Brent Fields uses USTA Kansas grant to offer free tennis to Wichita youth

Getting kids involved in sports such as tennis from a young age can teach them life skills they can carry for the rest of their lives.

Brent Fields, director of Riverside Tennis Center in Wichita, understands this as a former junior player himself. He has set out to expand junior programming in Wichita and its surrounding areas.

“We have surrounding small towns around Wichita that have middle school programs, but the inner-city schools don’t have those programs,” Fields said. “The inner-city middle schoolers don’t get the exposure to tennis until they possibly get to high school. By that time, they’re already very far behind.”

With this in mind, Fields kicked off a free program for middle schoolers last year. The program is geared toward seventh- and eighth-graders in Wichita Public Schools (USD 259) who have very little or no experience with tennis.

There was a strong turnout last year, and the six-week program is back and underway this year. It runs three nights a week from June 1 to July 24. Learn more about the program here.

“I’ve reached out to high school coaches and discovered how difficult it is for them to work with kids who have never touched a racquet before going to high school,” Fields said.

This program helps bridge the gap created by a lack of tennis access outside the city. To help make the programming more robust, Fields applied for and received a USTA Kansas grant. The grant allowed him to provide participants with a free tennis racquet, a T-shirt and cover the costs of instruction.

“The USTA grant has helped tremendously,” Fields said. “The grant helped provide players with the equipment they need to continue playing if they choose to pursue the sport, while also making lessons more accessible for families facing financial barriers.

“Here at Riverside, we feel as though there are kids out there that may not get any kind of exposure to tennis, and we want to help jumpstart the process. I’ve seen several kids continue on playing as they have transitioned into our regular program.”

Fields said he plans on continuing this middle school program for many years to come.