NGT NEWS - Norwalk Grassroots Tennis

Ngt News
Written by the NGT kids
New Canaan Racquet Club vs. Chelsea Piers
On Saturday, April 26th at New Canaan
Racquet Club (NCRC), the Tennis Pro’s
from New Canaan Racquet Club and
Chelsea Piers teamed up to raise money
for Norwalk Grassroots Tennis. Using a
world team tennis format, this exhibition featured 17 time Grand Slam doubles champion Gigi Fernandez along
with her fellow pros Faycal Rhazali and
Aldrin Dinya from Chelsea Piers.
NCRC was represented by Gabi Niculescu, Viktoria Stoklasova, Patrick Eagan, and
Dan Scheuler. The exhibition was the brain-child of Chuck Milot, owner of the New
Canaan Racquet Club. Chuck is a stalwart supporter of Norwalk Grassroots Tennis,
donating countless hours of indoor court time to Norwalk Grassroots Tennis for
weekend practices. One hundred percent of the donations benefited Norwalk Grassroots Tennis. Some lucky NGT kids participated as ball boys and girls and they did a
great job: Audrey & Layla Magnusen, Luis Gonzalez, Belinda Hunte, Charles Daniels,
Tyrone, Annaelle Benjamin, Tania Luma, Mitchell Desir and Timothy Smith. Every
NGT kid got a chance to meet the players and get their signatures. NGT Alumni Antonio “TC” Passerelle, who is now a pro at the New Canaan Racquet Club, spoke at
the event about the importance of NGT and how NGT helped him get where he is
today. He also thanked Chuck Milot for offering him the opportunity to be a NCRC
tennis pro. The event was a huge success. Thank you Chuck for all that you do!!!
April 2014 issue
Contributors/
Editors:
Maurice ThomasRiley (College: )
Alyah Fresnel
(High School: F.)
Sehvrine Lezeau
(High School:
Soph. )
Sraavani
Akarapu (High
School Fr. )
“'If you woke up
today breathing,
congratulations...you
have another
chance”
-- A Boydston
Iasiah Sena & the
Walter Schaulk School of Dance Recital
A big thanks to Walter Schaulk and the Walter Schaulk School of Dance for giving NGTs Iasiah Sena a dance scholarship. Iasiah took jazz/hip hop lessons and was a part of the April 6 New Canaan Group spring recital. Iasiah proved that she was not only a natural born tennis player but also a talented dancer. She was so grace-­
ful and professional, quite a feat as she started taking dance lessons mid-season while her New Canaan coun-­
terparts have been taking lessons together since they were young. Members of the NGT board were in tears of joy—Iasiah was that good. Thank you Walter Schaulk for your generosity and support!
NGT Takes over Varsity Tennis Teams
The JEC would like to congratulate all of the NGT players who made their schools teams whether it was at the High
School or College level. Player such as:
Devin Gritten– FR. ( NHS)
Kevin Piscaria– SO.(NHS).)
Rod-Djaly Thoby - JR. (Wilton HS)
Kenji Hosokawa– SR. (NHS)
Luis Gonzalez– FR. (BMHS)
Robert Lesperance-JR.(NHS)
Pratyusha Chintalapudi-FR.(BMHS)
Alyah Fresnel– SO.(BMHS)
Sehvrine Lezeau - JR.(BMHS)
Seiji Hosokawa (injured) (NHS)
Joshua Davis– SO. (BMHS)
Jonathyn Young– JR.(Post Univ.)
Maurice Thomas– FR.(Nichols College)
NGT wishes them well during their seasons. We
know they will represent us with the upmost respect.
Upcoming Events
Inspiration : Gabriel Paulk, a NGT graduate, will speak at the upcoming Play in May about what NGT means to him. Gabe will recount the first time he encountered Director of Tennis David Kimani, back in 2007 while waiting for his cousin to finish tennis prac-­
tice. Encouraged by David to hit some balls to kill time, Gabriel discovered he had tal-­
ent, enjoyed playing tennis and as the saying goes, the rest is history. Now a graduate of the NGT program, today Gabriel works as a tennis professional at Weston Racquet Club, attends NCC and has plans to go on to finish school with a BS in Electrical Engineering at UCONN, following Knights for Aces: The first annual
Knights for Aces Junior doubles ten- in his deceased father’s footsteps. He also gives back to the nis tournament will be held on June
program that helped him thrive, teaching tennis and acting 8th and all proceeds will benefit
as a role model for current NGT youth. But there’s more NGT. The tournament will be held
in clubs around Fairfield County with to Gabriel’s story. Things could have turned out differently the finals held at Darien’s, Tokeneke had he not found NGT and been supported and nurtured by Club. For more information, please
David and the rest of the staff. Come listen to his story. visit our website at norwalkgrassYou will be inspired!
rootstennis.org.
Play in May: Coming May 2nd and
3rd is everyone's favorite tournament—Play in May. Last year’s PIM
was a huge success and we are expecting this year to be no different.
Whether it is the cocktail party or
the actual tournament, everyone
comes out a winner.