Exhibition tennis with a mission for state champ Brandon Currie and ATP winner James Blake

When we caught up with Brandon Currie, we started with an obvious question.

Are you ready?

It’s not every day a former college and prep tennis standout in his late 30s takes the court with a guy who once upon a time was ranked fourth-best in the world. Currie was good – Brown Deer High and Butler University have never had a finer player – but not even in his prime did he run up against someone like this.

So, is he ready?

“Honestly when you’re a player you’re always able to play to a certain point,” he said, “but my focus has been on coaching, really, and instructing the youth. I’m able to hit around a little bit, but when you add in playing at a certain level, that’s a whole different dynamic."

Ready or not, Currie, a two-time state champion in the 1990s at Brown Deer, will face 10-time ATP tour winner and current  USTA chairperson James Blake in an exhibition match at 6 p.m. Friday at  Brown Deer's Novak Family Fieldhouse.

The match is the marquee event of an education fair at the school that begins at 4:30. Both events are free and are part of the mission of the Al Hurvis/ADAMM Education Foundation, an organization whose mission includes exposing tennis to minority kids.

The organization has become active in area tennis in recent years. It provides support for the sport at Brown Deer and in the Milwaukee Public Schools. Last year, for the first time, it ran the Milwaukee Tennis Classic.

“We are bigger than just tennis,” said Nathaniel Lynn, the executive director of the foundation. “We use tennis to open the door, but then our focus is how do we better the student. How do we give our students exposures into the different areas that they’re looking for.”

Blake and Currie each fit that mission.

After retiring in 2013, Blake became the chairperson of the USTA Foundation, whose goal is to bring tennis and education together.

Currie, meanwhile, is symbolic of the type of impact the Al Hurvis/ADAMM Education Foundation hopes to have on young people. He used tennis as a catapult to multiple college degrees and continues to make a living in the sport as the head men's coach at IUPUI.

In his blood

Currie came to the sport naturally. His father, Jewel, was a City Conference champion in 1972 at Milwaukee King and continued to play long enough for his son to follow him to various tournaments and leagues

"As a kid he got me involved in playing," Currie said. "I loved it and it just took off from there."

When it comes to black tennis players competing at a high level, Currie's was a memorable era. When he won state in 1996 as a sophomore and  '98 as a senior, the Division 1 champion was Eric Robertson, a black player from Nicolet.

The dominant girls player of that period was Nicolet’s Lia Jackson, a Division 1 state champion from 1995-'97. Her younger brother, Anthony, was also a standout though not a state champion.

Currie is Brown Deer's only state tennis champion. The school inducted him into its hall of fame in 2015.

“Being put on that stage in that moment and capitalizing on it is one of those things you’ll never forget, especially it wasn’t so much about myself but the hard work my family put in and they’re support as well as friends,” he said. “On that stage, it was about the community of Brown Deer and everything the city and the school had done for me. To go out and win a state title for the school was something that was very important to me.”

Success after high school

Currie went on to play at Butler University in Indianapolis, where he was the Horizon League newcomer of the year in 1999 and the conference's player of the year the next three seasons. He is the school’s all-time leader in singles victories and ranks second in doubles wins.

Currie continued to win after college.

Two years after completing his bachelor’s degree, he joined the staff at Indiana-Purdue at Indianapolis.  He has been the school's men's head coach since 2005. The past two years he has been the Summit League’s coach of the year.

He also went on to earned a master’s degree and doctorate and wrote a book, "Deuce Point: New Insights to Winning Tennis."

The book's focus on mental toughness is one that resonates on or off the court.

"The game of tennis offered the opportunity for kids to grow personally through sport," Currie said. "It offers them the chance to build self-esteem,discipline and also just self worth.

"It helped me. You're on an island. You can't depend on anybody else. The only person you can depend on is yourself. Regardless of winning or losing, you learn a lot about who you are."

Education fair precedes tennis match

Here is the schedule for the entire event.

Brown Deer Tennis Exhibition and Education Fair

At Novak Family Fieldhouse, Brown Deer High School

Friday

4 -5:15 p.m.: Open tennis courts, kids and crafts area.

4-5: Education Fair (The Brown Deer school district, Milwaukee Public Schools, MATC, Medical College of Wisconsin and Milwaukee Tennis Education Foundation are among the 18 partners who will be on hand to share information about their schools or programs).

5-5:30: Opening presentation.

5:30-6: Warm-up for exhibition tennis match.

6-7: Tennis exhibition featuring James Blake vs. Brandon Currie.

7-7:30: Book signing and autographs/photographs.

Saturday

9:10:30 a.m: Currie will be at the Brown Deer High School tennis courts for a free tennis workshop.