By: Vinnie Abbaleo

Thirty-three years ago, I was graduating college, and picked up a tennis racquet for the first time. It was 1974, and everyone was playing with a steel, Wilson T-2000 racquet, because the world’s greatest player, Jimmy Connors used it. I had been playing golf for about 5 years, and did not improve drastically over those years. It was so frustrating chasing that little ball around, and no “cardio” exercise, to boot.

After getting into tennis, within a year, I was playing well enough to enter some tournaments, and began beating some seasoned players, who had more experience than me. It was weird, but it seemed in a year, I improved more in tennis than I did in 5 years of playing golf. I had absolutely begun a love affair with the game on those courts in 1974. I played every night and remember hitting against a wall if no one was around. I also remember not going home until I hit 50 balls in a row over that line on the wall. If I missed I started over again, then I upped the ante to 100 balls, and never went home until I accomplished that feat.

Now, here I am 33 years later and still play tennis 4-5 times a week, although I forget that I’m now 55, and after 5 hours of playing at night, I’m a little sore the next day. Also, a dream of mine came true three years ago when I began coaching tennis at Atlantic High School, and also began coaching a Special Olympics Team in Port Orange, Fla. One of my goals as a tennis coach is not only to develop the physical abilities of my players, but also to instill in them a sense of citizenship and commitment to underprivileged children, and to the community. We’ve volunteered for the annual Foster Care Kids Day, held at the United Methodist Home, for Special Olympics events and for Ralleyball tournaments, where young children are just learning the great game of tennis. I truly believe we become enlightened and begin to develop a sense of consciousness when we volunteer, which is as important to our youth today, as building pre-requisite tennis skills.

Over the years, tennis not only has kept me fit, it has given me ions of joy and excitement, and it also was a tremendous stress reliever, especially those years, when I was a child abuse investigator. The stress of that job was seemingly insurmountable, but it was relived daily, with the first smack of a tennis ball. I swear that’s the only way I survived those years, through tennis. Outside of the birth of my 3 daughters whom I taught and are still capable players, I can’t think of another event in my life that has given me so much pleasure, such as the game of tennis.