In October 2025, the Temple Men’s Tennis Team began a weekly clinic at Dunbar Elementary School to teach students basic techniques and skills. The program ran until Thanksgiving, with the team occupying the Dunbar Elementary gym every Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. Expected to resume this spring, the team is preparing to hold the program again until the end of the semester.
The Men’s and Women’s Director of Tennis, Jeff Brandes, has worked with Officer Leroy Wimbley of the Department of Public Safety to set up these clinics.
“The original plan was that the kids were going to come to our courts, and then that became difficult for them to be able to get out of school. But he was over there and was like, ‘What about doing it at the school?’” Brandes said.
Officer Wimbley and Brandes worked together and decided the space would be suitable for their clinics. The two later worked with the school to set up the schedule and equip the men’s tennis team to begin giving lessons to elementary school students.
“If it wasn’t for [Officer Wimbley], this wouldn’t have happened,” Brandes said.
The team used their skills on the court to teach many basic strokes to the kids. There was about a 50-50 ratio of teaching them new skills like forehands, backhands, volleys, and serves, and letting them participate in fun and games.
Both the kids and the men’s team learned a lot from each other through this process.
“This was the first time that we’ve done something on a consistent, weekly basis… these clinics helped [the team] gain better focus, stronger work ethics, and more accountability,” Brandes said.
Maj Kolaric, a junior risk management major, plays position two on the Men’s Tennis Team. He’s been playing tennis for the last 16 years, since he was about five or six years old. Now he and his teammates are participating in these clinics.
“Tennis is originally a purely individual sport, you play only for yourself, pretty much. . College tennis introduces a different aspect of tennis because it has a team environment and you play for not only yourself, but your whole team,” Kolaric said.
Kolaric and his teammates use the skills they’ve learned throughout their careers playing tennis to provide the kids with as much knowledge as they can in the one-hour teaching sessions each week.
“Most of us have just had the experience of being taught tennis… but trying to teach a seven- or eight-year-old kid tennis is something completely different,” Kolaric said. “So, it’s been a learning process for us all.”
Although some of the more intense skills they keep for themselves on the court, the kids are taught some of the more basic skills that they learned when they first started playing tennis.
“We have a different set of exercises, courses, activities, and techniques that we try to teach them. We usually start with more basic stuff, such as just feeling the racket and the ball and bouncing it around,” Kolaric said, “Then we eventually move on to feeding where they can try and hit the ball, forehands, backhands, all other types of strokes. So they really get that feel and hands-on experience with tennis.”
Providing the students with these hands-on lessons allows them to bond with the tennis players and their peers alike.
“We can push each other and just create some good energy and memories, and that’s pretty special,” Kolaric said.
With the way the clinic is currently running, the players hope it can continue in the future even after they’ve graduated.
“Their teachers tell us that it’s been a huge success,” Kolaric said. “It’s just good to see that we’re able to share it with them.”