CavsCare Symposium to address local homelessness
A sign hanging in Eugene Mitchell's home reads, "Let your failures motivate you to become more diligent and to achieve victory."
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A sign hanging in Eugene Mitchell's home reads, "Let your failures motivate you to become more diligent and to achieve victory."
Although it has been more than a decade since Renee Blount, a former University assistant women's tennis coach, last graced the grass courts of Wimbledon, tennis is still very much a part of her life.
Although it has been more than a decade since Renee Blount, a former University assistant women's tennis coach, last graced the grass courts of Wimbledon, tennis is still very much a part of her life. After a rewarding career on the Women's Professional Tennis Tour, Blount has settled down just 20 minutes east of Grounds in Fluvanna County. Without the stress of maintaining a top-100 ranking in the world, which Blount held throughout her 11-year career, she now focuses on teaching the game she loves. Blount said she and her late-husband came to Charlottesville in 1990 after searching the country for a place that combined the peace and quiet of a farm along with a small, but sophisticated city. "I needed something more than the country after coming off the women's tour," she said. In the winter of 1998 she began construction of an indoor tennis facility on her Keswick farm. Combined with her outdoor court, located atop the picturesque rolling landscape, Blount's newly-constructed facilities allow her to share her extensive tennis knowledge with players of all levels year-round. She said she learned the tradition of giving back to the game while growing up in St. Louis. "St. Louis has a rich tradition of tennis," she added. "At one time, it was discovered that seven out of the top 10 players in the world had come from there." As a junior player in St. Louis, Blount was fortunate to receive coaching from Earl Buchholz, Sr. and Richard Hudlin, who also worked with tennis legend Arthur Ashe. Being the first successful black junior tennis player since Ashe, the young Blount had the opportunity to impact her sport in a big way. She began playing tennis at the age of nine and was a champion-caliber player by the age of 12. Five years after picking up a racket for the first time, Blount was the top-ranked junior player in the highly competitive Missouri Valley Region. But her success did not come easily. Blount said practice sessions that stretched on for more than 10 hours a day during the summer meant that she could rarely put her racket down. And as a black player in a predominantly white sport, she said she faced a small amount of discrimination as a youth. With the support of Ashe, her coaches and her parents, however, Blount was able to successfully overcome the inequalities she faced. "I learned how to focus at a young age, and how to keep my mind on what I was doing and not look around me and worry, even though it did hurt," she recalled. As a junior player, Blount said she remembers dealing with discrimination from some of the white players. "Playing in the girls 12-year-old nationals, down in Little Rock, Arkansas, they would let me play in the tournament, but I was given money to go to the movies and asked not to attend the social functions that went along with the tournaments," she said. "My father insisted that I had earned the right to attend the social functions." After she continued to attend the social functions, Blount said tournament organizers threatened to move its location if she qualified the following year. "I qualified and they moved it to a different place," she said. Once she made it to the pro tour, she said she attributed any contempt that other players showed to her as part of the tour's competitive nature, and not racial prejudice. "Many of the foreign players had not seen many black people before, and I can remember the Czech players just wanted to touch my hair because they were very curious," Blount said. "I did not mind at all." Along with the professional tour came the pressure to continue to succeed at a high level.
First-year Engineering student Jeremy Lynn spends several nights a month hustling through the streets of his native Charlottesville in a large truck. So what do his parents think about their son's choice not to spend those nights in the library or in his dorm room? Actually, his Dad can usually be found driving him.