life than how to hit a killer forehand? It turns out not all tennis academies are created equal.

The Austin Tennis Academy was where the 2007 USTA girls 18s champion Ashley Weinhold honed her game and now trains as a pro. It's also been proving ground for college standouts like Adam Slagter (Penn State), Brandon Davis (Illinois), Brent Werbeck (Boise State), Stephanie Kusano (Cal-Berkley), Lindsey Pereira (Virginia) and Santiago Montoya (Notre Dame).

The current batch of players is doing everything it can to match this level of success on the court but what makes this academy unusual is that their main goal for 2009 was not tennis-related.

What they really wanted to do was send a small team of parents, coaches and players to Ethiopia to check on the work that had been done with all the money they had donated to A Glimmer of Hope.

Over the past four years, the academy has raised more than $300,000 to build eight water wells, a health clinic and two schools in rural Ethiopia. In 2008 alone, the Playing for Glimmer campaign raised over $150,000.

One of the campaign's organizers was 14-year-old Josh Hagar and he was on the trip to Ethiopia this summer.

"We're so privileged here to have running water, electricity, a place to sleep. They're just basic things we take for granted that people in Ethiopia don't have," said Josh, who was recently personally congratulated for his efforts by sporting icon Billie Jean King.

The man behind the academy's unique culture is Head Coach and CEO Jack Newman.

"What we're trying to do here is mold citizens of significance rather than ones simply of accomplishment. And, tennis is one of the best tools I've found to help shape a student's character," Newman said.

Newman has now been to Ethiopia twice with A Glimmer of Hope, the organization he chose because of its efficient model and promise to deliver 100% of every donation to the projects.

"It was shocking, depressing and eye opening," he said, speaking of his first trip to Ethiopia. "It was the first time I really understood how much being born in the United States had played a role in pre-determining what my quality of life was going to be."

Around the academy, there are reminders of the players' on-court successes but it is the photos of rural Ethiopians collecting their first clean drinking water, with the words Austin Tennis Academy on signs in the background, that give Newman his greatest feelings of fulfillment.

"At any given moment, half the people in Ethiopia are suffering from a water-related disease because they lack access to clean water. It's just not right," he said.

Newman's philosophy is infectious and it has spread to another important group of people connected to the academy - the parents.

John Spencer moved his two children - Breck (13) and Katherine (10) - to the ATA from another program in Austin after just one visit to the facility.

"The tennis part of it is definitely there but there's a lot more to it that. Jack is teaching these kids to be responsible members of the community," John said.

"Kids than learn how to give grow into adults that know how to give," he added.

The ATA is currently celebrating its fifth anniversary and it recently became an official regional training center for the United States Tennis Association, a big honor in the tennis world.

Just goes to show ... it doesn't always pay to stick to the recipe.