One of the many things that makes the school community unique is the shared sense of belonging that it fosters within the campus and throughout the neighborhood. But how does the community unite its members to achieve this camaraderie? A large part of the answer to this question lies in the organizations and activities that students participate in.
A number of students within the community play tennis. One of the main places of recreation for this sport is the DVTA, about a six-minute drive down Lancaster Avenue from school. DVTA, abbreviated for Delaware Valley Tennis Academy, has established itself in the Bryn Mawr area. DVTA has an array of well-trained and experienced coaches who work with players, prioritizing their goals to give personalized training.
One of these coaches, Bill Fleegler, has been an instructor at DVTA for around eighteen years. He is the junior tennis director and the head of staffing.
“Tennis is a lifetime sport. We teach people anywhere from four to eighty years of age.”
Mr. Bill Fleegler
“Tennis is a lifetime sport. We teach people anywhere from four to eighty years of age,” Fleegler said, “and tennis is such a fun, healthy sport to play.”
People who have been involved in the sport of tennis can attest to this fact, that it is an extremely fun and healthy sport to get into, and one that can last a lifetime.
Ajay Chakraborty, Third Former and a long-time tennis player at DVTA, joined DVTA “first about five years ago. […] My brother Nick was looking for a tennis academy to play at, and he played pretty competitively, so he joined DVTA. He started taking lessons with a coach that used to be there, his name is Jack Conrad. I started by taking lessons with him too.”
Chakraborty said, “I went there for about a year or so, until about fifth grade, but I stopped there because I had way too much stuff on my plate, and then, recently, around November, I started again.”
As Fleegler mentioned, tennis is a sport that players never lose, and for Ajay, holding on to his love of this sport was definitely due to DVTA’s environment.
Athletics in general promote good health and hard work and are especially helpful to high school students by creating bonds between teammates, keeping them fit and healthy, and teaching skills such as improvement and getting over losses.