Judge shows love: Juvenile tennis program helps youths learn discipline

SALT LAKE CITY — Most young people who have been before Judge Andrew Valdez in 3rd District Juvenile Court have heard him say, "You need to find a mentor and also enter the tennis program."

Valdez believes the most important things to teach young people are discipline, structure and how one day they can be the winner and the next be the loser. He said he always has been grateful because somebody who cared put a tennis racket in his hands and believed in him.

When Valdez was 9 years old, he met Jack Keller for the first time. The young Valdez was standing on the corner of 200 South and Main Street selling newspapers and offered him one. Keller responded that he had already bought one.

However, Valdez was not satisfied with his answer and said, "Why don't you buy one from me one of these days?"

This sentence opened the doors to his future, Valdez said. From that day on, Keller always bought the paper from Valdez, who was always waiting for him on the same corner.

Valdez said that one day, in the beginning of spring, Keller invited him to play tennis.

"I'd like to teach you how to play tennis," Valdez remembers Keller saying. "I know how to play, and I'd like to teach you how to play."

Surprised, Valdez asked Keller, "Why?" Keller responded, "Your world should be bigger. If you play tennis, you will go to college some day. You will be a successful person."

Valdez said from that day, his life changed. He learned to play tennis, and although he had never in his life picked up a racket, each string held a dream for him, each ball he hit took him a step up, and now, he is applying the law of reward with the young people who come to his court.

According to Valdez, the tennis world has its own culture, and it is practiced by certain social classes. He said that when he was playing tennis he had the opportunity to meet doctors, lawyers and engineers, and he never would have had the opportunity to interact with them if it not for tennis.

Among the principles Valdez shares with youths are that tennis expands the world of those who play it, can change people's attitudes and makes them realize that all players are equal.

"You get the youths off of their street and show them a much bigger world that can be good," Valdez said. "Tennis expands their world through education, through reading, through experiences that allow them entry into a bigger and better world."

Edgar Cuenca, 14, is on probation, and he is active in the tennis program as part of his commitment to change his life.