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Agassi Boys & Girls Club offers tennis program

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The three tennis courts at the Andre Agassi Boys & Girls Club seem to be one of the unlikeliest of places capable of changing the landscape of junior tennis in the United States.

Located at the corner of Martin Luther King Boulevard and Washington Avenue, the club is a welcome beacon of hope in the neighborhood.

And providing a great deal of hope for the club and the neighborhood these days is the success of the Team Agassi tennis program, which teaches 25 selected club members ages 6-17 at the beginning, intermediate and advanced levels of tennis.

The brainchild of club namesake and local tennis legend Andre Agassi and his longtime friend and business manager Perry Rogers, Team Agassi was started seven years ago and has had two players go on to receive full or partial college scholarships.

The club also has produced four players currently ranked among the top 100 juniors nationally in Asia Muhammad, Jeff Vongman, Brendan Aguilar and Stan Breland.

Team Agassi members have already won a total of nine national titles -- six singles and three doubles -- five Super National titles and one international title since the program was launched in 1999.

Rogers said the idea for the team began after two Las Vegas teens became lifelong friends while playing tennis together more than two decades ago.

"When we were young, we talked a lot about what it means to have a successful life, that it didn't just mean having the most money in your bank account, but that it meant something beyond that in helping other people out,'' said Rogers, who besides serving as Agassi's agent also represents Agassi's wife, Steffi Graf, as well as Miami Heat all-star Shaquille O'Neal, among others, as head of Premier Integrated Sports Management. "And clearly, the thing that was always the most prevalent aspect of our lives at the time was tennis, so it wasn't difficult to say, 'Wouldn't it be neat if one day we could help kids that couldn't afford to play, play this game?' "

Julie Stipe, marketing director for the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation -- which to date has raised more than $60 million for programs designed to enhance children's character, self-esteem and career possibilities -- said Team Agassi is a unique endeavor.

"The program started in 1999, and Team Agassi is the junior tennis team at the Boys & Girls Club," Stipe said. "The Andre Agassi Boys & Girls Club started with a capital gift from the foundation to build the facility. We have two sports programs at the club that the Agassi Foundation funds. One is Team Agassi, which is the junior tennis program, and the other one is a basketball program called the Agassi Stars."

Stipe said making sure team members perform well in the classroom -- the team carries a B-plus grade average -- is as important to the program's success as their on-court performance.

"The members of Team Agassi practice five days a week," she said. "At the same time, the program also emphasizes academics, and there is tutoring that goes along with the program. They have to study as well as practice. And the importance of the academic component is reinforced -- it helps them to succeed in school as well as in life. So the overall goal of the program is to not just introduce these children to tennis, but to also develop their tennis capabilities and academic abilities to help them land college scholarships."

The first two members of Team Agassi to graduate from the program and land college scholarships were Jasmine Muhammad -- now Smith -- who received a full-ride scholarship to Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she is a member of the Bison tennis team, and Sue Owens -- now Treadwell -- who was hired by Team Agassi coach Tim Blenkiron as his assistant to come back and help lead the program.

One of the factors in Team Agassi's success is Blenkiron, who was the NCAA doubles champion in 1997 while he attended UNLV.

The native Australian has brought his unique blend of Down Under toughness and love to the club.

Rogers, who graduated from Georgetown University and the University of Arizona's law school, said it was important to find the right coach.

"It's everything. It really is everything," Rogers said. "We had a coach initially who was a good coach, but couldn't take the kids to this level. You have to find someone who can make it fun and can push them, and that is a very difficult balance. I think that is the most critical element of the program and the one that we're the most pleased with."

It's obvious the tennis courts at the club are Blenkiron's real workplace as his physical office is no bigger than a storage shed filled with tennis ball machines. Tennis balls are strewn about the floor. A calendar is still stuck in August.

The 30-year-old Blenkiron said he's thrilled with where the program is, but said it took a while for it to be totally accepted.

"I'm actually very happy with where we're at. It's taken me basically up to now (to be satisfied)," he said. "To be honest with you, I came here from Canyon Gate (Country Club), where I dealt with rich, white people and came down here, where I'm dealing with primarily 90 percent black kids from lower-income black families, so they really have to accept you. And that was my No. 1 thing in coming here -- let me just put my head down, work my butt off, pay my dues and gain their acceptance. And that took me nearly a good year."

Blenkiron said the AACF has given him a great deal of freedom in his job and has backed him 100 percent.

"Every six months, I look and see if everything's the way I would like it," he said. "The great part of the program for me is that they leave it up to me whatever I want to do. Anything I've ever asked from the foundation, they've stepped up to the plate every single time. I've been here three years and I've asked them for a lot of things and they've delivered every single time."

One of Team Agassi's advanced members, Asia (the home-schooler is celebrating her 15th birthday today) has helped put the program on the map after being ranked No. 1 in the nation by the United States Tennis Association in doubles and making her professional tournament debut in March during the Tennis Channel Open at the Darling Tennis Center near Summerlin.

