 My name is Hameen Edwards. I'm the founder of the Boston Inner City Youth Tennis Program. The program is designed to help children in the community learn how to play the game of tennis with learning the fundamental skills and also expose them to tournaments within their region, their USDA New England region. I believe that gives them an opportunity to see why they practice and where they level up to other kids within their age groups. This is the Boston Inner City Youth Tennis Program. We're going to be working on some drills right now. Please feel free. Come on in. Okay, break is over. Break is over. I want everybody on the baseline. We're going to do some easy drills and then we'll get a little bit harder as we go. For those that were out on the injured list, take your time. Put in your full effort, but take your time. I first discovered playing tennis when I was living in the island of Montserrat. There's a gentleman that Mr. Arthurton that took me to the beach. They had tennis courts at the beach and he exposed me to playing with him. From there, my family moved back to Boston, the Boston area. I was playing soccer when I was in Montserrat, but I wanted to play soccer when I came back to Boston. The Sportsman Tennis Club advertised that they had a little soccer program that they would play in the afternoons or early mornings, which sparked my parents' interest to sign me up to sportsmen. From going to sportsmen, I picked up the game of tennis, of course. I played for them for many years until I went to graduate from high school. The training was very rigorous. They made sure you learned. They made sure you got in shape. The reward was being able to see all of the work that you put in actually come to fruition. When you're out there with your friends and the ball is going back and forth 10, 20 times, you all are just playing your heart out. It just made you think about yourself on the court and the time you had on the court. It was just a way to just take your mind away from everything. Nice and easy. Swing right through it. Step it on up. Come on, let's go. Step on up. You can do open stands, but you can also close it up at will. Come on, keep it going. You know what I like? Yes, there's some balls in the net, but if you look closely, the majority of balls are over the net. I got exposed to teaching for the community at an early age from the founder that taught me at Sportsman's, Jim Smith's son, Les Smith. He worked for Boston Park and Recreation with Barbara Hamilton at 10-10 Mass Ave. They offered me a position as a supervisor to run a program for the city, which was called Boston Park and Recreation. They told me to get a friend of mine and have him join me to teach throughout the day. I got a good friend of mine, Mr. Starte Brown. They gave us a company car, balls, Gatorade, banner, and rackets. We went to different parts of the community and taught the game of tennis, introduced the game of tennis. I did that for about three years, even on to when I was in college. I would come back up in the summertime and teach. I loved the freedom, the responsibility, the growth that I seen that the kids were having. One thing that got my attention was it was just an introduction. It wasn't a continuation. It was just an introduction to the game of tennis. I felt that I had a lot to offer and I felt that if I could be able to train students and take them on the road and give them that all-around effect, then it would be great for the community. That was one of the reasons why I started the program and it just so happened that we are here today. Boom, shuffle over, come back, get there, hit your shot, shuffle over. You're running to the ball, running to the ball, stepping in, hit your shot, shuffle over, get back in the line. You're going to get two, then next person. Two, next person. Everybody that's waiting, don't wait on the wall. Be ready. It's going to be back-hands. We're working on back-hands for this one. Ready, Aquila? Let's go. Run over, shuffle over, no, you went the wrong way. It's okay, shuffle, no, shuffle in front so you know what you're doing. Run over again. That means you need to, no, shuffle around. I want you to do it right the next time. Ready? Come on. Shuffle around, shuffle around, dig deep into the court. Nice, next person up. Shuffle around, shuffle around, dig deep into the court. Nice, come on, next person up. Out the way Imani, as quickly as possible. Again, start again. Come on, you got to watch the ball. Come on, come on. Let's go. Get there, dig deep into the court. Come on, hustle back, hustle back. Next person. I believe tennis helps build confidence. It's a sport where you're independent, you're out there on your own and you have to figure out the strategy of what it takes for you to win a match or how to act when you lose a match. I mean that's just as important as winning too and you're on your own. All you can remember is the coaching, the practice and how you feel out on the court. So I believe tennis brings a sense of independence, confidence. And when a child, what I realize is when children see that they're well on the court, I believe it helps them in the classroom, the mistakes that we make as individuals growing up. You want to try and make corrections as you grow. And there's some roads that I believe I went down that probably wasn't the best roads. But I always came back to tennis. Tennis was that vehicle that helped me to keep moving forward. So I reached a point in my life where I realized that it was probably best me give my attention to the younger generation versus trying for myself to reach higher and higher heights in the game of tennis for myself. So I got satisfaction when I worked for Boston Park and Recreation. I got satisfaction when I exposed students to tournaments and they come back with the trophies. I felt that that was rewarding for me and I felt if I could make children in the community experience some of what I was able to experience growing up in the game of tennis, it would be tremendous. So I'm just thankful to be able to do the work that I'm doing. It's tough when you don't have funding. But I guess the love for the game and the love for the work that you do helps you to see beyond what you don't have and focus on the talents and the skills that are being developed. My name is Hamine Edwards. I'm the founder of the Boston Intercity Youth Tennis Program. You can find us online at www.bicytp.com which stands for Boston Intercity Youth Tennis Program. Feel free to give us a call, reach out, drop in, see some of our practices that our students are doing and look forward to hearing from you.