KCTL Rings the Opening Bell at NASDAQ Tomorrow!

UPDATE: View photos of the event on Facebook.

Kings County Tennis League has the extreme pleasure of ringing the opening bell tomorrow at 9:15am at NASDAQ in Times Square! Board members and volunteers will be on hand to celebrate the occasion.

To watch the event live: http://www.nasdaq.com/about/marketsitetowervideo.asx

Instructions to watch:
The MarketSite Webcam is great way include employees, stakeholders, family and friends in the experience who aren't able to join the ceremony live.

By launching this link at 9:15am (Opening) or 3:45pm (Closing) you will have a view into the MarketSite studio where you can view the ceremony. The ceremony is live, not archived, so it is important to watch in real time. Do not be alarmed that the web cam is fuzzy. The video feed is compressed for online viewing.

• Viewers must have Windows Media Player to view the webcam
• Scroll to the bottom of the page under the heading MarkeketSite
• Web cam and click on Windows Media Player
• The Web cam is live only and is not archived
• Do not be alarmed that the web cam is fuzzy. The video feed is compressed for online viewing.

Fundraiser: Less than 2 weeks away!

Don't miss it -- our 4th annual fundraiser is less than 2 weeks away! Get your tickets now online at: kctl4.eventbrite.com.

Ticket and raffle sales go towards supporting our amazing program that brings FREE tennis lessons to over 100 kids every Saturday at four public housing locations in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Every year, we take the kids, parents and volunteers to Arthur Ashe Kids Day (AAKD) where they get to play tennis games, watch professional players practice (last year there was a Federer sighting!) and most importantly, spend a day with hundreds of other tennis enthusiasts of all ages from all walks of life. It's a really amazing day where we share that special feeling that is the love of the game.

Here are a few photos from last year's AAKD. View the full album on Facebook.

This we have amazing raffle prizes including: Nets Box tickets, US Open tickets and tour, Philharmonic tickets, restaurant gift certificates, and more. Drinks are being provided by Brooklyn Brewery. And there will be live jazz from The Austin Walker Trio. Not to mention, all your favorite KCTL board members and volunteers!

It'll be a great evening and we can't wait to see you there! Get your tickets now:

KCTL 4th Annual Fundraiser - August 15!

Friends, Supporters, Donors and more...

Gather round, gather round, we are very excited to announce that the 4th Annual Kings County Tennis League Fundraiser will happen Thursday, August 15 at the DumboLOFT. More details coming soon!

KCTL in the Press & No Class on Saturday, July 6th!

Reminder no class this Saturday due to the July 4th holiday!

DNAinfo.com covered our Davis Cup event last Saturday! Read the article, 'Global' Tennis Tournament Teaches Bed-Stuy Kids Backhands and Borders.

"Kids from The Marcy, Tompkins, Sumner and Lafayette Gardens houses broke into teams representing Russia, Japan, France and Spain and hit the courts, learning facts about their respective countries along the way.

"We try to use tennis as a way to get kids out there - get the kids active, get the kids thinking," said league founder Michael McCasland. "Tennis is the instrument to teach life skills."

KCTL Davis Cup Recap

Last Saturday, we had a very special class as we put on our first ever, intraleague Davis Cup. All four teams gathered at Marcy site to play in a global competition. We let all the kids warm up and then had a brief introduction explaining what the Davis Cup is (a global competition where tennis players play as teams for their country to score points and win the tournament.) We pulled out a map to show the kids the different countries we had chosen for the site. Marcy and Lafayette Gardens were Japan and Russia, and Tompkins and Sumner were France and Spain.

We broke the kids up into different age brackets: 10 and over, 9 and under. Marcy played the defender since they were hosting the event at "their house" and didn't compete for points. The other teams took turns getting on to the court as the challenger in King-of-the-Court style play. France took home the win for the 10 and over bracket and Russia took home the win for 9 and under kids.

It's always a great day when we bring all the kids together and watch them compete and have fun playing tennis, so really, everyone was a winner on Saturday. We're hoping to have another intraleague game day this season in August. We think these in-class events prepare the kids for the end-of-season tournament, the ups and downs of winning and losing, and the need for perseverance and practice.

View more photos of our special KCTL Davis Cup on the KCTL Facebook page! (Don't forget to "Like" us, while you're there.) Huge thanks to Sam Hasan for the photos!

HUD's Father Day Initiative

As part of the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development's Father Day Initiative, Van Dyke Community Center and NYCHA held a Father's day event on Saturday, June 15. KCTL set up a 10 and Under net in front of the Van Dyke Community Center in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Our "tennis court" was right next to a moon bounce, and the kids still couldn't resist playing tennis! We were out there from 11am to 3pm and had about 25-30 kids stop by and play!

HUD's Father's Day Initiative is to show an "ongoing commitment to improving the quality of life for children and encouraging fathers to be responsible."

View more photos on our Facebook page!