The Derbyshire Tennis Complex in Daytona Beach, Fla., is a public tennis facility featuring seven lighted hard courts. USPTA member Johnny Van Session is the director of tennis and is responsible for all tennis activity at the facility.
All tennis lessons at the facility are free. It also offers NJTL leagues, beginner non-sanctioned tournaments for juniors and adults, junior development, racquet stringing and mentoring services.
Kidsports, Another Option to Alcohol, Drugs & Crime Inc., is a mentoring organization in Daytona Beach, Fla., that was set up and is owned by USPTA professional Johnny Van Session. It is the only organization in the area that uses the sport of tennis as the primary attention getter, “keeping kids in school, out of trouble and away from alcohol, drugs, tobacco and crime, and delaying sexual activity among the youths.”
He began Kidsports in 1998 as a way to keep inner-city children off the streets and involved in tennis. As president of the company, he spends his spare time introducing both children and adults to tennis.
A focal point of the Derbyshire Tennis Complex is the Kidsports Store, where children in the Kidsports program can purchase tennis-related items using “Kidbucks” earned by exhibiting good behavior, positive attitudes and good grades.
