Overview

This year’s middle school girls’ program is the first of its kind in Saint Paul. Nationally, girls drop out of sports at 2x the rate of boys before age 14. Locally, girls within Saint Paul have incredibly limited choices for athletic engagement. In creating this program, we hope to collaboratively challenge these two deficits.

Our first goal is to create a supportive and empowering space for young women to feel connected and a sense of belonging. Additionally, we will seek to challenge traditional narratives of competition that emphasize winning. While competition is defined by winning and losing, the end goal has nothing to do with a player’s record. Our program seeks to redefine the goal competition as an exercise in challenging ourselves to improve against opponents who seek the same. And at the same time, competition does not have to be about anything bigger than just having fun.

Schedule

Practice

August 31st – October 7th, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4:00pm – 5:30pm at Eastview Rec Center

Typical Practice Format:

• Arrival – Individual Serve Practice
• 4:00pm – 4:15 – Dynamic Warm Up and Check-in
• 4:15 – 5:00 – Focus Skill and Drilling
• 5:00 – 5:15 – Point Play
• 5:15 – 5:30 – Game Play and Reflection

Goals

• Create a supportive and empowering space for young women to belong and feel connected. 
• Define competition in terms of personal growth and remove winning/losing as a metric of personal value. 
• Introduce young women to SPUT’s values of Service, Perseverance, Integrity, Responsibility, Imagination, and Teamwork. 
• Have a ton of fun.

Partnerships

We are still working on final details with our partners for additional play and growth opportunities. However, we can say that we have incredible relationships with USTA Northern, Her Next Play, inner City Tennis, and Fred Wells Tennis and Education Center. This past summer, we joined forces to launch the inaugural Middle School Girls Tennis and Leadership camp and will continue to look for ways we can connect our young women with one another to advance their opportunities. Stay tuned for updates.

Contact Information

SPUT Office: 651-222-2879 | admin@urbantennis.org

Coach Josh: josh@urbantennis.org