A Shot at Redemption

When he was 17, Ronald Elizondo was sitting in jail after holding up a tennis center employee at gunpoint.

Twenty-three years later, Elizondo began Tennis Success, Inc., a program for inner-city youths at the H.E.B. Tennis Center in Corpus Christi, TX—the very same facility he once tried to rob.

Elizondo first discovered tennis less than three miles from the H.E.B. at the Al Kruse Tennis Center. Its tennis director at the time, the late Dr. Shelby Torrance, saw his potential as a player. Her daughter, Susan, was there the day the 12-year-old first rolled up to the courts on his bicycle.

“We became a second home to him, and he just hung out here instead of going home,” says Torrance, who is now the tennis director.

But living in a gang-influenced neighborhood of Corpus Christi, Elizondo was never far from trouble. Torrance recalls what she told the disgruntled youth when Elizondo landed in prison.

“God gave you a gift,” she said. “He gave you tennis. He didn’t give it to you to be the best tennis player in jail.”

The tennis community stood by Elizondo even as he served a reduced sentence of eight months in prison, which provided him with a much-needed spark of inspiration.

“While being locked up I just said to myself, ‘I wish I could start a tennis program, just the way they started me at one, but at a larger scale,’” says Elizondo.

In the years following his release, Elizondo got his 10-year probation reduced. His son was born and he quit drinking. He prioritized becoming a better role model for the youth in his city. And in 2000, he began Tennis Success. During the first year, Elizondo raised $3,800 and recruited 24 children—a good start, but a sign of the obstacles he’d need to overcome.

“I was very disappointed, thinking it was going to be a lot easier and I was going to have a lot of kids,” says Elizondo. “From that experience, I was able to put a committee together and go over details to see how we can improve.”

Tennis Success has since grown to serve 200 inner-city children from ages 8 to 18. The program is free thanks to grants, fundraisers and donors. During the school year, after an hour of tennis, children work with teachers for an hour of homework and studying. They even travel to compete in tournaments.

“People ask me if I have any regrets,” says Elizondo, who hasn’t been in trouble since. “I don’t. Tennis has saved my life, and is saving a lot of other kids’ lives because of this program.”

In 2014, Tennis Success earned the USTA National Junior Tennis and Learning Chapter of the Year Award, and a USTA grant allowed the program to further enhance its education efforts.

“We want children to have something to fall back on in life, and that is academics,” says Elizondo. “We’ve had over 40 kids go to college. Right now we have 19 kids in college at a major university. Seven of them are playing tennis at Division III schools.”

For now, Tennis Success operates at the 21-court H.E.B. Tennis Center all day during the summer and after school during the rest of the year. Elizondo's priority—and motivation—was giving opportunities to the local children he so closely relates to.

“Who’s really giving these kids their first chance? They come from broken homes; no one is giving them a chance,” says Elizondo. “That’s why if you put a tennis racquet in their hands, I think they have a fighting chance in life.”

Earlier this month, Elizondo became the Interim Director for the Al Kruse Tennis Center, where he first picked up the game as a child.