The Pasco County organization is reaching kids as young as first grade and building a safety net around the years they are most likely to quit.
Last school year, the Sarah Vande Berg Tennis Foundation ran 14 after-school programs. This year it will run 22, and expects to reach roughly 550 students through them. Behind that jump is a deliberate strategy: start kids younger, and hold onto them through the years they are most likely to walk away. A $5,800 Program Support Grant from the USTA Florida Section Foundation is funding the expansion, which runs through May 2027.
Starting in first grade
The first move is Tiny Tennis, a new program for first and second graders now running at eight of the organization’s nine elementary school partners. It puts a racquet in a child’s hand years before most programs would reach them, and it widens the base of the pipeline at the point where habits form.
The second move targets the drop-off. SVB is building year-round opportunities for middle schoolers, including summer camps designed specifically for that age group and match play throughout the year rather than in isolated seasons. The goal is to make tennis something those students have continuous access to during the years they are most likely to walk away from organized sport.
“Together, these two initiatives build a larger pipeline of students from a younger age, create more of a safety net around middle school when students are at highest risk of dropping out of organized sports, and dramatically increase our contact hours with students and the number of students served,” said Eliza Cornejo, SVB Grants Manager.
Four years of building
The 550 figure covers after-school programs alone, and it did not arrive in a single grant cycle.
“USTA Florida has been supporting the Sarah Vande Berg Tennis Foundation’s sustained growth since 2022,” the organization said. “This year’s grant supported not only our continued programming, but also an expansion of what we’re offering our community.”
Going from 14 programs to 22 in a year is the kind of growth that only works when the foundation under it is already set.
Why the Foundation funds this
Program Support Grants are the USTA Florida Section Foundation’s primary tool for getting tennis into communities that want it and need help paying for it. The funding covers on-court instruction, equipment, coach training and general program support, with priority given to youth tennis, adaptive tennis for players of all ages and abilities, and programs serving under-resourced communities.
The SVB Tennis Foundation is dedicated to providing tennis and education programming in Pasco County communities through character-building, physical activity and mentoring. Its after-school programming blends tennis and fitness with academic engagement and life skills.
Since 2005, the Foundation has delivered more than $2.5 million in community impact, supporting programs at more than 120 organizations across Florida.
Applications for Program Support Grants open in two cycles each year. Learn more at ustafloridafoundation.com/apply-for-grants, or support programs like Keeping Kids in the Game at ustafloridafoundation.com.
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