When pro tennis player John Hajek of the Czech Republic steps to the service line, he signals 16-year-old Even Baklid of Highland Beach to toss him a couple of balls.
Baklid responds immediately, then quickly resumes his position against the back wall: hands clasped behind him, eyes up, statue-still. A few minutes later, he’s fetching the Czech a bottle of water and shading him with an umbrella during a break between games.
Baklid is one of 125 ball kids working the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships at the city’s tennis center. The tournament is held every February, and many of the ball kids return year after year. Baklid, however, is new to this. He signed up to earn community service hours toward his graduation in the international baccalaureate program at Atlantic Community High School.
“I was never really into tennis,” Baklid says—mainly because he’s a native of Norway, where winter sports rule. He grew up skiing and playing soccer. But after working his first match at a big international tennis tournament, he’s changed his mind.
“It was cool,” Baklid said of tending to Hajek during an ITC qualifying match. “He was really kind. He asked me a few questions like ‘How am I doing?’ ”
Baklid wasn’t sure if that was normal. “I don’t really know what’s normal yet,” he said, smiling broadly enough to reveal his full set of braces.
Was he nervous? “No, it was just really hot and I wasn’t feeling well,” Earnhart says. He had to live it down the next year, but he hasn’t looked back.
“I do this for fun, and because I get to watch some really good matches,” says the Boca Raton High School sophomore. Earnhart was on-court in 2008 when 18-year-old Kei Nishikori of Japan became the youngest player to win the tournament. Another exciting moment: when player Tommy Haas of Germany broke his tennis racket in frustration “and he handed it to me,” Earnhardt says proudly. “It already had his name on it, so I didn’t need an autograph.”
Local boys and girls who volunteer to be ball kids must attend training sessions to make the cut. They receive uniforms, meals during working sessions, complimentary tickets for family and friends, and a pizza party toward the end of the tournament.
Ranging in age this year from 10 to 18, they act like typical kids congregating in the break room before their matches — giggling, slurping soda, horsing around — but when it’s time to trot out to the courts, they are all business. Ball kids coordinator Monica Sica makes sure of it: no talking, no gum, no cell phones or sunglasses, T-shirts tucked in, and keep your mind on where the ball needs to be.
In her 20-plus years of coordinating the ball kids program, Sica has watched participants bond and form lasting friendships. Younger siblings often follow older ones into the group. When ball kids graduate and go off to college, they sometimes ask to remain on the mailing list just for the sake of nostalgia.
Like a fraternity, the group has insider traditions. One is the “hit list,” where the names of those accidentally bonked by a ball are posted on the wall. Nobody has been seriously hurt; the list was started by the kids as a wry joke but has become a badge of honor.
“My sister Charlotte made the hit list one year,” Earnhart says. “She got hit in the face by a serve from Taylor Dent. He said, ‘Oooo, sorry.’ It left a mark, but she sucked it up.”
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