Young Aces Open tournament will create ‘chaos’ on April 13

A Tennis Topics article by John Packett, RTA Staff Writer

Organized chaos. If you happen to be in the vicinity of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Cary Street Field on April 13, be prepared for a wild and crazy scene.

That’s because there will be as many as 168 fourth and fifth graders from Richmond Public Schools --- along with nearly that many volunteers from all over the city --- helping with a Quick Start tournament.

Quick Start tennis, which was introduced to the city’s 28 elementary schools last fall, courtesy of the Richmond Tennis Association, involves smaller courts and racquets with a foam ball, along with a modified scoring system to make it easier for youngsters to learn the game.

The tournament, which is scheduled from 1-5 p.m. on April 13, is called the Young Aces Open and will be held on the Cary Street Field (which is used by VCU’s field hockey team) and the Mary and Frances Youth Center, located next to the field.

There will be 42 Quick Start courts set up on the field and several more at the Mary and Frances Center, so a LOT of kids will be batting the little foam ball back and forth.

“All in all, when you add the volunteers, we could easily have 250 people out there that day,” said Tina Carter, director of the Mary and Frances Center. In other words, mass confusion could easily reign over the proceedings. But maybe not.

“It’s going to be exciting,” said Carter, who will be assisted by a group of four students from VCU’s Center for Sport Leadership working toward their master’s degree.

“I also think it’s going to be very organized,” said Carter with a laugh. “It is a first-time event, but we’re going to have the support of the VCU Center for Sport Leadership and their student volunteers. We’ll have RTA volunteers and P.E. teachers from each school.

“The USTA [U.S. Tennis Association] is going to be here to help us set up and break down and run some other activities. It’s hard to go wrong when you have that much support.”

(Anyone interested in volunteering between 1-5 p.m. that day should contact Carter at 804-827-0802 or cccarter@vcu.edu. Volunteers are needed for greeters, court monitors, and to help with activity stations. Limited parking will be available but car-pooling is recommended).

Each school will be represented by as many as six students --- three girls and three boys --- and they’ll play mixed doubles against other schools. Every point a team wins goes to their school’s team score, and there will be trophies for first, second and third places.

“Even though they might not win the match, their total points go into a team score,” said Carter. “We’re trying to promote this as a team effort.”

The VCU graduate students are Mary Bertram, Amanda Hiltunen, Stephen Embrey and J.B. Tanner, and their class is entitled Sports and Entertainment Event Development.

“It’s a two-semester class,” explained Bertram, who is from Salisbury, N.C., and graduated from the University of Richmond. “They split us up into groups and each group was assigned an event to take charge of. This is the event our group is doing.

“We started organizing it last semester. I’d say the past two or three weeks, we’ve really started making some decisions. We’re well on our way into planning everything. We want to make sure there’s no down time at all for the kids … they’re constantly occupied doing something.”

It appears the Quick Start arrangement has been accepted well by the city schools, according to Elizabeth Frazier, who, along with her husband, Michael, donated all the equipment for the program. The Fraziers also founded the Mary and Frances Center.

“The P.E. teachers just loved it, because it’s something different,” said Frazier. “I’ve been to two or three schools as a volunteer and the kids love it. It’s so easy for them to play on the smaller courts. What I love about it, too, is we try to teach sportsmanship.

“We’ll have a sportsmanship award at the tournament because I believe we should help kids learn to do the right thing.”

The Young Aces Open is intended to be an annual affair, Carter said, and who knows, maybe even more organized chaos next year.