Sports

Turning Tennis Fun Up To 11

Wall High coach and summer instructor Chris Doyle makes tennis memorable through fun

Chris Doyle has his own style. And it is formidable.

The 29-year-old Wall High School coach, who runs the Recreation Department’s Tennis lessons, manages somehow to effortlessly combine a frenetic, gale-force energy into a gentle, focused touch not seen this side of Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood.

You feel it immediately.

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Every child in the six-week summer tennis program – which runs through Aug. 12 – is greeted on approaching the Old Orchard Park tennis courts, by name, as though each was his own niece or nephew who he had not seen in months.

His approach is calculated, Doyle says, to turn up the fun to 11, so that when kids who have been through the program start to decide which sport they want to pursue, they remember how much fun tennis was.

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“Nobody’s going to have fun out here — nobody’s going to like tennis if I’m just out here being lame and tossing a ball,’’ Doyle says. “I want the kids to be excited about tennis. It’s such a great opportunity for them. It’s a life sport, so I want them to have a good time.”

He makes sure of it.

On the court in a recent hour-long session for 6- and 7-year-olds, Doyle was a whirling tennis dervish. He was loud, but not intimidating. He moves fast, without threatening. He corrects without demeaning. Mostly, though, he was everywhere.

“The best part is, we’re here at 5 p.m., and he still has it,’’ said Larry Kernis, whose daughter, Hannah, 6, was swinging a racket with Doyle. Kernis also has an older child in lessons later in the day. “Even after a full day in the sun, he’s still got the same energy.’’

Doyle, who has been teaching the summer program for seven years, said the summer tennis program this year is a little low on students compared with years prior. He attributes that to a weak economy, but also a change to electronic delivery of recreation fliers in the schools.

People are not as inclined to make the extra effort to logon to their computers an go through electronic fliers that used to just go home in paper form with children’s book bags, he said.

And because of the lower census, Doyle said, he has to be just a little more animated. It’s easier, he says, to get a group of 18 riled up; more difficult for a group of eight.

“They just love it,’’ said Christine Meikle, whose son, Jack, 6, attends sessions with Doyle.

The program teaches children and adults the basics of tennis by working on a different stroke each day of the week during the hour-long group sessions. But Friday’s are reserved for just playing games, Doyle said.

“I’m very fun-focused,” Doyle said.  “I want the kids to have a very fond memory of tennis because most of these kids have probably never played tennis or done much with tennis, so I do the best I can to make it fun for them.”

And some of that energy clearly spills out into the makeshift spectator area outside the courts where parents watch the action from beach chairs in the grass, with shouts of encouragement and sudden bursts of applause.

“It’s contagious,” said Tammy Kernis, Hannah’s mother. “His energy and his enthusiasm are just contagious. And they (the kids) are just drawn to it. You see it. It’s like they build on it. But what’s really great is that the older girls come at 5 p.m. and he’s still the same energy, but he adapts it to their level. That’s the mark of a good teacher.’’

Doyle said his goal is to inspire kids to want to continue to play tennis after they leave his program.

For at least one child in the 6- and 7-year-old class, he was successful.

Caleb Rogers, 7, who picked up a racket the first time in Doyle’s class is smitten with the game. His mother Michele Rogers, of M Street, is hoping to find a fall class for Caleb to continue.

“It’s just been a really positive experience for him,’’ Michele Rogers said.


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