A mentor used the sport to bring him to a world of country clubs and privilege that was far different from the nine-block radius he knew in one of Salt Lake City's poorer west-side neighborhoods.

The experience led Valdez 13 years ago to spearhead a mentoring initiative for juvenile offenders called The Village Project, and to add a tennis component to the program that brings 10 kids to Liberty Park each Monday to learn the game.

Now Valdez wants to expand his ideals of rehabilitating juvenile offenders through tennis by establishing a broader program aimed at disadvantaged youths. He visited Stanford University over the weekend to research the East Palo Alto Tennis Program, which brings troubled kids to the tennis court where they receive lessons on school, sports and life.

A team of Salt Lake City educators and representatives from the Utah Tennis Association will join Valdez in developing a plan to implement the program in the Salt Lake City School District next year.

"Through tennis, I met people who were educated. I met people who had accomplished things in their lives - professionally and personally," said Valdez, who progressed to West High School's No. 1 singles player as a teenager.

"It's a great sport, number one. But number two, it gives kids an opportunity to expand their world."

The East Palo Alto Tennis Program that Valdez visited was established in 1990 and has received national recognition for assisting troubled youth in rethinking their ways and improving their grades, organizers say.

It targets low-income, inner-city youth in kindergarten through 12th grade from a school district with a shockingly low graduation rate of 35 percent, said Dave Higaki, the program's executive director.

Each week, about 106 students attend two- to three-hour sessions at Stanford University, where they receive tennis instruction and academic help from college students and program employees. Students are plucked from tough neighborhoods and receive transportation to the university, Higaki said.

The program's methodology has resulted in a noticeable rise in the number of low-achieving high school students who turned their academic paths around to be accepted into four-year universities, he said.

Other outcomes are more anecdotal.

"In almost every kid you're going to see some character success," Higaki said.

"First though, it might seem a little odd. You're going to teach tennis to a bunch of inner-city minority kids? It's not a part of the hip hop culture, it's not part of the inner-city culture. But it teaches them they shouldn't be afraid to do things outside the norm."

Stanford's program costs about $625,000 a year and is supported primarily through donations, Higaki said. Valdez said he is already in talks with Chevron Oil to secure corporate sponsorship for funding a similar Salt Lake City program.

The next step is to get Salt Lake City colleges on board to provide tutoring help and laying the framework for how many schools can participate in its first year, said Valdez and Linda Vincent, executive director of the Utah Tennis Association.

mrogers@sltrib.com