BOSTON, MA - When Hameen Edwards let go of one dream, he started what has become a relentless pursuit of another.
Edwards, once a top junior tennis player with aspirations of a professional career, has set about to better the lives of Boston children through tennis and learning.
Edwards is the director of the Boston Inner City Youth Tennis Program, a USTA-New England recognized Community Tennis Association.
Edwards received his first exposure to the game as a youngster on the island of Montserrat, and when his family returned to his native Boston, Edwards jumped at the chance to study the game at Dorchester's Sportsmen's Tennis Club.
After experiencing success on the junior level and as a high school player, Edwards parlayed his talent into a spot on the South Carolina State University tennis team.
"I remember one day calling my father and telling him that I didn't want to play tennis any more," said Edwards, who teams with Coach Wilson Monteiro to instruct members of the BICYTP. "I wanted to spend my time on studying and focus on my education."
While Edwards met his educational goals, he dealt quietly with the regret of not playing college tennis and vowed to make sure others in a similar situation with similar back stories would not make such a mistake.
"I remember one day I was giving lessons and a woman named Mrs. Reid - (highly-ranked New England junior) Carl Reid's mother - said to me that her son wanted to learn," Edwards recalled. "There was something in that statement that gave me a renewed focus and a vision. This was something much more powerful than someone just telling me that their child wanted to take tennis lessons."
A motivated Edwards set about to form the BICYTP and worked to combine education and tennis to better the lives of those the program affects.
The BICYTP found court time at the Boston Athletic Club and the Weymouth Club, and Edwards has used grant money awarded by USTA New England, USTA Eastern Mass and USTA Serves to facilitate tutoring from the Boston Learning Center for the BICYTP participants.
"It's really a gift from above to be where we are now," said Edwards, who credited his family, especially his parents, Monteiro, the families with whom he works and the community for helping to put him in position to be a difference-maker. "We've been able to take the kids to tournaments and it's truly electrifying to see all their hard work and preparation pay off when they get to compete."
BICYTP will use its grant funding to provide tennis programming to the Mattapan-based Berea Seventh-Day Adventist Academy.
Beginning in September, the school's auditorium will be converted into Tennis Central for kindergartners and first-graders, who will learn the basics of tennis, which will include the QuickStart Tennis format of play.