Pella Tennis Association Growing Tennis Outreach

The Pella Tennis Association (PTA) has supported USTA initiatives to grow the game of tennis and make it more accessible for players of all ages and backgrounds for decades, focusing on their local community in Pella, Iowa. 

The association was founded in 1978 in order to provide an opportunity for Pella youth to get involved in tennis at a younger age, as well as provide quality tennis instruction. 

The PTA partners with schools and the community to bring youth players into their summer clinics and camps, serving children of all skill levels aged 5-18. The sessions place children in their respective age groups and skill levels, and allow them to be coached by local high school players, college players who’ve graduated from PTA programming, and local college and high school coaches. 

“Being a small city, we’re very community driven,” said Pella Tennis Association President Lindsy Brandt. “Those that are passionate about tennis are happy to jump in and share their passion with the kids.”

Since Brandt first took hold of the reins to the association two years ago, their programming has grown remarkably.

“A few years ago, it dwindled down to 30-40 participants in the summer and now it’s grown and we’ve had to add a lot of camps and been able to fill all the courts. 

Last year we had 115-120 kids. For a community of 10,000, we felt good about that, and we had great parent feedback. We’ve had more and more people whose parents never even played tennis and now they want to go buy a racquet and play as a family.” 

The association also sponsored their first Junior Team Tennis team last summer.

Though 2020 tennis programming has changed due to the coronavirus pandemic, the PTA Board has high hopes for the future, such as regular Junior Team Tennis involvement, growing league programming and other adult play opportunities, and hosting fun tennis events for the whole family.