Tennis for Education

“The purpose of life is to discover your gift. The work of life is to develop it. The meaning of life is to give your gift away.” - David Viscott

The Reality

Tennis has the highest percentage of foreign student-athletes than any other NCAA sport, and as a result, the odds of a US player making a D1 roster are the steepest – by far – of all NCAA sports. Currently, the rosters of Houston area tennis powerhouses Rice University and The University of Houston show 18.5% American players. Clearly, college coaches see foreign players as superior recruits over their American peers.

Here are the Facts

Odds of a US High School Tennis Player making a College Varsity Roster 2022:

College Tennis Odds 2022: Male Female
Number of US High School Tennis Players 2021-22 150,323 181,578
Number of College Tennis Players (see table below) 9,408 10,314
% of US HS Tennis Players competing at any College Level 4.0% 3.5%
% of US HS Tennis Players Competing at NCAA I Schools 0.6% 0.5%
Odds of a US HS Tennis Player making any College Roster 25:1 28:1
Odds of a US HS Tennis Player making an NCAA I Roster * 155:1 182:1
Foreign Student Participation - Tennis: Men Women
% of International Players - NCAA I teams 61% 66%
% of International Players - NCAA II teams 55% 48%
% of International Players - NCAA III teams 10% 9%

What We’re About

Tennis for Education Foundation Team

For the founders of TFEF, tennis is more than just a game. The sport influenced our life trajectories. It challenged us! It demanded from us! It rewarded us! It taught us invaluable lessons and forged some of our lifelong relationships. The competitive side of tennis offered us opportunities, opened doors, and taught us how to win and get up after a loss. Competitive tennis, at its finest, is the education that helped us become who we are.

We intend to fill a significant void! Our goal is to help the talented youth from the Houston area bridge the gap with their global competitors. We aim to be the catalysts for a comprehensive, developmental tennis ecosystem! Partnering! Fundraising! Mentoring! Supporting!

We look forward to leveling the playing field for the young Houston area tennis talents, so equality of opportunity isn’t just a concept.

Tennis for Education Foundation Team

For the founders of TFEF, tennis is more than just a game. The sport influenced our life trajectories. It challenged us! It demanded from us! It rewarded us! It taught us invaluable lessons and forged some of our lifelong relationships. The competitive side of tennis offered us opportunities, opened doors, and taught us how to win and get up after a loss. Competitive tennis, at its finest, is the education that helped us become who we are.

We intend to fill a significant void! Our goal is to help the talented youth from the Houston area bridge the gap with their global competitors. We aim to be the catalysts for a comprehensive, developmental tennis ecosystem! Partnering! Fundraising! Mentoring! Supporting!

We look forward to leveling the playing field for the young Houston area tennis talents, so equality of opportunity isn’t just a concept.

Our Solution to the Problem

By putting on fundraising events and educating the public on the reality of the current situation for american tennis players looking to play college tennis, we intend to use donated funds to help increase the percentage of american tennis youth on collegiate rosters through this 3 step process:

Educate

The education of TFE athletes rests upon an integrated and transparent approach between students, parents, and coaches geared towards helping all parties involved understand the challenges collegiate tennis presents and the opportunities it provides. We believe that incorporating this type of collaboration will help our athletes and their families have the knowledge base to make the best-informed decision on the athlete’s collegiate future. 

Expose

Through exposure to comprehensive training methods, playing high-level international tournaments, traveling to various countries, and experiencing diverse cultures, we strive to accelerate the growth of our athletes on and off the court. These learning experiences are essential in fostering a positive culture in producing well-rounded student-athletes and closing the gap by increasing the likelihood of top college programs targeting TFE players. 

Empower

Our methodology aims to equip TFE players with the necessary tools to succeed in college and empower them to trust their capabilities in preparation for the future they aspire to. By cultivating an ecosystem of high-achieving individuals and good people, we hope to create a network that continues giving to and empowering future talent!

Letter from the Founder

I was born and raised in communism. The concept of equality of opportunity was not a fabric of the society where I grew up. However, tennis leveled the playing field and gave my life a pretty unexpected trajectory. As a result, I landed in THE land of opportunity. I became a member of a society that discusses and addresses gender, race, and income inequality. In it, battles are fought and won daily, social norms updated, new standards adopted and dreams fulfilled. The progress towards racial and gender upwards mobility as a direct result of opportunity is undeniable.

