Apply for the 2025-26 Future Leaders Scholarship
Presented by the Veronis Family
Male and Female Scholarships Awarded
Tennis Central is pleased to present the annual Future Leaders Tennis Scholarship.
This $4.000 scholarship was established by the Veronis family of Lancaster, PA. They are advocates and outstanding players of the sport of tennis for many generations! In fact, they played high school tennis at McCaskey and Lancaster Catholic high schools. They serve the community in many different capacities and because tennis played a big part in the leaders they have become, they have established this scholarship to help provide an opportunity to a male and female each year. We are currently accepting applications for the male and female Future Leader.
The Future Leaders Tennis Scholarship is to be used towards post-secondary educational expenses with $2000 awarded both freshman and sophomore years, as long as the student is enrolled and attending their selected college. Please consider the criteria below on which the applications will be judged. Student-Athletes in consideration for this award should meet the following requirements as well as possess and display the traits below:
- High school graduating senior boys tennis team member;
- High school located in Lancaster County; applicant must be a resident of Lancaster County;
- 3.0 Grade Point Average or higher;
- Plans to attend an accredited post-secondary school in the same year of high school graduation;
- Hard-working, cooperative, positive, and supportive team member;
- Displays good sportsmanship and determination on the court; and
- Has community and/or extracurricular involvement.
Please also note:
- The student does not have to be a top player on the team
- The scholarship is awarded without regard to financial need
The completed application must be received by Thursday, May 24th, 2026. The scholarship winner will be selected and notified by mid June. The scholarship award will be presented during our Tennis Day at the Stormers in June (date TBD).
Please contact Delaine Mast at (717) 587-7184 or dmast4@aol.com with any questions.
Please complete the form below to apply.
Tyler Mahaffey
2024 Future Leaders Scholarship Recipient
Tyler Mahaffey attended Palmyra Area High School where he and his brother won 2 PIAA /AAA State Doubles championships and 3 consecutive District Titles. He graduated #4 in his class, served as National Honor Society President and is attending Lafayette College. He wrote the following essay:
Since a young age, being a high-level high school tennis player is something that I have dreamed of. My parents, Abbie and Keith, became the coaches of our high school team when I was in kindergarten. Watching class after class of players move through our program only strengthened my desire to compete for the team. However, I had solely thought of the on court moments; winning big matches, and helping to push my team over the finish line. The key component that I failed to consider was the team and camaraderie part of the equation. As I will soon round out my high school career, it is not the trophies and awards that I think most fondly of; but the hundreds if not thousands of little moments that I have taken for granted. Moments like singing with teammates on a long van ride, many dozens of meals shared with the team both on the road and at home, and simply the friendships that I have nurtured along the way.
On the court, high school tennis allowed me a crucial avenue to grow and mature as a player. Playing over 150 high school tennis matches has taught me some very valuable lessons that I carry with me in my junior events, and will continue to employ well into my college tennis career. The value of focus is first and foremost. The ability to buckle down and play your game, no matter the score, the quality of the opponent, or even in the middle of a snow squall has helped me improve in every facet of my life. Not only this, but the confidence to perform under immense pressure has provided me with perspective. Being able to take a step back and consider the relative insignificance of any given match on a larger scale has enabled me to shirk the debilitating effects of nerves and anxiety, and helped me mature immensely as a tennis player and a leader.
In my earlier years, my teammates helped me most importantly as a student and a leader. I learned which classes to take and what to stay away from, how to make meaningful connectionswith teachers, and how to lead a group of my peers. Not only these important lessons, but my teammates throughout the years have become some of my closest friends. Without the assistance of my teammates, I would simply not have been even the student that I am. The lessons that I learned through my journey in high school tennis will stick with me throughout the rest of my tennis career and beyond, and I am proud to have represented my team at the highest level of high school tennis in Pennsylvania. High school tennis provided me with some of the most memorable experiences and moments of my life and allowed me to move on to compete at the highest level of college tennis. I will always appreciate the impact that Palmyra High School’s tennis program has had on my life and am extremely grateful for the lessons learned along the way.
As I touched on above, high school tennis has provided me with many important lessons that I employ in every aspect of my life. First and foremost, the ability to sharpen my focus has aided me in numerous ways. Having dealt with mainly tennis/performance-related anxiety for the vast majority of my tennis career, I have often found it extremely difficult to focus in both everyday matches and important moments. I have found throughout my career that the shaky feeling in your legs, and the overall tense feeling in every part of your body never leaves you in an important situation. However, high school tennis has provided me with an extremely useful way to deal with these issues. Having been in so many high-stress matches and situations, I have been able to employ numerous techniques to quell these feelings and put them to use in both tennis and academic life. Being able to tackle and combat an issue that has plagued me since I was littlehas been both a rewarding and extremely important task that has aided me to success on the tennis court and in the classroom.
