USTA with Strong Representation at Great Homeschool Convention

Mushonga — who called the convention “an amazing experience” — said meeting homeschooled parents and children from St. Louis, other parts of Missouri as well as regional states like Kentucky was eye-opening.

“Talking to these kids, the answers you get are amazing,” Mushonga said. “They tell you, ‘We don’t really interact with a lot of people. Other kids go out and play soccer with different families.’ Them asking about tennis really raised my eyebrows, because they are asking questions like: ‘I don’t have a tennis court. I don’t have too many friends I can play with. How can I play tennis?’

“But in that convention, we were able to show you can have your little brother, you can have your parents create some lines and play tennis. That really stood out to me. This homeschool aspect of tennis is growing, and USTA was able to participate.”

Hall said having Mushonga, Kovacs and Banks — who is from St. Louis — represent USTA was invaluable with the heavy presence of St. Louis-area families in attendance. In addition to a USTA booth providing passersby information, the team set up a makeshift tennis court using caution tape and other on-hand resources. They used youth racquets and foam tennis balls to get children playing and enjoying the sport, some for the first time.

“Tennis is a lifelong sport. You can come in at any age and play for a lifetime,” Hall said. “Once you have the basic fundamentals or even learn through trial and error, you can learn a lot just playing in your driveway or at your local park. With some of these families having a large number of kiddos, they kind of have built-in friends to play tennis with. Once they learn the fundamentals, they can have an activity for a lifetime.”

Mushonga noted finding creative spaces to play tennis was a key point in USTA’s hourlong presentation at the convention on March 17. The presentation was informative while also providing examples of different activities within USTA’s curriculum.

“Tony Stingley talked about spreading awareness of nontraditional tennis spaces,” Mushonga said. “You can play tennis in your living room, the basement, the garage, the backyard. Just a simple, small net, a simple rope, two racquets and a tennis ball. It doesn’t have to be a big basket of tennis balls and a coach teaching you every time. You can play tennis anywhere.”

After attending her first Great Homeschool Convention a year ago, Hall said she and other USTA reps enjoyed their experience and wanted to make a return trip this year. USTA attends four of the five Great Homeschool Conventions across the U.S. (Missouri, South Carolina, Ohio, California and Texas). Home education speakers, workshops, a curriculum exhibit hall, special events and networking opportunities are some of each convention’s highlights.

“It’s definitely been eye-opening the last two years we attended,” Hall said. “The first year was just us asking a lot of questions trying to get to know the audience and what it is they did for physical education. How can we meet them where they’re at, and what resources do they need from us? This year we were a little more prepared as far as having local opportunities those families can connect with. Whether it’s getting kids into programming in their area or helping potentially train parents to teach tennis.”

Mushonga said the physical, social and mental perks of tennis was a central message he and his USTA colleagues relayed to parents and children. With the Covid-19 pandemic and additional factors pushing more American families to give homeschooling a look, Mushonga said USTA’s ongoing participation at the Greater Homeschool Conventions is wise.

“It’s big for us to be able to introduce tennis to everybody, to raise awareness you can play tennis anywhere,” Mushonga said. “You don’t have to be going to school. You can be at home and still participate in tennis.

“One of the main things we wanted to talk about going into this was to spread awareness of the benefits of tennis, mainly social. Most of these kids are at home alone with just their parents. When you start meeting people around tennis or invite your friends to participate in tennis at home, it’s a way to get the social aspect, still have fun and be kids.”