Seven St. Louis tennis courts revitalized through Breakpoint Academy partnership

Three tennis facilities in the urban core of St. Louis received newly surfaced courts this summer thanks to the efforts of Ben Gildehaus and Breakpoint Tennis & Life Skills Academy.

Herbert Hoover Boys & Girls Club got its two tennis courts resurfaced. Mathews-Dickey Boys & Girls Club — in partnership with City Academy across the street — had its three tennis courts resurfaced. And Jennings High School had its two tennis courts resurfaced.

Funding came from the USTA Foundation, USTA Missouri Valley and USTA St. Louis, with the effort coordinated by Breakpoint.

Breakpoint Tennis & Life Skills Academy is a nonprofit tennis and education program in partnership with the three sites. It was co-founded by Gildehaus and Paul Paige in 2020, with Gildehaus serving as the executive director. Breakpoint is a Community Tennis Association and National Junior Tennis and Learning chapter of the USTA Foundation.

“We weave reading and social/emotional curriculum into our tennis programs,” Gildehaus said. “That made us a unique partner for these sites, because only we can apply for the NJTL funding for court resurfacing. We were happy to do that, and thankfully it’s been successful.”

Building Partnerships

The total budget was $143,725. Besides the $105,000 — the maximum of $15,000 for each of the seven courts — raised through the NJTL, each of the locations contributed $6,500. USTA Missouri Valley also contributed $12,000, and USTA St. Louis added $2,000 in USTA Tennis Venue Services grant funding.

The whole process took approximately two years because there was red tape to cut through with each organization, including leadership transition within the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis.

Breakpoint is the common denominator. The nonprofit is already partnered with all three organizations and runs programming at the facilities. Breakpoint has partnered with the Jennings School District to lead introductory programs for elementary-aged kids.

Breakpoint’s AmeriCorps VISTA, Brittany Moses, also recently started a high school tennis team, the first time that Jennings High School has had a tennis program since the mid-1970s. Right now, with just two courts, the team can only practice at home. But there is available land near those courts where additional ones can be added to allow Jennings to host matches.

“Our whole mission is to bring tennis and education to the community to change lives,” Gildehaus said. “We want to transform the lives of youth in our most under-resourced spaces. It’s cool to see tennis having an impact at these sites for hopefully quite a few years to come.

“That’s what’s nice about the court resurfacing project. These facilities can be used for many years to come. Hopefully, our partnership will last well into the future. But even if we had to bow out at some point, Boys and Girls Club Greater St. Louis and Jennings School District will continue serving on those courts for years to come.”