At Lafayette College, I am planning on a major in Government & Law, with a minor or possibly a dual major in Economics/Finance. Throughout my life, the ideals of government and our legal system have fascinated me. My brother and I used to quiz each other on Presidents, historical facts, and general government knowledge dating back to early elementary school. As a result, I have always been extremely passionate about politics and law. My experiences in numerous student government leadership positions have taught me many valuable lessons that I believe will assist me in this pursuit. Coming into college with a semester-and-a-half of college credit, I aim to graduate college in the spring or fall of 2027. After, I will hopefully proceed to law school. In professional life, I hope to be a corporate/economic lawyer, as another passion of mine has always been finance. In high school, I thoroughly enjoyed both AP Macro and Microeconomics, and I feel that combining my two passions of finance and law would be advantageous as a future career. On the tennis court, I simply hope to win as many matches as possible. Competing at the Division One Level in the Patriot League conference will not be easy; but I am to work my way into the singles lineup and hopefully play at the top of the doubles lineup early on. I want to apply the skills and lessons I have learned to this point to be successful and hopefully continue on as a leader of my peers in college and I have grown to be in high school.
Patrick Fahey
2023 Future Leaders Scholarship recipient.
Patrick Fahey attended Penn Manor where he played #1 on the men’s tennis team. He graduated with a 4.0 GPA and is attending Temple University and is a member of the Tennis On Campus traveling team.mHe wrote the following essay:
“How Tennis Shaped My Life”
When I lost my mom as a freshman in high school I thought the world had just ended. It was extremely hard just to get up in the morning and do simple tasks. I started to play more tennis than I had before and I learned so much about how to grow as a leader. Tennis saved my life and built a foundation of abilities I will continue to build on to be successful throughout my life. Delaine Mast and Jody Wilson are coaches who focus on more than tennis. They taught me how to be a leader on and off the court. I was taught to be respectful, polite, humble, and to treat everyone how you would want to be treated. They allowed me to volunteer as a leadership team member for Tennis Aces. As a leadership member, I taught children not just tennis, but qualities they would use for the rest of their lives. They learned about character-building strategies, how to keep their body healthy, education, and tennis. The experience showed me how to lead, how to make quick decisions, and become a great problem solver. My goal is to become a CFO for a sports company and the Tennis Central NJTL gave me the character tools to accomplish that. The USTA National Junior Tennis and Learning really focus on the importance of education and life skills. I took that to heart and became a better student and will continue to learn even when I am done with all of my schooling. I want to become a certified tennis instructor to teach kids what I learned and the tools to become successful. What I think the biggest impact tennis had on me was being able to build relationships with people and build people skills. It was very difficult for me to talk and make friends as I was a quiet kid. Tennis helped me get out of my comfort zone and helped me become less scared to talk to people. Tennis is so much more than a sport. Tennis helped me stay physically fit, have a healthy diet, build character skills, and focus on education. Tennis did not just change my life, it saved my life.
By Patrick Fahey V
Kensington Edmond
2023 Future Leaders Scholarship recipient.
Kensington attended Donegal High School where she is a member of the women’s tennis team and the Tennis Central Leadership Team. Academically, She was also a member in 4-H (10 years), Treasurer (2 years), Vice President (1 year), President (3 years), Key Club (4 years), Treasurer (2 years), Math Honors Society (2 years), National Honors Society (2 years), Treasurer (1 year), Lancaster County 4-H Teen Council (3 years), Science Olympiad (4 years), STEM Mentorship (1 year). She is attending Wilkes University and has completed her Level 1 course to become a certified coach. Here is Kensington’s Essay:
Tennis has been extremely influential in my life and will continue to be a part of my life in the future. It is surprising to some to find out that tennis was something foreign to me prior to high school. My friends convinced me to sign up for tennis in 8th grade. I would never have expected that would have turned into me playing the number one position and being captain my senior year. The tennis team gave me support as I went into the unknown world of high school. Even as a freshman on the team the upperclassmen were so nice that it made me feel a part of the tennis family. Having the support of the team through my high school years helped me feel less lost through the confusing time. Even when COVID hit, my tennis season was still able to continue which gave familiarity in the scary moment.
