By Liz King
NEWBURYPORT — When Mark de Kanter moved to Newburyport from Europe, he was surprised that there wasn't much buzz around the Racquet Club.
But thanks to his efforts, along with the Newburyport Division of Youth Services, 26 students from grades one through eight convened at the club for an early-release-day tennis clinic yesterday.
Some of the children had previous links with the club, participating in the popular summer clinics, but some were first-timers.
Seven-year-old Alexandra Trego has a racket but has never gotten instruction.
"I thought this was a great opportunity to expose her to tennis," said her mother, Julie Trego, who hopes to continue going to the clinics.
After moving to Newburyport from Holland in 2000, de Kanter noticed a lack of youth tennis programs in the area. That's when he decided to team up with Newburyport Youth Services to spark some interest.
"I joined the Racquet Club the first year I was here," said de Kanter, who has played tennis his whole life. "I would expect more interest in Newburyport and this area."
De Kanter believes one of the reasons that kids don't get involved with tennis is because of the cost.
"There's no easy way to be exposed to tennis; you have to have access to a court," de Kanter said. "It is financially difficult compared to other sports. We're trying to include kids that usually don't have the opportunity to play."
De Kanter and Newburyport Youth Services came up with a plan to use school early-release days to start a youth tennis program. The Newburyport Racquet Club on Low Street donated the court time for the program.
"My girls did T-ball and soccer, and we wanted to follow that model," de Kanter said. "Those sports are driven by volunteers and parents."
The children, spread across four courts, are divided into small groups based on age and ability and paired with instructors. Three of the five instructors are part of Newburyport High School's athletic department.
One of the instructors, Derek Raschke of Newburyport, was captain of the Newburyport High School tennis team last year. Now, one year out of high school, he continues working with the Racquet Club that he spent so much time in. He hopes that the new programming at the Racquet Club will expand the area's interest in the sport.
"I always played tennis when I was a kid," Raschke said, who participated in this summer's tennis clinic. "There's a lot going on here, between this and the summer program."
The summer programs are popular already, de Kanter said, often with 40 kids playing per week and 50 on a waiting list.
"There's chaos during summer tennis sign-ups; it's one of the most popular programs," de Kanter said. "We want to show parents that kids can do this in the winter too."
First-grader Alex Parr of Newburyport really wanted to join the summer program, but it was full, so his mother, Melissa, thought the early-release day program was perfect.
"We hope to go to every early-release day clinic," Parr said. "And get others involved."
De Kanter is working with the United States Tennis Association to come up with a bigger plan to grow the program into a larger community tennis program.
"We're hoping that if we can start kids playing at 5 or 6 years old and do summer and winter programs through 8 and 9 years old, that they will be able to move into the USTA and Racquet Club team tennis programs and compete," de Kanter said, who notes that one student named Nick is ready to go to a national tournament.
"Interest has leveled out. Look at the popularity of the US Open," de Kanter said. "The enthusiasm is there."
Part of the efforts of the program is to generate additional funds for long-term court maintenance as well.
"In the past years it's been hard to get funding and keep the courts up to date," de Kanter said.
Mike Perrotta, club manager of The Racquet Club of Newburyport explained that tennis often gets dwarfed in the shadows of other professional sports like football and baseball. Because of the overall lack of interest in the media, tennis at nonprofessional levels, like high school, suffers.
"We're trying to grow tennis," Perrotta said. "It doesn't get a lot of attention. We're the only show in town, so we try to do all the programming we can."
