nothin No Courts, No Next Serena Williams? | New Haven Independent

No Courts, No Next Serena Williams?

Markeshia Ricks Photos

Mavi Sanchez-Skakle of New HYTEs working with children on their stances.

Could the next tennis phenom be growing up in Newhallville or Dixwell? Maybe, if the neighborhoods had tennis courts.

Cyburn.

That’s what Newhallville Alder Delphine Clyburn said she was thinking as she watched more than 20 children hit brightly colored tennis balls on the courts over at Edgewood Park as part of the New Haven Youth Tennis and Education, or New HYTEs, Tennis in the Neighborhood Program.

Except the children weren’t in their neighborhood.

They were at the tennis courts in Edgewood Park mostly because there are no courts to learn on in their neighborhood. But also because a place where they were playing — that was not a tennis court — is no longer available.

Waiting for a serve …

That’s because pre-construction is happening at the former and also future Q House which means the free annual three-week program, which introduces children in underserved communities to the sport of tennis, had to be moved … well … outside of the neighborhood.

For the last few years, makeshift courts were set up on the grounds of the old Q House, but that had to change this year. Prior to being hosted by the old Q House grounds, the program bounced around to Yale’s varsity fields and courts in Hamden.

… returning one …

But to one day be good enough to ever play Sloane Stephens in say, the this week’s Connecticut Open tournament, a player needs ready access to a court, Clyburn said. And she wants the city to do something about it.

We are in great need of tennis courts in Dixwell/Newhallville,” Clyburn said. Our children are playing — they want to play. This is something they want and we need help from the city to make sure we get tennis courts in Dixwell and Newhallville. We hope that our mayor, our parks department, our youth department and our engineering department could hear us.”

… and a little hand-eye coordination drilling.

Clyburn said as far as she knows the only courts that were in the institutional heart of the city’s black community were behind the former Helene Grant School. The new Reginald Mayo Early Childhood School replaced that school and its tennis courts. Clyburn said to play tennis the children need transportation to get to courts in other parts of the city or outside of it. And they would need that same transportation to keep up their skills if they get the tennis bug.

The city does offer fee-based tennis lessons at courts at Wilbur Cross, Edgewood Park, and East Shore Park through the parks department, but none of those parks are in Newhallville or Dixwell.

Stetson Librarian Diane Brown, whose library is getting a new home in the future Q House, said she’d also like to see courts come to Dixwell.

I was thinking about the Williams sisters and how their father fought for them to have a place to play,” she said. We know how that went. He fought for his daughters and these girls went from a torn down court to some of the most established courts in the world. I think our children deserve to have courts right in their neighborhoods.”

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