WWW.THELEAVEN.COM | NEWSPAPER OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF KANSAS CITY IN KANSAS | VOL. 33, NO. 37 MAY 4, 2012
QUITE THE RACKET College-bound Aquinas senior leaves his tennis program for Special Olympic athletes in good hands BY JOHN SHULTZ
Leaven photo by John Shultz
Last fall, St. Thomas Aquinas senior Christian Boschert launched a foundation to teach tennis skills to Special Olympic athletes. He is pictured above at a January clinic in Overland Park.
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ike a lot of teens just days away now from graduation, Christian Boschert has a lot on his mind. How will he balance his schoolwork with extra-curriculars and dorm life at his choice of university — Mizzou? What should he take and what should he leave when he’s packing his stuff? But Christian has a problem that most other seniors won’t face. How can he ensure that his foundation that teaches tennis skills to disabled athletes survives — and even thrives — after his departure? If the last concern is a little out of the ordinary, so is the senior at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Overland Park. Rather than crashing on the couch for TV, video games, or marathon Facebook sessions, Christian has spent his Sunday evenings of late shepherding a group of about dozen volunteers. Those volunteers, in turn, spend at least an hour each week
Learn more about Tennis Buddies at: http://www.kctennisbuddies.com/
Photo courtesy of KC Tennis Buddies
Hyun, a Special Olympian with KC Tennis Buddies, works with Christian on his game during a January clinic at the Overland Park Racquet Club. coaching tennis fundamentals to a similar number of special athletes at the Overland Park Racquet Club. Inspired by a concept his family first ran across in Omaha, Neb., Christian started up a local chapter
of Tennis Buddies last September. KC Tennis Buddies, said the 18-year-old parishioner of Church of the Nativity in Leawood, “is basically a weekly clinic, every Sunday night. It’s like an extra practice for
all the Special Olympic athletes who want to do tennis beyond the short, six-week season they have through Special Olympics. “We have some athletes who are very serious about tennis.” A tennis foundation is a natural fit for Christian. As Aquinas athletics fans already know, the senior is a key component of the Saints’ Tennis squad, and an avid player since the age of seven. With Christian on the squad, the boys’ team landed the Kansas 5A State Championship in 2011, and were runners-up in 2010. “He’s taken us to a whole different level,” said David Shriver, Christian’s coach at Aquinas and a volunteer instructor with KC Tennis Buddies. “We’re really going to miss him.” It wasn’t just a love of tennis that drove Christian to work on KC See “SAINT” on page 6