SET FOR SUCCESS

ANDY LYMAN NEWS SFREPORTER.COM/ NEWS

Initial work begins on $12 million Southside tennis complex that will offer free lessons and tutoring for students

BY ANDY LYMAN andylyman@sfreporter.com

Murphy Jensen and his older brother Luke made a name for themselves in the 1990s, both as French Open doubles champions and for their rockstar-level personalities off the tennis court. Despite the skills the younger Jensen learned on the court, it took years before he learned to better cope with the slice serves of the real world.

“I knew how to hit tennis balls, but I didn’t know how to live life on life’s terms,” Jensen tells SFR.

But, he adds, tennis did teach him how to handle wins, losses and other “setbacks.” During a recent fundraiser near Pecos for a youth tennis and tutoring program based in Santa Fe, the Jensen brothers visited from out of state to pitch the importance of tennis as a sport that translates to building life skills and to encourage scholarship donations.

This week, crews began grading the land for the $12 million First Serve and Forked Lightning Racquet Club complex north of Rodeo Road near the Genoveva Chavez Community Center—bringing the vision of a wealthy couple and a former fashion designer who share a passion for tennis one step closer to reality.

Scott and Kimberly Sheffield, who own the Forked Lightning Ranch about 30 miles southeast of Santa Fe, funded the construction. The couple says they were inspired to underwrite the building of the planned 12-court complex, which will include an academic building and offer free tennis lessons and tutoring to school-aged kids, after Kimberly met a coach with First Serve, a decades-old program. The complex will also house the members-only Forked Lightning Racquet Club. First Serve, a nonprofit founded by Eleanor Brenner, has been offering free after-school tennis lessons and tutoring in Santa Fe for nearly 20 years.

Brenner calls the latest progress toward the facility “fabulous.”

“We are so excited,” Brenner tells SFR. “We’ve been waiting for seven months and we are thrilled.”

Brenner worked for years as a fashion designer and, through her travels with her late husband, she found solace in tennis, never going anywhere without rackets. She says First Serve uses tennis to entice students to bolster their academic education, but also teaches students they’re not going to win every match, even off the court.

“In the beginning, some of our students, when they lose, are so frustrated,” Brenner says. “They want to throw a racket or whatever they want to do. But they learn that you cannot play tennis if you’re going to do that and you will never be a champion if you do that.”

Jensen cites a Rudyard Kipling excerpt inscribed at Wimbledon’s Centre Court about viewing “triumph and disaster” as similar “imposters” in explaining how tennis can be a guide for how to deal with life’s setbacks.

“What happens when tragedy strikes? You’re in a car accident, you can’t use your right arm and play tennis anymore, or whatever,” Jensen says. “Those are the life skills I’m talking about.”

Chris Slakey, a teacher at Santa Fe’s Milagro Middle School, has worked with First Serve for 18 years in various capacities, but recently took a job as the organization’s program director. He says many of the students who sign up aren’t struggling to keep up with school work, but that they all benefit from extra study time or test preparation.

“Most of the kids sign up because they want the tennis and they could benefit from the academic help, but tennis is sort of the lure in,” Slakey says.

Humza Mahmood, 16, is proof that tennis is an effective bait for kids.

Mahmood tells SFR he had played football and basketball, but later found an interest in tennis, which led him to First Serve. Besides help with school, Mahmood says he’s learning interpersonal skills such as the importance of eye contact and handshakes. He’s most excited to have a centralized and professional-grade facility to hone his tennis skills.

Kimberly and Scott Sheffield (left), who are fully funding the First Serve and Forked Lightning Racquet Club complex, stand alongside First Serve founder Eleanor Brennan at a recent scholarship fundraiser.

“I’m really excited for the indoor courts and outdoor facility in general,” Mahmood tells SFR. “Because it would be like our own place, you know, home courts.”

The recent fundraiser at the Forked Lightning Ranch was part of First Serve’s ongoing fundraising for scholarships, Kimberly Sheffield says. The Sheffields are paying for the brick, mortar and indoor courts, in part thanks to oil and gas—at least “indirectly,” Scott specifies. He grew up in the oil industry, even attending high school in Tehran, Iran. He tells SFR he retired about six years ago from Pioneer Natural Resources, a giant oil company he founded in 1997, but was asked to come back in 2019. Now, Kim says there will be “nagging at some point” from her, encouraging Scott to retire a second time.

Kimberly initially cut a $5,000 check on the spot after seeing a group of First Serve students in action, which caught Brenner’s attention and led to the three planning the massive complex.

Brenner tells SFR that depending on what type of winter Santa Fe is in for, the facility should be completed in about a year and a half.