EPATT brings tennis courts back to East Palo Alto

With new classrooms and playing spaces, tutoring program has ambitious plans to grow

On Wednesday afternoon, kids from East Palo Alto, Menlo Park and neighboring cities stood on brand new, bright blue and green tennis courts as part of the East Palo Alto Tennis and Tutoring summer program. 

Some as young as in kindergarten, fiddled with rackets nearly half the size of their bodies while dancing to music, and others in high school practiced their backhand on full-size courts. Meanwhile, other students flowed in and out of new portable, tennis-themed classrooms beside the courts. 

It wasn’t always like this. 

For years, students played on tennis courts faded and cracked from use at the Cesar Chavez Ravenswood Middle School and in recent years at Stanford-based tennis courts. 

But in a June grand opening ceremony, Ravenswood Middle School unveiled six completely refurbished tennis courts – the only ones in the city – and four state-of-the-art classrooms created with the help of various donors. 

The six tennis courts are home to students participating in summer camps and the middle school’s tennis team. They also host local tennis tournaments. 

While the courts are new, East Palo Alto’s tennis program goes back to 1988, former Stanford tennis player Jeff Arons founded it as a summer tennis camp to get kids off the streets and on the courts. After operating at the now-closed East Palo Alto High School, the program built multiple courts at Ravenswood Middle School before transferring to the Stanford tennis courts in 1999, according to the program’s communication director Amy Kohrman.

Over time, the program grew beyond a summer activity, with year-round tennis offerings, tennis lessons at Costaño Elementary School, on-campus tutoring at Ravenswood Middle School and so much more. 

The tutoring program, which now operates out of four portable classrooms at the middle school, works year-round to ensure students are learning at grade-level, bolster at-home learning, develop leadership skills and provide mentorship. 

Painted bright white and, in some cases, coated with murals, the classrooms feature bold colors, tennis-green carpet areas, tennis racket decor and leather couches. 

Kesha Weekes, executive director for the program, said she hopes the atmosphere makes the students feel valued. 

“They are worth this investment and it should also, hopefully, create in them the understanding that these are the kind of spaces they belong in, spaces that they should feel comfortable in whether in law firms, tech companies, university libraries,” Weekes said. 

At the beginning of the 2023-24 school year, 96% of 6th and 7th-grade students enrolled in the in-school tutoring program were performing at three or more years below grade level, according to Kohrman. By the end of the year, 60% had grown at least two grade levels, she said. 

The teachers and interns who help run tennis and tutoring activities are mostly locals who “grew up” in the East Palo Alto Tennis program since its inception in 1988. 

Julio Hermoso, who attended city schools, started working with the program after he graduated high school in 2004 because it left a positive impact on his own childhood. 

“The kids are used to traveling to other places, so for them it was nice to be able to see courts like this here in East Palo Alto,” he said. “Last year, we had to play all away matches. But it was nice seeing guest players from other cities come to our home and tell us that it is one of the best facilities.” 

Anitra Jack, an intern at the summer camp, is one of three siblings to go through the program and her family has lived in East Palo Alto for generations. 

“We’re in East Palo Alto, at the heart of the community where EPATT started,” she said. 

Now that the organization has a home base, it hopes to open up to the public and to widen its reach to work with other local organizations focused on youth and senior health and student athletes. 

“The goal isn’t just to say we served more people, the goal is to be a part – a very important part – of impacting a change in these persistently negative community statics, whether it be around obesity, asthma, or mental health, or physical activity,” Weekes said.