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Houston, Texas (October 15, 2024) - Watering Seeds Organization (WSO), a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation dedicated to creating sports rehabilitation and wellness opportunities for the disabled, announced today plans for the “Serve Challenge” fundraising event at 9am on Saturday, November 9th at Fall Creek Tennis Academy in Humble, Texas. This celebration of serving will feature Grand Slam Champion, Roscoe Tanner, who once had the fastest serve in professional tennis headlining a tennis clinic, followed by a serving skills challenge.

The clinic, conducted by Tanner and Brady Alan Mazzola of BAM! FITennis, will encompass the mechanics of serving including the proper kinetic chain from stance, toss, wind up, contact point, and follow-through. The clinic will also cover placement, types of serves, and when to use it, as well return of serve and net skills. The serve skills challenge will allow participants to compete for prizes in a competition that tests for fastest serve and accuracy.

The event will also launch an innovative community impact serve challenge off the court for selective participants and teams. Participants will be incentivized to formulate and implement local community impact campaigns as a form of community service where most effective and impactful individuals will be awarded prizes. This new youth development program intends to merge performances-based activities associated with serve improvement with community service learning and character development.

The proposed service-learning component seeks to instill in participants a sense of contributing to something bigger than themselves. All proceeds from the “Serve Challenge” will benefit Watering Seeds’ mission to inspire and improve lives, while preventing suicide. A follow-up event is scheduled for Memorial Day weekend in 2025 (May 24th ) At that time participants will be recognized and rewarded through a celebration that will serve as a culmination for their on-court and off-court achievements during a six month period. Both events will be recorded for broadcast on NuDu TV in select markets.

With the help of Tanner, a former tennis great, the event promises to be one to remember. Tanner has won 16 singles titles and 13 doubles titles in the Association of Tennis Professional Tour. In 1977, he won his first Grand Slam at The Australian Open, and in 1979 was a runner-up at Wimbledon, where he lost in 5-sets to Bjorn Borg. For several years, he was the doubles partner of the legendary Arthur Ashe.

In 1979 he received the “Fair Play Award” from the United Nations. And at the height of his career, Roscoe Tanner was ranked number four in the world. Nicknamed "The Rocket” in the 1970's, Roscoe held the fastest serve record at 153 mph for more than 25 years, before it was broken by Andy Roddick at 155 mph in 2004. In 2005, he published a confessional book, “Double Fault”, which detailed his rise to the pinnacle of the tennis world, and some of his human failings. The “Serve Challenge” is part of Roscoe’s mission to give back.

“We are blessed to have Roscoe participating again with us this year,” said Mazzola. “He is a proven champion and leader, both on and off the court.”

Mazzola, a former NCAA DI tennis player, was inspired to start Watering Seeds in 2004 after seeing a Paralympic wheelchair tennis exhibition held at UCLA and created a platform to make sports to be more accessible to the disabled.

Since WSO’s inception in 2005, Mazzola and his team have successfully hosted and produced numerous outreach events and campaigns that include military family picnics at Walter Reed Medical Center, live broadcast television concert specials to boost Military morale, benefit comedy and magic shows at the Magic Castle in Hollywood, numerous celebrity charity pre-Super Bowl Galas in host cities, the Wheelchair Super Bowl featuring Veterans and NFL Alumni, as well as “Skills on Wheels” adaptive sports clinics, competitions, and exhibitions around the country.

“We are committed as an organization to do all we can to provide education, equipment and training to those we serve,” said Mazzola. The Serve Challenge event is a continuation of the work we do to generate support for our wounded veterans and challenged civilians.”

Serve Challenge At-A-Glance

Who: Tennis Professionals Roscoe Tanner and Brady Alan Mazzola

What: Tennis Clinic , Skills Challenge and ceremony honoring Veterans’

When: 9am to Noon; Saturday November 9th

Where: Fall Creek Tennis Academy 7930 Fall Creek Bend Ct. Humble, Texas 77396