A man who has recently moved to the island has started a youth tennis program aimed at children between the ages of 6 and 12.

Vashon Tennis Kids currently consists of 15 children who meet twice a week — on Wednesdays and Fridays at 4:30 p.m. at the covered area behind Chautauqua Elementary School. Marcus Gautesen, the program’s organizer, who moved to Vashon in August from Barcelona, said children can join anytime for an eight-week block of practices. The cost is $65 for practices once every week and $100 for practices twice a week, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

He said that he hopes the program will strengthen Vashon’s high school tennis teams and provide young children with an individual sport.

“On an island with many strong sports programs, there’s a noticeably late start for tennis, one of the great individual sports, and one which the U.S. used to dominate,” Gautesen said in an email.

He said he started playing tennis “very late” while living in the Czech Republic, but learned that it was an “everyman’s sport over there.”

“It’s not a country club thing. The tennis courts are usually next to pubs, and everyone spills out of work and school and onto the courts,” he said. “Kids, grandparents, everyone plays tennis, that’s why Europeans are so good at it.”

He also began to notice the mental challenge that tennis presents.

“It’s you against yourself in a two-hour battle, face-to-face with someone who desperately wants to beat you,” he said.

With that in mind, he started Vashon Tennis Kids so that young children can begin to take advantage of the physical and mental aspects of the sport.

“Tennis really needs to be learned from an early age to master it. It’s not like cross-country skiing or running — there’s technique there that only young bodies can master so quickly,” he said. “It’s amazing to watch the growth between 6 and 12 years old. Kids get good enough to really put into play the mental side of the game. If you start later, you spend all of your energy just trying to keep the ball in the court.”

Gautesen and other parents coach the team that will be run year-round with a rolling admission.

“It’s about starting early, keeping it fun and playing until you’re 100. It’s a great sport,” he said.

Anyone interested in signing up their children, donating time or contributing financially to help the program should call Marcus Gautesen at 930-4931 or email him at vashontenniskids@gmail.com.