Inspiring youth tennis through Serena

The Malverne High School girls’ tennis team visited the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center last week during the qualifying rounds with their coach, Patti Ward.

Courtesy Patti Ward

Serena Williams and Marin Cilic, last year’s U.S. Open winners, answered questions about this year’s tournament at a press conference last week.

Rossana Weitekamp

Surieya Thomson, a ninth-grader at Malverne High School, said that Williams inspired her to begin playing tennis.

Rossana Weitekamp

patti Ward, a nurse in the Malverne school district for 25 years, has been coaching the high school tennis team for the past four years.

Rossana Weitekamp

Malverne High School tennis team captain Sarah Afzali, center, led her team in warmup drills prior to a practice on the high school courts last week.

Rossana Weitekamp

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It’s an early Friday morning, prior to the start of school, and the tennis courts behind Malverne High School are abuzz with activity.

“We’re going to do this every day, girls!” Patti Ward, the girls’ tennis coach at the high school, yelled to her 20-member team as they exercised around the courts. “The running is good, the backtracking is good and the side-stepping is good. Let’s go!”

Several days earlier, Ward had taken her team to see the qualifying rounds at the U.S. Open, where her players got to watch superstar Serena Williams practice before the tournament’s official start. Williams is poised to make tennis history this year: If she wins the Open, she will join an elite group of only five players who have won all four major tournaments in a single year, and she would tie Steffi Graf’s career mark with her 22nd major title.

“Before I even started playing tennis, I was always interested in and remember hearing about Serena Williams — she was such a big inspiration,” said Malverne High team captain Sarah Afzali, a senior. “I remember reading about how she started playing when she was really young, and how she would practice really hard and became who she is today. As I play, I remember that she started somewhere too.”

“I just love her,” Afzali’s teammate, Surieya Thomson, said of Williams. “She inspired me to do more things, and she’s never really given up,” said Thomson, a freshman. “Six hours of training a day with her father! Now that’s something.”

Most of the Malverne team, however, which went undefeated and won a conference championship just two years ago, didn’t credit Williams when asked if she inspired them to begin playing the game. Some blamed a lack of marketing. “This is a sport that has a lack of exposure,” said Patricia Desormeau, the district’s athletic director. “Once you’re exposed to it, however, you realize that this is a pretty good sport, and you can do well if you keep at it.”