In Chicago, a Courtless Tennis
Program for Countless Kids
by Chris Nicholson
published in RSi magazine, April 2005
See that man in Chicagoland? The one with no tennis
court but with a legion of children who owe their love of the game
to him? That’s Mark Miller. He’s changed how tennis caters
to youngsters in the Chicago area, and he’s aiming to expand
his catering business nationwide.
Miller’s passion and business grew from an epiphany
he had in the fall of 1996. He was watching his then-3-year-old daughter
participate in a tennis clinic that used a shortened court. “That’s
when I came up with an idea,” Miller remembers. “I said, ‘I’m
going to teach tennis to little kids, and I’m not going to use
a tennis court.’ “
The tactic, Miller says, is that by not limiting clinics
to schools and neighborhoods with tennis facilities, tennis reaches a
broader audience. “So I can expose literally thousands and thousands
of kids to tennis because I don’t use a tennis court,” he
says. “I go to a gymnasium, classroom or recreation room and use
that facility.”
Eight years later, Miller’s Munchkin Program is a
hit in Chicago. It has spread to 70 locations in 45 Chicagoland districts,
and programs have opened in Indiana and Wisconsin. Munchkin Program—which
also incorporates soccer, Nerf football, T-ball and other sports—has
seen plenty of press, too, having been covered by ABC News, NBC, CNN,
the Chicago Tribune and national magazines.
“Mark is a tennis entrepreneur—we need more
Marks out there,” says Jeff Giles, the director of community tennis
development for the USTA’s Midwest section. “He works out
arrangements with schools and, more importantly, day-care centers, and
sets up short-court tennis, takes balls and little nets, and takes the
program right to the facility. And he’s doing a great job. He’s
energetic, he’s passionate, and he understands the social and psychological
benefits that tennis can have to the youth in a community.”
One of the keys of Miller’s success is that he passes
the responsibility of marketing onto the respective communities. This
not only allows him to focus on teaching the children, but also reduces
his overhead.
“The beauty of my business is I don’t have
to continually market it because the park districts do,” Miller
says. “I never touch registration, I never advertise.”
Despite the success of the whole Munchkin Program, there’s
one aspect that’s particularly close to Miller’s heart. “I
want to raise money to help underprivileged kids—kids with diabetes,
with cancer, with any kind of disability whatsoever,” Miller says. “My
big passion is the Parents and Me program, where these parents spend
quality time with their kids. I want to be in every park district imaginable
doing this. We’re trying to fight kids’ obesity as well as
promoting family togetherness through the game of tennis.”
A future part of the program is a coloring book that will
be handed out free to participants. The book will cover not only tennis,
but also nutrition, exercise and self-esteem and will be paid for by
a corporate sponsor.
With everything going so grand, what’s next for the
Munchin Program? Expansion. Miller wants to see the program eventually
go nationwide, through what he calls a “franchise with no franchise
fee.” (Interested parties can get more information by visiting
www.munchkinprogram.com.)
“What I look for in my staff is they just have to
be great with kids and be reliable, and I’ll teach them the rest,” Miller
says. “I’ll even take someone who doesn’t know how
to play tennis, because I have a step-by-step manual that tells them
everything.”
The growth might take a while, but if Miller’s
success in Chicago is any indication, it will be steady and sure. “We’re
just going step by step,” Miller says. “Go to one state,
go into another state, go into another state. We’re really trying
hard to grow the game of tennis through this.”
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