Upper Marlboro tennis program builds skills, education and college pathways
At Watkins Tennis Bubble, Brenda Gilmore has spent 33 years turning tennis into a county pathway to confidence, education and college opportunity for local children.
For 33 years, Brenda Gilmore has used the Watkins Tennis Bubble in Upper Marlboro to do more than teach forehands and serves. Through the Prince George’s Tennis & Education Foundation, she built a county pipeline aimed at giving children access to tennis, school support and a path toward college.
Gilmore, a former Howard University tennis player, said she launched the foundation after noticing that Prince George’s County had far fewer young players than other parts of the region while she worked for the U.S. Tennis Association. She spent years traveling around the Mid-Atlantic introducing the sport to children before turning that effort back home, where the need was plain to see. The foundation now describes itself as a registered USTA Community Tennis Association focused on helping young people excel academically, athletically and socially through tennis.
That mission has a practical local footprint at 301 Watkins Park Drive in Kettering and Upper Marlboro. Prince George’s County Parks and Recreation lists the Watkins Tennis Bubble with five indoor hard courts, four outdoor courts, an exercise room, a front desk and lobby, and outdoor spaces for viewing and gathering. Experience Prince George’s also identifies the facility as air-conditioned and heated, giving families a year-round place to train and play.
The program’s value shows up in the children who come through it. Ten-year-old Arielle Horsley said she joined because she wanted to participate in a sport and found that the program helped her believe she could do things and be good at them. That kind of confidence is central to Gilmore’s view of the sport. She has said tennis is not just for children drawn to team sports and that an individual game can open a different route to discipline, self-belief and higher education.
Gilmore has long framed the work as more than recreation. She said developing young, responsible, intelligent adults has been one of the most rewarding parts of leading the effort. With spring sessions listed at Watkins Park Tennis Bubble, the foundation continues to operate as a steady youth pathway in Upper Marlboro, linking local access to a larger goal: turning a public court into a college and career starting point for Prince George’s County children.
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