Mardy Fish, once ranked No. 1 in the U.S. and No. 7 in the world, officially retired his racket last Wednesday night, playing his final match against Feliciano López at the U.S. Open in Flushing, NY. Cheering him on, as they have for all of Mardy’s 33 years, were his parents, Tom and Sally Fish.
In a couple of months, Tom Fish, Director of Tennis at Windsor, will head back up to the Big Apple to participate for the first time in an entirely different sport – the Nov. 1 New York City Marathon. Fish will “Run for the Kids” to raise funds and awareness for the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation.
Mardy established the foundation in 2007 to give back to his hometown through after-school fitness and enrichment programs for Indian River County school children. Although now residing in California with wife Stacey and 18-month old son Beckett, Mardy continues to serve as MFCF president, with Tom leading things locally as board chairman.
Trim and athletic, Fish keeps in shape with tennis and fitness running, but this will be his first marathon.
“I watched it on TV last year and thought it looked pretty cool,” he says. “Now that I’m doing it; it’s way harder than I thought it would be, but it’s been a lot of fun too. You can’t just show up there; you’ve got to prepare.”
After initially attempting to train on his own, Fish is now being coached by Jim Van Veen from Runner’s Depot.
“I’ve really enjoyed the training. I definitely have a respect now for anyone who runs a marathon,” says Fish, adding that he thinks the biggest danger is running too fast in the beginning and tiring out before finishing.
He was inspired to raise money through the marathon after learning that Caroline Wozniacki raised $87,000 last year for Team for Kids.
“She ran it so fast she intimidated everybody. I’m just going to try to finish; I have a goal of 4 hours,” says Fish, adding that Wozniacki and also James Blake will run this year. MFCF board member and Windsor resident Erin Reicher ran the marathon last year, and with husband Craig is sponsoring Fish in his run.
Like his son, Tom Fish has also had heart issues, and has a pacemaker to correct an AV block, but says doctors have given him permission to run. “I had all sorts of physicals and I’m good.”
His motivation is simple – investing in children’s futures.
“We are doing so many good things for kids. We have over 2,500 kids now in our program and we’re growing,” says Fish. “We still have tennis and fitness and health. But what we’re really talking about is teaching children life skills – self-reliance, confidence, persistence, how to deal with good and bad. There are all sorts of great life lessons that you can learn from tennis. We believe in the sport of tennis to learn more than just athletics.”
The MFCF Kids on Court program is now offered at every elementary and middle school in the county. There is also a Summer Tennis Camp, and even Junior Grand Prix Tennis events in partnership with area tennis clubs. The grant-based Kids in Motion after-school enrichment programs at elementary schools and community organizations include a wide variety of wholesome activities, from gardening and dance to basketball and track, and a pre-class fitness program called BOKS (build our kids success).
“They’ve done all these studies on learning, that if you do exercise before you learn you do much better,” Fish explains.
“We are encouraging fitness and exercise through the foundation. We want to expose them to everything and hopefully they’ll have a passion for something. Mardy played everything – I think that’s important. As soon as he could stand, he was hitting balls. It’s pretty funny right now; Beckett does the same thing that Mardy did. There are balls and sticks and bats all over the house. You have to have a very understanding wife and luckily Mardy does.”
With deserved pride in his son, Fish says, “Everything he does has been really surprising. I was surprised that he got to 7 in the world. It’s a really hard, tough sport.” Commenting that Mardy hasn’t finalized the next phase of his life, he says it will likely include the Tennis Channel, coaching for the USTA and golf.
Making the request for contributions to Run for the Kids to benefit the MFCF, Fish says, “We’re just trying to help kids out. We have a great board of directors who have done a great job guiding us, and our staff is really good. There are so many kids who don’t have anything to do after school. We want to give them some opportunities they wouldn’t have without our help. All contributions are welcome; everything from $1 on up.”
For more information, visit www.mffkids.org. Contributions are also accepted through www.crowdwise.com.