Local kids take the spotlight

On Friday afternoon, I decided to give the new Channing Park tennis courts a test drive and ended up teaching a boy how to play tennis.

His name is Alex, he's 11 and plays soccer for the Elgin Pumas.

I was practicing my serve when three little boys in the playground area began heckling me by yelling every time I tried hitting the ball.

I turned to them and asked if they wanted to play, so they'd stop bothering me.

The ringleader said he didn't have a racket. I replied that I had one he could use and he said his shoulder hurt.

"Sure it does," I hollered back.

Alex was in the park practicing soccer with his team and after hearing the dialogue between me and the other kids, he approached the tennis cage and said he wanted to learn how to play.

So he came on the court, I let him borrow one of my rackets and rather than bothering with showing him proper grips and stances, we just hit back and forth at the net.

He said he'd never picked up a racket before in his life, but he was doing really, really good getting the ball back and showed such a natural ability for the sport.

So I showed him how to volley (hitting the ball back before it bounces) and even how to slice a ball so it slows down and bounces wildly.

It took me years to learn how to slice, but Alex got it on his first try.

He did some sort of slice I'd never even seen before.

Impressed with his skills, I told him he should come back to the park's grand opening on Friday.

From 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., the city will be showing kids how to play tennis for free - they'll even provide tennis rackets.

To help the Latino boy identify with the sport, I also mentioned to him that the winner of this month's Wimbledon title, the past four French Open crowns and the number two player in the world is Rafael Nadal, who hails from Spain.

He wanted to know where Wimbledon is held and asked if I'd been there to see any of the tennis.

Sadly no. I like most people, caught it on my television set.

Alex said he'd tell his father about coming back Friday to play some more tennis.

I hope he does.

For more information about the park's grand opening, call (847) 931-6788.

Kids take center stage in Algonquin: A half dozen kids and their families brought some extra cheer to an Algonquin village board meeting last week.

The kids were the winners of the village's poster contest that demonstrated the importance of water conservation in town. It was reserved for children in grades kindergarten through fifth grade.

For their efforts, the children received a gift certificates for free ice cream at the local Oberweis Dairy and another for free bowling and laser tag at Brunswick Zone XL.

As an added treat, they also took a photo with Village President John Schmitt.

Congratulations to the following children who will be the envy of all of their friends in the fall:

• Kristin Baert, third grade

• Patrick Conomikes, fourth grade

• Grace Lossau, kindergarten

• Meghan Ramanan, second grade

• Samantha Savage, fourth grade

• Joey Savage, kindergarten

Lenore Adkins covers Algonquin, Lake in the Hills, Pingree Grove and McHenry County College. She lives in Elgin. To reach her, call (847) 608-2725 or send an e-mail to ladkins@dailyherald.com