Albert Hill Middle School has five tennis courts on Patterson at N. Thompson. Courts are only one block from the school and are used by many. A crew of three (Shima Grover, Tina Carter and Rachel Rhoney) under the direction of 
Tom Magner were busy at work on a sunny winter Saturday. The makeover was not an “extreme makeover”, but four of five nets needed to be replaced. The crew installed four used nets donated by Eddie Parker of Raintree Swim and Racquet. Tom liberally lubricated rusty cranks and taught the crew how to remove old nets and install new ones. Thank you Eddie for donating nets and to Tom for lending his expertise and donating net straps and ties. Now that the courts are ready, tennis can begin!
Lobs & Lessons wrote and received a USTA Diversity & Inclusion Signature Program Grant and was awarded $1,000 from USTA/Mid-Atlantic Tennis and Education Foundation. The purpose of the grant is to expand the 2013 middle school pilot program with Richmond Public Schools (RPS). Thanks to the USTA funding, all middle schools received a USTA coaches workshop along with tennis racquets and green tennis balls for the 2014 season. The RPS Middle School Tennis program is a partnership between Lobs & Lessons and RPS, and is supported by RPS Middle School Renaissance. Program coordination is a combined effort of Rachel Rhoney (Lobs & Lessons), Stefanie Ramsey (RPS) and Bryan Schubring (RPS Renaissance). For a second year, all nine schools will participate. In addition, RTA is a 2014 Lobs & Lessons Program sponsor, which specially supports the Middle School Tennis program.
Success is a partnership and there are ways for everyone to get involved. If you have used nets, windscreens, net posts and other equipment, please think of donating them. Used equipment may not be in good shape to you, but the chances are that they are in better shape than some on public courts and better than those missing from public courts.