The high-profile Tennis Corp of Washington, DC, and the Anguilla Tennis Academy (ATA), have entered a partnership to empower young tennis players to understand the true meaning of service – and the game in which they are involved and are developing.
Two students on the island of Anguilla have now benefitted from that partnership. One is 13-year-old ATA student, Dimitri Blake, a third form student at the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School who has been awarded a scholarship from the Kempf Family Foundation which will meet all of his expenses and needs at the school.
Mitch Lake (left) and US visitors
The second ATA student to benefit from the Foundation is Sunzahra Liburd-Banks, daughter of Bankie Banks and Fabiana Liburd. The Kempf Foundation has undertaken to elaborately furnish her dormitory when she becomes a business degree student at Savannah State University, in Georgia, shortly.
“Sunzahra has been playing at the Tennis Academy for the last two years, training for a tennis athletic scholarship,” Mr. Lake explained to The Anguillian newspaper. “We have been successful in getting her a partial scholarship to attend Savannah State University in Savannah, Georgia, and her classes will commence on August 10. On July 24 she will be going to Barbados to get a Student Visa and from there she will be heading to Georgia.
“Hers is the thirteenth scholarship that the Anguilla Tennis Academy has facilitated over the years,” he went on. “To date we have saved families in excess of 1.3 million US dollars, with the average scholarship being more than one hundred thousand dollars over a four-year period.”
He was grateful to the Kempf Family for their generosity towards the development of children in Anguilla through tennis. He expressed congratulations to both Dimitri, the first scholarship recipient in Anguilla from the Kempt Foundation, and to Sunzahra whom he highly commended for her service at the Tennis Academy – and descried as being “a wonderful student.”
Lake expressed gratitude for the partnership with the Tennis Central Corp. He said it started two years ago when Natalie Kempf, a Tennis Central Corp student, vacationing in Anguilla, taught tennis to a number of young players on the island and offered her further services to the Tennis Academy. Mr. Lake, ever looking to form partnerships for the ATA, elevated her as an Ambassador for the Tennis Academy.
It paid off when she returned to Anguilla from Washington, DC, having contacted Yann Auzoux, CEO of the Tennis Central Corp to assist the ATA. “While brainstorming, it became apparent that the best way to create a sustainable engine that could assist the ATA for many years to come was to do something special that would be a win-win for everyone,” Lake recalled.
He continued: “Yann Auzoux decided to create a service trip for young American players that could give them the best of both worlds – enjoying the beauty of Anguilla while giving back to the community in a sustainable and meaningful way. The project was scheduled to begin in 2020 but the COVID pandemic delayed its start to 2021.
“For the inaugural Summer Service Trip 2021, Tennis Central and the ATA crafted an experience, like no other, with an amazing group of ten junior players and three senior coaches.” He named them as being Auzouz, a renowned coach celebrity; Alexis Baguelin, who has overseen a 400% annual growth at the Tennis Central Academy for four years; and Michael Augsberger, Executive Editor of the Tennis Central Corp’s magazine and Director of Competition. The coaches were accompanied by Olivia Ricchi, Chief Operating Officer of Tennis Central, to oversee the event in Anguilla and its impact on the international and local campers.
The event climaxed on Monday, July 12, after three days of coaching.
Mr. Lake, speaking on the steps of the state-of-the-art Anguilla Tennis Academy, told the visiting coaches and US campers, and others: “It has been an exciting time, and I just want to thank each of you for sharing your experiences, hosting our children and helping the Academy grow from strength to strength.”
He also thanked the Director of the Tennis Academy, and the local coaches, for their work in preparing the ATA facility and organising the 26th Anniversary Tennis Camp. “They have done a tremendous amount of work”, he acknowledged. “Without their effort we would not have been able to put on this event. Let’s give them a big round of applause.”
Summing up the work of the ATA over the years, Mr. Lake told his listeners: “I started this programme in 1996. We had thirty-five children and three rackets – and we were passing the rackets down to persons to share. We had two dilapidated courts in the Webster Park but I believe that with such a strong grassroots programme… we now have a home – the Anguilla Tennis Academy because one man’s dream became a shared vision.”
The just-ended three-day coaching event, between the Tennis Central Corp of Washington, DC, and the Anguilla Tennis Academy, was part of the shared vision Mr. Lake spoke about.
