Greer Elementary School

Saturday, July 27, 2024

Building a QuickStart Tennis Pathway for Greer ES

Greer Elementary School (GES) is located in the northern Urban Ring Growth Area of Albemarle County and is one of five elementary schools in the central Albemarle feeder pattern. Built in 1974, the school is currently home to 600+ students in grades PK-5. About 69% of the students qualify for the free or reduced lunch program and 11% of the kids have disabilities. Greer students speak 28 different languages, but they all speak the language of tennis! The school is situated on a 15-acre campus adjacent to Ivy Creek School, Albemarle High School and Jack Jouett Middle School, where eight 36-foot QuickStart Tennis courts and one 60-foot court were completed in September 2013.

The PE teachers at Greer are BIG QuickStart Tennis fans. Recently retired PE teacher, Barbara Watson, joined the QCV Board in 2013 and serves as QCV's Secretary.

Greer was the original QuickStart school in Charlottesville (thanks to Barbara) and a test of the new kid-sized, "play-to-learn" format even before QCV was formally established. The success of QuickStart with Greer kids led to the creation of the Jump Start QuickStart Tennis Initiative which was launched in January 2009. The success of Jump Start lead to the creation of QCV later in the year.

QuickStart Tennis Day for GES Summer School students -- July 2008
Pilot QuickStart in PE program at Greer -- September 2008
Numerous Go Bananas for QuickStart! school visits
Funded refurbishment of 11 raised beds at Greer and made them a "tennis garden' -- March 2011
QuickStart Critters at Greer Fall Fair -- November 2011
Helped start SuperStarters Tennis & Teamwork After-School Program at Greer
A Go Bananas! Tennis Festival for GES second and third graders with "on-court" assistance from the UVA Women's Tennis Team and coaches -- October 2013
All second graders received a QuickStart racquet and balls to keep thanks to the Smyth Foundation Fund. Mrs. Smyth was there to hand them out -- December 2013
All first graders received a QuickStart racquet and balls -- January 2014
Go Bananas! for SuperStarters Sports after-school program -- February 2015
Go Bananas! with Bright Stars (two classrooms of disadvantaged kids) -- March 2015
Equipment given to Bright Stars -- April 2015
Tennis lessons for Bright Stars and their teachers -- April and May 2015
Field Day for 52 Bright Stars and Head Start kids -- May 2015
Tennis at JumpStart Summer Camp for Bright Stars -- July 2015
Second year of BrightSTARS -- Tennis for Me! kick off - October 2015 (ten sessions)
Field Day for 36 Bright Stars -- May 2016
T-shirts for all Bright Stars, kindergarteners and first-graders - May 2016

First graders with their very own racquets and balls to keep thanks to the Smyth Foundation Fund

Mrs. Smyth, volunteer Railey Cooley and second graders, who also received their very own racquets and balls

Tennis Festival for Greer Kids Many thanks to the UVa Women's Team for helping out

Go Bananas! visit at Greer PE class and "Tennis Garden" at Greer

QuickStart Critters at Greer and Go Bananas! visit at Greer after-school program

Going Bananas!!! with the Bright Stars and their new tennis equipment at Greer

Greer's Grow Veggies for QuickStart! Tennis Garden -- adopted this year by second grade classes

Garden on May 6, 2015 Garden on May 22, 2015

Bright Stars Field Day -- May 2015

JumpStart Summer Camp for Bright Stars -- July 2015