2025 USTA Eastern Organization of the Year: Cunningham Tennis

If you’re looking for an example of how tennis can bring people together, you need look no further than all the smiling faces in attendance at the Asian-American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Tennis Festival that Cunningham Tennis hosts each May, in collaboration with USTA Eastern. The annual event can attract over 1,000 participants to the facility nestled inside Cunningham Park, in Fresh Meadows, Queens. Those who attend get to try a little tennis while enjoying Asian food, music and culture—including dance performances and Shaolin kung fu demonstrations that briefly convert the tennis courts at Cunningham into a live theater experience. 

Cunningham’s Director of Tennis Bill Racho enthusiastically champions the festival for several reasons. For one, a huge Asian population resides in Fresh Meadows; some census estimates suggest the group makes up about 50 percent of the neighborhood’s residents. 

But the event also holds personal significance for Racho. It harkens his earliest recollections of the facility he now co-owns with former teaching pro Steve Newby.

“We look at Cunningham as a community center first versus a tennis center,” Racho explains. “Steve and I are there everyday, and we’re very involved in a lot of our clients' lives. We've seen some of them grow up here. We know them by their first names, we know their kids. We meet and greet them. So it’s a real family atmosphere, and I think people gravitate towards that.”

They definitely do, if the numbers are any indication. Cunningham serves around 1,000 members; nearly 800 of those are enrolled in the 10-and-under, junior and adult programs the facility offers throughout the year. Racho notes the average time a junior will spend at Cunningham is eight years, often first setting foot on Cunningham courts when they are under 10 years old and continuing on through high school. Some will stay even longer; around 25% of the current staff—coaches, front desk attendees etc.—got their start as participants in Cunningham classes.

“That’s the proudest I feel, when we’ve been a part of someone’s life and they want to come back and work for us,” Racho says. “That full-circle moment, [the fact that] they want to give back and share what they've learned with the next wave of kids, that’s always been nice.”

“The bidding process was very scary because it was a large leap,” Racho says. “But it was also very sweet, because our community stepped up for us.”

Racho and Newby have never forgotten those origins, and today every decision they make at Cunningham reflects a commitment to step up for that same community. To that end, Cunningham offers scholarships and financial support to families under their tent who might be struggling with membership dues for one reason or another. They also work with around 1,000 students a year through a “Taste of Tennis” field trip program, which invites NYC schools—many that don’t have a gym for P.E. classes—to come out to the Cunningham courts and try the sport.

“It’s always great to see that first ‘aha’ moment [someone has] hitting a tennis ball, just the look in their eyes,” Racho says. “And we get to see that all the time with our schools program, because these kids don’t have access or experience with tennis. We offer discounts to the kids that come, if they want to join the program. [But] it's not about money. It's a passion project. It’s about just growing the game and introducing it to people and, again, bringing our community in.”

And that is exactly how Racho wants others to view Cunningham, whether someone steps onto the facility’s courts as an attendee at a tennis festival, as part of a field trip, or as a member enrolled in programming: A place that brings people together, with a little tennis on the side.

“Long after I’m gone, I want Cunningham to be ingrained in peoples’ brains as a place that’s fun and welcoming, and for the community,” he says.