Student Nathaniel Valadez Credits STF For His Physical and Emotional Improvements

How has STF and tennis challenged and rewarded your growth?

Tennis has greatly helped me with my physical and emotional health. In the summer of 2023, I was having trouble controlling my emotions and keeping myself healthy. My parents and I decided to join the summer school football team to get exercise, improve my mental health, and make new friends for the upcoming school year. While I was getting great exercise, I was being picked on by some of the other football players. In response, I would push them and yell at them. One day, the football team was practicing some football drills and one of the boys behind me bumped the back of my helmet. I turned around and he looked away, but I was not sure if he was hitting me because there was a bug on my helmet or if he was trying to mess around with me. After I turned around, he hit me on the back of my head again, so I shoved him. When I told the coach after practice, he said that he must have been hitting me to put the helmet strap back into place. However, when I talked to my mom she pointed out that the boy was picking on me because he would have told me that my strap was loose and he would not have looked away when I turned around. 

After some time, I told my parents that I wanted to quit the football team, and by the end of the summer, I had left the team. A few months later in October, my mom told me that she had signed me up for tennis. I was excited to join because I had joined the ping pong club in the beginning of the school year, and I knew I would have a head start in playing tennis. I have a hard time exercising if I don’t have a purpose other than to “be healthier” and tennis was a fun way for me to get the exercise I needed with my brother and sister. I made two new friends playing tennis and I was happy to do something after school other than sit around and watch TV. 

Later in 2024, my mom invited one of my little cousins to play tennis with me and my sister during the summer. My brother couldn’t play at the time because he had got an injury on his foot and could not join the tennis summer camp. I had a lot of fun connecting with one of my cousins because I have a hard time having relationships with my cousins, aunts and uncles, especially because more than half of my family speak Spanish and very little English causing a language barrier. I ended up becoming friends with my little cousin and I am glad I know someone in my family other than a “cousin”. After I learned how to serve the ball and how to play tennis matches, I have gained the confidence to try in my school’s tennis team and play in school competitions and I believe I could eventually win a tennis match against a school. I have gained all of this in a year of playing tennis and I can’t wait to try out for the tennis team.

Nathaniel Valadez
Sunnyslope
Sophomore
1 year in STF