East St. Louis Community Tennis Association Revives Local Tennis

After a long process of building back the community’s tennis courts and history, the East St. Louis Community Tennis Association is able to host events such as the fun and games at Lincoln Park on August 10, 2019.

The event took place at the East St. Louis Lincoln Park tennis courts from 10AM-1PM and offered free food, refreshments, music, prize giveaways and team tennis exhibition matches. The purpose of the event was to promote tennis within the community of East St. Louis by showcasing high quality tennis matches, with teams participating in this event including Team Horton, captained by Jocelynn Horton, and Team Stinson, captained by Scott Stinson.

The East St. Louis Community Tennis Association is a non-profit charitable organization driven by the purpose of developing youth through the sport of tennis. They provide tennis lessons, equipment, and education designed to build skills and character in life and on the tennis court.

The organization was founded back in 2012 when Stinson and Stan Angelov went to East St. Louis to play a match to be featured on their tennis blog, STLForgottenCourts. The blog post was inspired by St. Louis tennis legend Jimmy Connors and his close connection to East St. Louis. When Stinson and Angelov found that there were no decent courts available in the area, they played their match at a neighboring community and then wrote up a story about their experience.

As a result of the blog post titled “Stalking Jimmy Connors,” which spoke on the lack of quality tennis courts in East St. Louis, the local tennis community showed interest in helping bring tennis back to the area. Stinson and Angelov sparked a mission within the community to revive tennis and add to its rich tennis history.

Fast forward to present day, and you will find that the mission of reviving local tennis has been accomplished. With funding from USTA grants and other organizations, the East St. Louis Community Tennis Association was able to completely rebuild the courts at Lincoln Park, restore the rich tennis history in the community, and host events such as the games, food, and fun on August 10.

To read more into the story of the revitalization of tennis in East St. Louis as penned by Angelov and Stinson on STLForgottenCourts, check out their additional blog post on the issue: “Jimmy Connors, East St. Louis, Social Media, and Relationships.”

Community Tennis Associations (CTAs) such as East St. Louis's are integral in growing the game of tennis. Find out more about CTAs, nominate a CTA for an award, or get involved with a CTA near you.