Players
Jennifer Salomon: Althea Gibson Leadership 2007 award recipient—
When Youth Tennis Advantage participant Jennifer Salomon opened the letter mailed from the United States Tennis Association (USTA) recently, her first reaction was one of fear.
“Well, I was scared because here was a letter mentioning that I was the winner of this award and there was a check there too,” said Jennifer who’d never been so honored for her tennis and leadership effort before. But Jennifer’s fright quickly melted into elation realizing that the Althea Gibson Leadership award was indeed hers.
The Althea Gibson Leadership award is an inaugural award created in honor of the 50th anniversary of Althea Gibson’s U.S. National Championship title, and was announced exactly 50 years to the day Althea Gibson won. Gibson, who died in September 2003, beat incredible odds to compete and win in tennis, a sport which was overwhelmingly unwelcoming to African Americans and other people of color at the time.
“Althea Gibson was an amazing person, just hearing her name is enough, she won so many awards and great tournaments and she made everything seem possible,” Jennifer commented.
She also said that her commitment to the YTA program and her involvement at the California Tennis Club have been important factors which led her to receiving the award. “I am 16 now, but I started playing tennis when I was 7 at Golden Gate Park where my family was into it and I watched them and then became active, Jennifer said. “I’ve been inspired by my sister Jancie who played #1 for UC Davis and she has been a great role model to work hard and think beyond looking pretty.” Jennifer’s immediate goals are to continue doing well academically and work towards getting accepted into agood college.