BY Chris Camp (@logrithmic)
Inwood was and is a place for youth sports. Growing up in Inwood I built vivid memories of many hours running around Inwood Hill Park. Summers were filled with Inwood Little League baseball, free Wednesday soccer, free tennis, and basketball, all within running distance of each other. I still keep in contact with some of the friends I made back then.
The City Parks Foundation, United States Tennis Association (USTA), and Columbia University offered free tennis instruction for city youth on Inwood’s tennis courts. A typical day learning tennis here would include calisthenics and drills in the morning with games and matches in the afternoon. Throughout the Summer, Inwood would also participate in tennis tournaments around the city. We would play Harlem, Central Park, and teams from all the boroughs. The tournament structure was that all players were separated by sex and individually ranked within their team. They would then play equally ranked players from other teams. I was the top ranked male in Inwood. This may be a braggart statement but it’s more a point of reference because on Inwood’s courts two sisters consistently led the pack.
Read more: » The Falconi Sisters [Inwood].
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