She also was selected to represent the U.S. in the Junior Davis Cup.

Making Asia's success all the more impressive is the fact that she knew nothing of the game before joining the club.

"The first time she ever picked up a racquet was with our program," Stipe said." She had never played tennis before."

The somewhat shy teen, who is Jasmine's cousin, said she liked being coached by Blenkiron because he keeps practices light with his youthful demeanor.

"I like it a lot because we work hard but he makes it fun," she said.

Blenkiron said the responsibility of having someone as talented as Asia under his tutelage is a big deal.

"It's a lot of pressure," he said. "Tennis is such a fickle sport, but when you have someone like that in your program and you understand that college may not be it ... she could actually take that next step (of becoming a pro). She's almost like having a second job."

Another player who has been a club member before Team Agassi was even created is 17-year-old Canyon Springs High School junior Candynce Boney, a state doubles winner as a freshman while at Palo Verde High School.

Boney, like Breland, lost in the state singles semifinals last fall.

Boney, who like Asia, hadn't picked up a racquet before joining the club, said she enjoyed being part of the prestigious Team Agassi.

"It's fun and we get to travel a lot," she said. "And he (Blenkiron) knows my game better than me. He's a fun coach. He coaches us like he's one of the kids."

Boney, who said she would "probably be at home watching TV" if she hadn't joined Team Agassi, has been approached by a number of colleges, including Hampton University in Hampton, Va., about playing tennis at the next level.

Along with Asia Boney, Breland, Aguilar and Vongman, Team Agassi's current roster also includes Unique Hawkins, Ma'Jhanae Thomas, Hannah Tatlock, Mary-Catherine Tatlock, Brenda Aguilar, Aymia Jones, Kaleena Oliver, Takeyrah Reid, Ronnae Williamson, Chloe Williams, Joy Jones, Josh Jones, Hanifa Nunez, Ashley Wad-Udin, Ishmail Gibson, Rebecca Clary, Angel Aguilar, Tamila Hicks and the team's youngest member Jeremiah Williams, 8.

Blenkiron said getting college scholarships and making Team Agassi work for its members requires maximum effort from everyone involved.

"It's a lot of work. And to be honest with you, the quality of their scholarship is going to depend on them in the end," he said. "Because it's what they're willing to do and what they're willing to sacrifice and how hard they're willing to work. But that's the entire goal of this program ... we try and bust a grape to get every kid in this program that graduates a Division I scholarship."

Stipe knows a great deal of Team Agassi's recent success can be attributed directly to its coach.

"We can't give him enough credit," Stipe said.

Rogers strongly agreed.

"If we lost him, the program would change dramatically," he said. "We learned the hard way. It's not about facilities, it's all about people. Tim Blenkiron is the person and he breathes life into those courts. Otherwise, they're just going to be draped nets and shattered bottles. But those courts are well-kept because people in the neighborhood see them alive."

Ryan Wolfington, creator of VegasTennis.com, said the concept of team tennis started with this program and has changed the way Southern Nevada looks at the sport.

"Team Agassi has revolutionized tennis in Vegas because it's created this team environment and ever since, other teams have sparked up," Wolfington said. "We have Team Hilton. There's Team Turnberry. The concept of training as a team is what made the Spaniards so successful. So Team Agassi brought that piece of success to their program and it's worked incredibly because they're like a family -- they train together, they travel together, they're friends, they socialize together. Tennis is a difficult sport because you're out there alone. So whenever you can have a team environment, it helps in many ways."

Los Angeles is launching Agassi's Safe Passage All-Stars team this spring as a joint partnership with the Los Angeles Junior Chamber of Commerce and the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. on the campus of California State University, Dominguez Hills.

Rogers, a graduate of Bishop Gorman High School, loves the fact that his and Agassi's idea could be implemented in Los Angeles, but he thinks even more can be done in terms of tennis for at-risk youth nationwide.

"It makes me feel great, but I wish that the USTA would step up and do this in cities across the country," he said. "We've told them several times, 'Take our model, we don't want your money. We'll pay for our program but please do this in other cities. Connect the legends of the game with at-risk youth and develop the game throughout the county.' "

Teaching at-risk children to play tennis may seem like a strange idea to some -- Blenkiron admitted he has had to take his players off the courts because of gunfire on a few occasions -- but the sight of young athletes perfecting their craft has made some passersby take note.

"The people that live here stop and encourage the kids all the time," Blenkiron said. "They'll stand by the fence for 20 to 30 minutes and just encourage them. It's unbelievable. It's just something for the community to be proud of. There are a lot of unfortunate things going on around this neighborhood."

For Rogers and Agassi, having the team train at the club made perfect sense.

"We had some people say, 'Why would you go to that neighborhood?' And that always surprised us and we always thought, 'As opposed to where?' " Rogers said. "Why would you go to the suburbs? Help or don't, but don't act like you're helping kids that don't need help. You should reach out to kids that need the most help and that's what the foundation has tried to do."