Tennis scholarship named after former Corpus Christi tennis coach Cleveland Gilcrease
The United States Tennis Association in Texas announced Monday that its annual NJTL Scholarship will be named in memory of former Corpus Christi teacher and tennis coach Cleveland Gilcrease.
Gilcrease, who began teaching tennis full time in 1978 and continued to have a passion for the game until his death in February, was a staple in the local tennis community, regularly coaching at local schools and tennis centers throughout the Coastal Bend.
Five scholarships with amounts reaching $2,500 will be awarded to participants of Texas National Junior Tennis and Learning (NJTL) chapters who are pursuing their higher education, according to the release. The support and naming of this scholarship was made possible thanks to a generous contribution from Puente de Maravillas.
Promoting education and empowering youth was central to Gilcrease’s mission. He directed the Free Neighborhood Program in Corpus Christi for more than 25 years and was a staunch supporter of the local NJTL program, Tennis Success. Gilcrease’s efforts were recognized in 1993, when he was awarded the USTA Texas Lloyd Sessions Educational Merit Award.
The National Junior Tennis and Learning network features more than 250 nonprofit youth development organizations that offer free or low-cost tennis and education programming to over 160,000 under-resourced youth each year.
This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Tennis scholarship named after former Corpus Christi tennis coach
