By Anthony Gulizia, News Staff
The club tennis team was recognized as the New England Team of the Year by the United States Tennis Association’s Tennis on Campus organization for the second time in two years. The team was also recognized as an honorable mention for the national team of the year.
But if the USTA TOC gave an award for altruism, the club team at Northeastern blows every school out of the water.
Whether the team is tutoring students and working with the tennis team at the John D. O’Bryant high school in Roxbury or raising money at its annual Midnight Madness fundraiser, the tennis team gives back to the community unconditionally.
“We have such a diverse group of kids,” junior Ashley Equi, the president of the girls team said. “Rachel [Kozupsky, former president] was a huge advocate of community service and so she was the one who spearheaded it.”
Kozupsky and Equi founded Midnight Madness, an overnight tennis tournament held at the team’s practice facility in Weymouth.
“It isn’t really serious, it’s just everyone playing from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.,” Equi said. “Everyone asks their family and friends to donate a couple bucks for every game they win, and in the past two years we’ve raised over $20,000.”
The money gets donated to tennis programs in the community whose program got cut. Equi said the club also donates grants for high school students who have the ability and talent to play tennis at college, but do not have the means to go to national tournaments and be seen by college coaches.
“It’s fun for us,” sophomore men’s vice president Derek Owen said. “A lot of it’s tennis related and we get to help out while doing something we love, so why not.”
Leo Tabayoyong, a fifth-year pharmacy student who has been with the team since its second season, said that the tennis program, which started in 2005, has since made phenomenal progress.
“When we started, it was pretty much no organization,” Tabayoyong said. “It’s an instant transformation over the past four years. To what we are today, is nowhere where we started. Every year, we got bigger and better. Not only did we grow as a sport, but we grew socially because of all the community service we did.”
When the team was founded six years ago, there were no tryouts and members could just walk on, but now, the team is 50 players deep and tryouts are very competitive.
“I didn’t even play tennis in high school and I made the team four years ago,” Tabayoyong said. “I’ve gotten much better throughout the years and I’m still at the bottom of the ladder. The better I get, the better the people coming in get and it bodes well for the team.”
“Every year it’s more and more high quality talent,” Owen said. “It’s unfortunate that we have to turn people away, but there’s no other way to do it.”
Tabayoyong, who is also the clothing director for the program, praised the social experiences that evolved from being part of the team.
“It’s easier to do community service when you know your friends are doing it,” he said. “I’ve met over 60 great people over the past four years and we’re all friends. We all like to do things together, whether it’s playing tennis, going out or just volunteering. As long as we’re with good people, it’s a good time.”
Although the tennis team has already raised a prolific amount of money, they still continue to be involved in new organizations. One project is Acing Autism, for which players meet with autistic children once a week and play tennis.
“It works on all their social skills and develops skills they’re trying to work on,” Equi said.
Owen also discussed the Red and Blue foundation, a non-profit organization for athletes and non-athletes to spend time with tutors from different local colleges.
“They just help athletes stay eligible to play sports in high school and get ready for college,” he said. “Starting next year, they’re doing a college prep course including SAT prep, college admissions work and all sorts of things to get kids ready for things they haven’t been exposed to.”
On the court, the tennis team is fresh off a third-place finish at the Delaware Blue Hen Invitational.
This weekend, the team will head to Georgetown University for the Dual in the Districts and represent the only team from New England.
“Every year we just get more and more involved,” Owen said. “We’re competing harder to get to better tournaments. The e-board has 11 people on it and we’re consistently working hard to make tennis the best it can be, and we want to continue to do that.”
