Stuyvesant High School Student Receives Billie Jean King Award

An incoming Stuyvesant High School student and talented tennis player, Jayden Howard, is the recipient of this year’s Billie Jean King Tennis Junior Achievement Award by City Parks Foundation (CPF).

After receiving the award at an associated fundraiser for City Parks Foundation on September 1, he started his freshman year of classes at the prestigious East Village school on September 10. He plans to try out for the tennis team come spring, when the season is held, he told Straus News in an interview.

Howard was honored alongside former professional tennis player Kim Clijster, who has won four Grand Slams including the U.S. Open (2005, 2009, 2010) and the Australian Open (2011), as well as the tennis executive and marketer Peter Hurley.

It served as the 28th edition of the event, and raised $470,000 for CPF; notably, it served as the first year that Billie Jean King herself co-chaired the event, alongside her good friend—and fellow tennis legend—John McEnroe.

Howard attends the foundation’s Tennis Lacoste Junior Academy, a scholarship training program that provides free lessons and coaching for advanced players (aged 8-17) at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, the centerpiece stadium used during the U.S. Open at Flushing Meadows Park. He lives nearby in Forest Hill, Queens.

The evening was “very exciting,” Howard said, describing it as a “once-in-a-lifetime experience.” He noted that “without City Parks Foundation, I wouldn’t be able to be on the court every day.”

In fact, he’s only been playing for four years, which makes receiving the award all the more impressive. Nevertheless, it’s unsurprising, given that he’s a natural athlete. “I used to play baseball competitively,” he explained, describing how he first came across CPF tennis lessons while practicing the former sport at Cunningham Park, in the Fresh Meadows neighborhood of Queens.

“I decided to go,” he said. “Baseball isn’t really a sport where you can run around. It’s more of a waiting-and-being-patient sport. I thought that tennis would be more fun, because there’s more action.” After attending a CPF program, he said that this impression was immediately confirmed, and he hasn’t stopped playing since.

One of his favorite players is Ben Shelton, the American who fought his way to the U.S. Open final before losing to Alexander Zverev—although Shelton had stunned the world in the wee hours of the morning before Howard spoke to Our Town, by defeating the often-unbeatable Carlos Alcaraz in a five-hour quarterfinal match that ended at 3:33 a.m.

“I also like Novak Djokovic and Daniel Medvedev,” he added. “Now, Billie Jean King is one of my favorites too.”

Howard said that he handles the mental aspect of being on court, the element of tennis that even the most famed competitors must struggle with, by reminding himself of how “I’ve achieved what I’ve achieved” so far. This mental mastery has helped him with school, too, helping classwork “click” into place.

As for how he feels about his new year at Stuyvesant, Howard said that he is more excited than nervous,” calling it a “fresh start” due to how many new people he is going to meet. He’s also looking further towards his future, hoping to one day play for an Ivy League or D1 NCAA team, as well as practicing for his SATs and his college application.

Yet for now, he also wants to live in the moment. Stuyvesant tennis team try-outs, after all, start next March.