Three Teams Head to Junior Team Tennis Nationals

“We are very excited to have been awarded a wild card to represent USTA Missouri Valley & Heart of America at the National Championships. The team has worked really hard all summer to improve and can’t wait to compete with each other on a national platform,” Fox said. “We are grateful to the USTA for the opportunity to compete at such an extraordinary facility with some of the best players in the country”

This has been the ultimate goal of the team from Britton Christian Church Tennis Academy for a few years now. 

“Having the opportunity to represent Oklahoma and the Missouri Valley at the Junior Team Tennis National Championships is the ultimate honor for our academy. The vast majority of players on our roster have been teammates for a number of years,” said coach Brad Lund. “With the pandemic halting the opportunity to qualify for Nationals, this is something we have been looking forward to for three years now.  Our flights cannot take off soon enough.”

Speaking of those flights, BCC went above and beyond to help its players and their families attend the National Championships. The majority of the students at the tennis academy come from lower-class families, with 70% of them requiring some sort of financial assistance and one-third of the players on reduced lunch. 

So Lund wanted to help ease the financial burden of flying from Oklahoma City to Orlando. With the help of some generous donations, Lund and the team were able to fundraise enough to help bring 27 total people to Orlando - 11 players and 16 family members. 

Lund estimated the total expenses for the trip would be around $30,000 so the financial support was greatly needed and appreciated. At the end of the day, that’s part of what makes this team so special, though. They truly are like one big family.