June 11th, 2026
JTT State Championship Returns to Lakeland, Decade of Growth, & More
The 2026 Spring Junior Team Tennis season has officially come to a close, and it ended on a high note. More than 1,500 young players competed this spring across over 15 counties, stretching from the Panhandle to South Florida and just about everywhere in between. It was another reminder of just how far this program has come and how deeply rooted it has become in communities all across the state.
Now the focus shifts to the 2026 Summer JTT State Championship, which is scheduled for July 18 and 19 at the Beerman Family Tennis Center in Lakeland, where the state’s top teams will gather to compete for a title and cap off the season in style.
Any player who competed in the 2025 Fall Championship or the 2026 Spring Championship is eligible to sign up and compete for a state title. Do not miss your chance to be part of the biggest weekend on the Junior Team Tennis calendar.
But before we look ahead to the big weekend, it is worth taking a moment to appreciate the journey that brought Junior Team Tennis to where it is today.
JTT Growth throughout the Decade
Six years ago, Junior Team Tennis in Florida looked very different than it does today. In 2020, just 706 young players took to the courts across the state through the program. Today, that number tells the story of one of the biggest grassroots success stories in Florida tennis.
Junior Team Tennis (JTT) is where so many kids fall in love with the game. It is team-based, social, and built around the simple idea that tennis is more fun with friends on your side. Players compete in age-appropriate divisions, represent their local communities, and learn what it means to win and lose as a team. And over the past six years, more Florida kids have found their place in the program than ever before.
A Statewide Surge
The growth from 2020 to today has been nothing short of remarkable. After a modest 706 players in 2020, participation more than doubled the very next year, climbing to 1,856 players in 2021. The momentum did not slow down. By 2022, the program reached 2,176 players, and in 2023 it hit its highest mark yet with 2,565 young athletes competing across the state.
Here is how participation has climbed year over year:
- 2020: 706 players
- 2021: 1,856 players
- 2022: 2,176 players
- 2023: 2,565 players
- 2024: 2,555 players
- 2025: 2,466 players
- 2026: 1,502 players (Spring Season only)
That is a jump of more than 260% from the 2020 baseline to the 2023 peak. Participation has held strong in the years since, with each season drawing well over 2,400 players statewide, a sign that JTT has become a steady and lasting part of the Florida tennis landscape.
Regions on the Rise
The statewide totals only tell part of the story. Dig into the regions, and you see communities all over Florida embracing the program in their own way.
The Tampa Bay area has been a standout. What began as just 17 players in the Pinellas and Hillsborough region in 2020 grew into one of the strongest pockets in the state, with the Polk and Hillsborough area fielding 400 players in 2025 and the spring 2026 numbers already among the highest in Florida. Jacksonville and Duval County have been a consistent powerhouse throughout, regularly turning out 300 or more players a year and anchoring tennis in Northeast Florida.
Other regions have built from nearly nothing into thriving hubs. Brevard County went from zero participants in 2020 to a full slate of teams in the years that followed. Miami-Dade, which counted just a handful of players in 2020, has grown into one of the largest markets in the state. And new regions have joined the map along the way, with places like Walton, Bay, and Okaloosa, Lee and Fort Myers, and Sarasota adding fresh energy and expanding JTT into corners of Florida it had not reached before.
Looking Ahead
The 2026 season is already underway, with 1,502 players that participated in the spring league and fall registration still happening. None of this happens without the coaches, volunteers, parents, and local providers who pour their time into building teams and creating welcoming environments for kids to play.
Interested in getting your child involved in Junior Team Tennis? Visit ustaflorida.com/juniorteamtennis to find a team near you and join the fastest-growing youth tennis community in the state.