The equality of opportunity, however, is not present for today’s top-performing junior tennis players in the Houston area. The game of tennis has grown in popularity and is nowadays a global affair. In theory, the city offers young athletes almost everything they need to succeed- excellent weather year-round, plenty of accessible courts, and cost-friendly, above-average coaching. Unfortunately, Houston, and the US as a whole, lack the comprehensive international competition calendar where the young players can measure up to the world’s best. The only path forward for the aspiring young tennis player is through extensive training and international tournament travel. Both require resources that most, if not all, American families don’t possess. Through my involvement with the foundation, I aim to help youngsters obtain the opportunity to pursue their dream of landing in the best colleges the US has to offer.

I have been lucky to call Houston home since 1997! The city offered me the chance to capitalize on my passion and skills, and as a result, I moved upward on a successful career path. I look forward to giving back to the game and the city!

Sincerely,

Koko Ganchev

Founder TFEF

read more about the Founder…

Tennis forged my lifelong friendships! I traveled the world thanks to tennis! Tennis allowed me to learn invaluable lessons! I am who I am because of tennis!

To say that tennis has defined me would be a vast understatement. Tennis was a part of my life before I was even born; my mother hid her tennis racquet in her violin case, sneaking out of the house to play tennis. Later, she competed while pregnant with me and then divorced my father, not less because of tennis. First, custody was given to my dad. My grandparents raised me, and even with my mom ‘absent,’ tennis was to be part of my life, a different part, but essential and forming nonetheless. My grandparents talked plenty about tennis, just not favorably. I grew up in communism, and having a professional sports career was pretty much impossible, so my grandparents didn’t miss the chance to remind me of that fact at least once daily.

When I was 6, the courts granted my mom full custody, and I moved cities. Tennis was to be an even more significant part of my life now, yet I started to play tennis when I was about 12. Soccer was my first love and six years of grandparental convincing that tennis was a waste of time did it. However, I did spend almost every day in the club. My mom was acting as the women’s national team coach at the time, so I would spend most of my after-school hours at the facilities watching her and other coaches coach. Later in life, I realized that this must have been when I had “decided’ to become a coach.

My playing tennis career is nothing to brag about: a few tournament wins and a few national doubles titles, yet nothing indicating a run at the world top 100. Accordingly, I was planning to take in the footsteps of my dad and study law, and that resulted in me more or less abandoning competitive tennis in my high school senior year. My father’s professional climb to the post of deputy AG assured me of a promising professional career in the field for me as well, barring no major mistakes on my end. Then the Berlin wall happened! Everything I, and everyone else of my generation, knew about life was flipped upside down. In this new reality of uncertainty, my mom decided to jump on the first possibility of working aboard, and we moved to Austria.

We both started teaching tennis in a sports hotel in a village of 1500. My prior teaching experience was, well, nonexistent, yet I was earning about 15 dollars an hour. My father, the deputy AG, was bringing home the equivalent of about 100 dollars a month. Farewell to law school! Tennis coaching, here I come! The year was 1990, and I couldn’t have imagined the life journey tennis coaching would take me on- from the sometimes depressing reality of working seven days a week under the gloomy mountain skies of the Austrian village to warming up a player of mine on Arthur Ashe stadium for the US Open night session.

Tennis took me, literally, from the city of Ruse, where I was born, all the way to Houston, Texas, where I have been residing since 1997. Throughout my professional journey, I did help beginners learn the difference between a forehand and a backhand. I was also blessed to coach four professional women to victories into the 3rd rounds of Grand Slams in singles and a quarterfinal in doubles. However, the greatest joy in my professional life was the product of my work as a coach/mentor to junior tennis players in Houston.

I had the pleasure of seeing quite a few of my pupils grow through the sport of tennis. I was also fortunate enough to be in a position to help them capitalize on their passion and talent through subsidizing tennis lessons and junior academy scholarships. However, more than such assistance is needed to bridge the current generation’s significant gap with their European peers. The idea of TFEF was born out of discussions with former students, among whom Cassandra and Jose, about how to fill that void. I look forward to TFEF providing the necessary help. Given my life journey, I can help TFEF succeed.

Close