Looking back, Alfonso Mendoza now realizes just how much picking up that tennis racquet for the first time a few years back changed his life.
The recent East Aurora High School grad is the oldest child of parents who’ve never seen him play because, he tells me, “they are working all the time to support the family.”
Which could also be a part of the reason Mendoza spent too many of his early teenage years hanging out with “good kids” doing some bonehead things.
Although the 18-year-old insists he never had any intention of joining gangs as some of them did, Mendoza reluctantly admits that even associating with some of this group could have led to unintended life-altering consequences.
And yes, he also agrees, getting past that puppy-love crush also helped alter the course of his future.
Mendoza, tall and lean but obviously athletic, was excelling in soccer his freshman year before quitting the sport because his girlfriend complained about not spending enough time with her.
Not surprisingly, they eventually split up anyway. But by then, it was too late to play sophomore sports, so Mendoza decided to try tennis – he’d never watched a match or picked up a racquet – that spring after seeing it listed online as an option through a School District 131 program that reimburses the Fox Valley Park District for these sports camps.
It’s a decision that has served him well.
In just a few years, Mendoza has developed into a top-notch player with a promising future, a description that comes not only from the coaches who have worked with him the past couple of years but also from the Waubonsee Community College coach who recently offered him a full scholarship after watching him play for a short time.
Like I said, it’s a chapter in a young man’s life that could have had a far different ending. But from the get-go, City of Lights Coach Jon Stott saw something special in this kid who would show up “filthy dirty and late to practice” from his landscaping job and then have to go immediately to his second shift at a fast food place.
Within two weeks his newest player was rallying with others far advanced in technique. By the end of the summer, Stott said he could do a one-handed backhand.
“He was showing me things he mastered so well that I knew he was practicing off the courts,” said the coach, noting Mendoza’s perfect balance, laser focus and a dogged determination to get better, even if it meant shoveling snow in the winter, as he frequently did in order to be able to practice.
“He’s the hardest working kid I’ve ever worked with,” agreed East Aurora coach Donnell Collins, who has taught not only tennis but baseball and basketball to kids in the city for decades. “I’ve never seen anyone more dedicated or more hungry.”
“I really just like this sport,” said Mendoza, a man of few words unless he’s working with younger players, as he did this summer with East Aurora’s tennis camp.
Quiet, humble, laid back off the court, Collins said “the dog in him” comes out while he’s playing. Even after coming back from a brief academic suspension – Mendoza admitted to spending more time practicing on his own than signing in to his remote-only classes – he easily beat some of the best players in the area, including those with college scholarships.
A kid that good – he said he ended up with a 3.2 grade point average – would be a shoo-in for a scholarship himself, right?
But education, and certainly tennis, is not a high priority for some East Aurora parents struggling to make ends meet. According to Collins, in his seven years of coaching tennis, “maybe three families turned out” to watch their kids play.
Nor did the school step in to help him find a scholarship, which Collins readily admits “is part of our responsibility.”
Mendoza did tell Stott he’d reach out to Waubonsee himself about playing for the community college. But because the East grad did not have a Universal Tennis Score – a number based on fee-based tournament play – there was little the coach could go on for scholarship guidance.
And so, with no offer, Mendoza said he had no choice but to drop out, as he had no money to even pay for this semester. Besides, his parents were pressuring him to quit, he said, despite trying to convince them he could eventually help the family more by earning a college degree.
“I just figured I would quit and work hard enough to save money to go back some day,” he said.
That’s when Stott sent a letter to Waubonsee coach Warren Harris about the city’s “diamond in the rough.”
“If this kid is half as good as you tell me,” Stott recalls Harris replying, “I will have a scholarship waiting for him.”
The young player obviously impressed because the full tuition and books offer came immediately after Harris watched him on the court for a brief time. The WCC coach, who described Mendoza as having “good tennis game,” hopes the young player’s time at Waubonsee will “just be a footnote on his resume.”
This community college scholarship can indeed lead to roads Mendoza admits he’s now only beginning to realize are out there. Where that future will take him is uncertain, but Mendoza told me he’s “more excited” than he’s ever been in his life.
It will “definitely broaden my horizon,” he added, and help “me realize how many awesome opportunities there are out there besides tennis.”
dcrosby@tribpub.com
