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Home Staff & Services |
Important Notice! Kids N’ Tennis, Inc. has returned operation of the St. Johns Racquet Center (SJRC) to the Portland Parks and Recreation Department. Some KNT activities will continue at SJRC. Kids N’ Tennis summer camps, tennis clinics and tournaments will continue as usual at specified parks in the City f Portland. For updated information on Kids N’ Tennis activities contact Don Johnson at 360-944-0916 or continue to check this web site for future updates. For available court times contact SJRC at 503-823-3629 or Portland Tennis Center at 503-823-3189. Youth Tennis Scholarships KN’T offers tennis scholarships for all of its youth programs. A "sliding scale" is used to determine the amount for each scholarship. Scholarship recipients must participate in one of KN’T’s Youth Internship Programs. No family financial information required by applicants. SJRC Private Lessons St. Johns Racquet Center offers private or Semi-Private Lessons with the Pro of your choice. Lesson cost for Junior, Adults, and Seniors are the same. All of our teaching staff are USPTA or USPTR Certified Teaching Professionals. Lessons are for one hour and must be scheduled by appointment. Please call (503) 823-3629 or 3630. Staff The coaching staff of Kids N' Tennis consists of two teaching professionals; Don Johnson, and Andre St. James. Don and Andre are the co-founders of Kids N’ Tennis and have been coaching together since 1987. Their tennis background predates their involvement with Kids N’ Tennis. For eight years they both served as coaches for the Wilson High School Boys Tennis Team. During that time they compiled a Portland Interscholastic League record of 65-7; won four District Championships; finished second, twice in the Oregon Boys State Tennis Championships and compiled an overall record of 83-17. While coaching at Wilson individuals on their teams won eight District Singles and five District Doubles titles. However, their crowning achievement was coaching teammates Jake Raiton to Chad Cromwell against each other for the Boys State Singles Title in 1994. That following year Jake repeated as the state singles champion. After the 1995 Season, Johnson and St. James retired from high school coaching to devote more time to Kids N’ Tennis and the St. Johns Racquet Center. Over the years Don and Andre have accomplished numerous personal goals and received national recognition for their tennis related achievements. Some of their personals accomplishments include: certification as tennis teaching professionals by the Untied States Professional Tennis Registry; serving as National Tennis Clinicians for the United States Tennis Association; coaching two silver medal tennis teams at the National AAU Junior Olympics; co-sponsoring summer tennis camps with Portland Parks and Recreation; and serving as managers and teaching professionals at the St. Johns Racquet Center. After thirteen years on the staff of Wilson High School, Don left two years ago to teach at his high school alma mater. He currently teaches English at Portland’s Jefferson High School, while Andre teaches Music History and Theory at the Northwest Academy. Andre is also a professional jazz musician and plays with his own band, Mel Brown and others. The acoustic bass guitar is his instrument of choice and you can catch him playing at local jazz venues on weekends in the Portland Metropolitan area. The USTA National and its Pacific Northwest Section have both honored and/or called upon Mr. St. James and Johnson to participate in National Coaching Clinics and Workshops. Locally their efforts resulted in Irving Park receiving a National Junior Tennis League Chapter. The NJTL’s chief responsibility is to provide summer and if possible year-round tennis camps and programs for beginners or entry-level players. Other USTA programs established in North and Northeast Portland are USA Tennis 1-2-3, USA Team Tennis, USTA Rookie & Jr. “A” Tennis Tournaments, and Adult USTA and World Team Tennis programs and teams.
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