Rome Downtown Racquets Center, Rome, GA – On November 16, Teach Me Tennis hosted the Teach Me Tennis Tournament, featuring nearly 100 elementary students from participating schools in the area including Model Elementary School, Johnson Elementary School, Pepperell Elementary School, Darlington School, and Garden Lakes Elementary School. The tournament was the culmination of the award-winning after-school program, which provides an interactive and fun way for students to learn tennis.
“At Teach Me Tennis, we believe that a successful introduction to tennis is done by making the sport fun and coming together to play as a team,” said Logan Yerbey, Director of the program. “We were thrilled to see so many students participating in the tournament and showing off the skills they learned through the program.”
The program’s goal is to teach children the joys of tennis and equip them with the skills to continue playing for a lifetime. In partnership with the Coosa Valley Tennis Association (CVTA), USTA’s Junior Tennis Apprentice initiative, and a generous grant courtesy of the Georgia Tennis Foundation, Teach Me Tennis offers the program to students at the low cost of $55. This includes a tennis racket for new participants, six one-hour coach-led sessions, and access to the Teach Me Tennis Tournament. By providing students with their own tennis racket, Teach Me Tennis hopes to make the sport more accessible and fun for all during and after the final tournament.
Individual teams the day of the tournament were captained by players from the Shorter University and Berry College tennis teams. This year, a team composed of students from Garden Lakes Elementary and Pepperell Elementary, coached by Mike Nichols and Craig Walton, won the Primary Division while Darlington School, coached by Chris Eberhart, took home the gold in the Elementary Division. Each winning team received a 5 lb chocolate bar courtesy of Mike Nichols and World’s Finest Chocolate and will house the Teach Me Tennis trophy at their school until next year.
Participants in this season’s programming are now eligible for free tennis programming – Teach Me Tennis Minis – hosted by the CVTA in the Spring. “This fun competition program is a great opportunity for players to continue their progress in the sport in an accessible and welcoming atmosphere,” said Logan Yerbey. Registrations are open now at cvta.us/jtt for all Fall 2025 Teach Me Tennis players and is $20 for any juniors who did not participate in Teach Me Tennis.
Special thanks to the sponsors and community partners who helped make this tournament a reality; Teach Me Tennis Founder JP Selle and Coosa Country Club, The CVTA, Rome Tennis Center, USTA Georgia and their Junior Tennis Apprentice initiative, Georgia Tennis Foundation, The Berry College Tennis Team, The Shorter University Tennis Team as well as Karen Adams, Mike Nichols, Craig Walton, Chris Eberhart, and Sam Couch for dedicating their time to teaching tennis to their students.
For more information on Teach Me Tennis, please visit their website at www.teachmetennis.org.
