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People SearchFind an individual who either played a sport or was a member of a support group. Search by last name by clicking on the first letter of the person's last name.
Mr. Curtis Hollinger
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Home Phone: 337-856-8267 Founding Member, Ragin’ Cajuns Athletic Foundation, 2009. Assistant Athletic Director (Compliance), 1995-1997. Spreading love for tennis Bruce Brown Ex-Cajun tennis star Curtis Hollinger trying to start a tennis program for north side youth. The game of tennis opened doors for Curtis Hollinger, and he wants to give back to the sport. Hollinger, a former All-American player for Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns and a Lafayette attorney, is planning a grass-roots effort to teach the game to young people on the north side of Lafayette Parish. He’s starting small, stressing individual attention for students, and plans to enlist the aid of other local African-American players as instructors when the program begins in March. “I have a completely different philosophy,” Hollinger said. “We’re starting with 20-30 students. That’s where I differ with the U.S. Tennis Association, which likes to see big numbers for its clinics. “It’s a skill to teach something you know. Some kids never have exposure to high-level tennis. Many don’t have access to players from high-level college programs. If you haven’t been there, you can’t talk about it.” Hollinger was proficient in a number of sports growing up in Alabama, but his ability in tennis prompted two years of focused instruction at the Nick Bolleteri School in Florida that helped lead to a scholarship at UL. “My father used to say that if you can’t communicate what you know, it’s worthless,” Hollinger said. “He said there are no good teachers, just good students and that ultimately the student has to go out and discover the truth.” Hollinger’s S.A.O. “Steps Are Ordered” program, which has its roots in the Bible, will attempt to encourage that discovery. “S.A.O. comes from the Book of Psalms, in which David asked God to order his steps,” Hollinger said. “This is a non-profit program and I’ve asked God to help me to do the right thing. I want to use my experience to help others play the game. “It’s difficult to impress people with tennis if they’re not exposed to it. If not, it’s not a sport that is grasped easily.” By approaching young players, ages 8-14, Hollinger is hoping to produce players who are well-grounded in all aspects of the game. “That’s the beauty of the beginning level,” Hollinger said. “They have no clue, so you’ll be able to teach them the entire game. “The challenge is that there are different teaching philosophies out there. I respect the ground game, but I don’t solely promote it. I was able to do that, but I could also serve and volley. You need every shot. There’s still room for that, for overall skills.” On the professional tours, Hollinger sees an abundance of reliance on groundstrokes, to the detriment of other parts of the game. “Tennis runs in cycles,” he said. “The focus now is on aggressive baseline play, a big forehand and looking to put the ball away. It used to be serve and volley. But with the equipment now and slower surfaces, you can wail away and it works. “Like the dunk in basketball, the ground game works, but it’s also very limited. Roger Federer, who’s No. 1 in the world, is Swiss, and he’s been taught the whole game. He has every shot.” Helping Hollinger’s program will be members of the W.E.T. – We Enjoy Tennis – organization, a group of 35-40 mostly African-American, committed players who have played every weekend at Acadiana Park for decades. Another plus has been the recent attention paid by Lafayette Recreation and Parks to the facilities on the north side. “They’ve taken some steps,” Hollinger said. “They’ve painted, put up new nets and cleaned up the courts. The facilities had been neglected to decades, but they’ve evaluated the conditions to see that they’re at a high level.” With improved courts and the help of W.E.T. and others, Hollinger is eager to start his venture. “I want to keep the quality high, so our numbers are going to be low,” Hollinger said. “If we make it good at first, then the numbers will grow. “We’re looking to bring a dose of reality to the tennis experience. You need to have discipline, dreams and goals, and there’s a certain way to go about it.” Originally published February 6, 2005 Hollinger makes push to black youth in area July 3, 2004 LAFAYETTE � Any time a sport is seeking acceptance in a new area, the real payoff isn�t so much in the initial reaction but in continued participation. Tradtionally, tennis has not been a prominent sport in the African American community. Players like Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe were trailblazers at the professional level, and Zina Garrison and MaliVai Washington helped pave the way for current players Serena and Venus Williams and Chanda Rubin of Carencro. But the sport is only sporadically played by everyday African Americans. If that perception and those numbers are going to change, it will have to be through continued work at the community level. �It has to be a grass roots effort,� said Lafayette attorney Curtis Hollinger, a standout collegiate tennis player at UL Lafayette from 1987-90. �We�re hoping to do a lot more than we have done. �It�s a tough sell, but I wanted to give back to the sport that�s done a lot for me.� Hollinger came to UL from Alabama and posted a 73-38 singles record as a Ragin� Cajun standout, including a 24-9 finish in 1988. He was the LSWA All-Louisiana Player of the Year as a senior in 1990. �There has to be a different focus,� Hollinger said. �I�m not sure how much the community will embrace that. It requires commitment and resources to make it work, and it�s going to require serious changes in the way we do business. �I�m going to be putting positive pressure on the local association of the USTA (U.S. Tennis Association).� �We�re putting more money into multi-cultural diversity,� said Bill Phillips of the USTA. �You�ve got players like the Williams sisters and Chanda at the top of the sport, but we�re not capturing any more players in that community. �They don�t think it�s cool to play tennis.� The Louisiana USTA held an April workshop for minority coaches, and has another one on tap for September, for which testing fees are being waved to increase the number of minority coaches participating in the sport. There are also numerous grants available to fund programs. Hollinger is a focal point for local efforts to encourage more minority participation, with one program starting this month and another geared around the USA school program in the fall. He�s currently recovering from surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon, suffered during a basketball game, but the ex-Cajun standout will have a racquet in his hands again as soon as he is able. �Now we have somebody out there on the court,� Phillips said, �and you�re likely to have a better chance of maintaining participation. �Our NJTL (National Junior Tennis League) program offers tennis and something else � tutoring in the sport as well as mentoring in things like good citizenship and grades. We�re hoping to expand their horizons.� Phillips has found a perfect model for such efforts in Hollinger, a true student-athlete who was able to use tennis to attend college and set the stage for his successful law career. �Our focal point (for the African American push) is on the north side of Lafayette,� Phillips said. �Five or six years ago, we had five nice courts at Acadian Park. We�re looking to expand to Brown Park, where they�ve got four courts. We�re still in the early developmental stages.� Phillips also noted that the way in which professionals teach the game is changing. The traditional approach was to work on strokes, footwork and technique for a long period of time before students could actually play a game. The USTA has realized that too many potential players quickly became frustrated or bored � or both � and moved on to other activities. �We�re trying to make the lessons just as much fun as playing,� Phillips said. �We�re trying to make their first experience with a (tennis) pro something in a user-friendly program.� The next stage, of course, will be to find a way to make the game more economically feasible for families to enjoy. Equipment and travel can quickly sap a family�s resources, especially in a sport as individual as tennis traditionally has been. With that in mind, the USTA is stressing team tennis in its school and youth programs, since team sports like football, baseball, basketball and soccer draw so many young athletes. �I know we have pockets of interest,� Hollinger said. �The trick will get more people to buy into it and see the benefits of the sport.� �The Lafayette Daily Advertiser
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