The Santa Clara men’s tennis program, led by second-year head coach George Husack, received the inaugural United States Tennis Association and Intercollegiate Tennis Association Community Service Award for the Northern California Section. The award honors a coach for significant contributions in developing community-based tennis programs.
In June, the tennis program successfully completed the Pathways to Success Program (PSP) through a partnership with Youth Tennis Advantage and local middle-school Peter Burnett Academy. An after-school pilot program designed to expose low-income students to the college environment, PSP began last spring at Santa Clara with six weeks of tennis instruction and development, academic tutoring, and personal mentoring. Coaches and players from both Bronco tennis teams worked with up to 16 Peter Burnett Academy students twice a week at the SCU Tennis Center.
In November, the team hosted a day of tennis, food, and fun for nearly 50 boys and girls of Youth Tennis Advantage in San Francisco and Oakland.
“The goal of the University and our tennis program is to develop the whole person,” Husack says. “This is done in the classroom, on the courts, and in day-to-day life.”