Program Spotlight: City of Merced Partners with H.I.T.S.  

What started as a way to give kids in the community a structured opportunity to play and promote their well-being, has now flourished into an annual tennis experience for the youth in the City of Merced.

Led by Lam Kindavong, the City of Merced Parks and Recreation Department recently wrapped its fifth year of offering a free tennis summer program using NorCal’s H.I.T.S. programming that focuses on teaching kids both tennis and life enrichment skills.

Lam, who has always been a sports enthusiast and enjoys the challenges and life lessons sports can bring, originally brought the H.I.T.S. programming to Merced’s youth community when he was the program director for the Boy’s and Girl’s Club. While the Boy’s and Girl’s Club did not continue the programming, Lam saw value in it and took it elsewhere.

“I love the curriculum of H.I.T.S. and the fundamentals of everything tennis as a sport teaches,” Lam said. “I wanted to continue giving kids new opportunities, so I partnered with City of Merced’s Parks and Recreation Department to keep it going.”

In a city where tennis is not as popular as other sports like basketball or football, the program has continued to grow each year.

“When we first started, we didn’t have a designated site,” Lam said. “H.I.T.S. was great because the nets and teachings are mobile, so we were able to go to different pockets of Merced and it really helped make sure the program was accessible.”

After that first year, they found a hub but they still like to focus on that accessibility factor and making sure it is an all-around positive experience for the community’s youth, which is especially important in underserved communities that Lam and the City of Merced are working with.

And that is one of the reasons Lam enjoys using the H.I.T.S. programming. “The curriculum is great because what it teaches is not just about playing or the sport, but there are life lessons that are included after and it’s a bridge on how to move forward in life.”

In the beginning there wasn’t a huge number of participants, but each year community interest is growing and more people have signed up for the summer program. This summer, they hosted two two-week H.I.T.S. sessions and a H.I.T.S. 2 session for intermediate players with 20-25 kids participating in each session. This year the program ended with a Red Ball tournament where all of the participants were invited to play and celebrate the 2021 summer program.

“I am so proud of where the program is at now,” Lam added. “The program has made tennis more approachable without barriers to play, and we can see how people and parents have a different perspective on tennis.”

After the successful year the programming had even in the face of COVID challenges, Lam is hopeful this progress is a breaking point to continue gaining traction in the community and expand more tennis courts in the city of Merced.

With this mentality in mind, Lam plans on running the summer program for many years to come and developing it to four sessions, as well exploring how to get school sites involved.

“I believe that when the kids benefit, the overall community benefits,” he said. “That’s what we are trying to do. We can invest in them and help plant seeds that help them move forward in life and become a part of our community.”