I started out around 17th my freshman year. One time my freshman year I was called over to the varsity side to hit. At that time, the varsity side was something that seemed unreachable. That day I thought Coach was going to make me pick up balls for the girl’s playing. Surprisingly instead those girls cheered me on as Coach, our assistant coach, Pam, and I played beat the coach. I later found out that they were trying to see who might be a diamond in the rough for the future varsity team. Once I got the opportunity to go to clinics over the off season with four other girls, I was committed. This showed me how time and effort can really impact your performance. I was practicing in the off season every year and when I would return to playing on the high school team it showed me that my hard work was paying off. I moved from 17th to 4th in one year. I played 1st in both my Junior and Senior years.
Not only do I get the skills of tennis from playing on the Donegal team, but I also have seen myself develop as a person. I used to be a lot more shy and timid, but now I am taking names and writing checks. Maybe I am not taking any names or checks yet, but I did give some people a harder time than they thought. Even when I was playing someone that was better than me I still tried my hardest and made them earn the points. I think I finally started understanding what Coach meant when he said that playing with really good people was a learning experience. At leagues I knew I was not going to beat everyone there but I tried my best and improved my score since the previous time I played them. So even though I might not have won, it was a win in my book.
Another valuable lesson I learned was to stay in the moment. In matches it is easy for me to get distracted thinking about the point or game that happened previously. My coaches taught me that focusing on each point and treating each point as my last is important. This allowed me to completely focus on that point and think through my strategies. Taking each point as my last made sure that I gave my all. Focusing on the present is something useful in day to day life because it allows you to enjoy every moment. This was a hard lesson to learn because it also required me to let go of the frustration I felt towards myself if I made a mistake. Along with that I had to believe in myself. Many times I would overthink my forehand stroke which would cause me to hit the ball into the net. I learned to go with what I knew and usually the ball would go in. If I needed to practice something I learned that during the match is not when to do it.
Tennis allowed me to connect to Tennis Central and Delaine Mast. I was identified as someone to become part of the Tennis Central Leadership Team. I also was able to complete my training to be a level one coach for PTR by having that training sponsored by Tennis Central. I have done clinics and tournaments through Tennis Central. I have participated in ACEs the past two years which has given me lots of opportunities for leadership and responsibility. I
volunteered last year at the Koser Invitational and hope to help this year too. I was even the team manager for the boys team last year.
For the rest of my life tennis will always be with me. I am going to play for Wilkes University for the next four years. I have met the coach a few times and I even got to hit with the team. The team is so close and they are good tennis players. I am excited to start this next life experience, learning new things and also learning new tennis techniques. They also have access to indoor courts at Wilkes University so I will be able to hit all year round, which was a really good selling feature. The coach even said I could coach kids at his tennis club since I have my certification. I hope my tennis team in college will also be a big happy family, because it is a feeling I miss from not being on the team anymore. I sometimes wonder what I would be doing in life if I had not decided to join tennis that one random day in 8th grade.
At Wilkes University I will be studying environmental engineering. Engineering has been something I have been interested in since I was 11. Eventually I decided on environmental engineering because instead of just learning how to fix problems in the environment I can predict and solve problems before they happen. I am specifically interested in the aspects of environmental engineering that are related to water. Through my education I am interested in achieving as much hand on experience as possible; such as internships, co-ops, and hands-on class work. Wilkes University is a good school to learn about environmental issues, because the nearby area has environmental issues that I can help fix first hand. I have learned about service learning through 4-H which is the idea of evaluating ways a community needs help and implementing it, and I want to continue that through my college and work experience. I also would like to travel to developing countries to help them with pollution issues. With my career I would like to work with stormwater management and runoff. Remediation work also sounds enjoyable.
Matthew DeBord
2022 Future Leaders Scholarship recipient.
Matthew attended Lancaster Catholic where he is a member of the National Honor Society, Spanish Honor Society, the president of Varsity Club, the co-chair of his schools mini-THON, and a member of both Link Crew, and Student ambassadors. Matthew was a member of the 2021 State Champion tennis team, was named most improved player, and competed in and won many USTA junior tennis tournaments. He will be attending Penn State University in the fall where he says, “My primary goal during my four years of college is to work diligently in the classroom in order to achieve academic success that will allow me to attend a top law school and fulfill my dream of becoming a lawyer who engages in the public arena and brings meaningful change to peoples’ lives through the use of the law.”