Cheshire Academy student-athlete Chase Harding has a dream of making tennis accessible to kids in Jamaica.
“In Jamaica, tennis is not one of the sports that is very exposed,” he said. “Jamaica is known for like track and field.”
Harding grew up in Kingston, Jamaica, and has been playing tennis for eight years. He says it’s a sport where you need resources, which often cost money that people on the island don’t have. Over his summer break, he decided to host a tennis clinic for kids in the inner-city neighborhood of Payne Land.
“It was a great experience just to empower the next generation, because these are kids that probably would never have had the chance to hold a racket,” he said. “Just to know that I was the one to physically place a racket in their hands, that’s just a great feeling.”
Harding brought donated rackets and source equipment from his tennis coach in Jamaica. He and his team set up portable nets on gravel and taught the kids basic tennis skills.
“We just spent the whole day playing tennis with the kids and teaching them about the sport,” he said.
Harding says he wants to go on to represent his country at the Davis Cup and eventually play college tennis.
He plans to host another clinic during his winter and spring breaks and says he wants to expand to other parishes in Jamaica that have less access to tennis.
“It’s great to see what he’s doing,” said Chip Boyd, Harding’s current high school coach. “I think there’s a lot of good to be developed through tennis in Jamaica.”