NATCHEZ — Since 1976, Henry Harris has brought his knowledge of tennis to the youth of the Miss-Lou, and he continued to do so Wednesday in the National Junior Tennis and Learning Camp.

“We are teaching more agility and about what your body can and can’t do,” Harris said. “It is a little bit more of tennis without hitting balls, so we are trying to teach them at a young age.”

Harris had approximately 15 young, eager learners.

“At this age, it is fun,” he said. “We have to have fun stuff with it being the middle of the day.”

Harris said camp participants have gone on to thrive not only on the court, but also in other aspects of life.

“Right now, we have a 100 percent graduation rate from high school and a 99.3 percent graduation rate from college,” Harris said. “We have about 40 percent that play tennis and about two percent went on to play college tennis.”

With the way athletics are now, Harris said it is tough to break into the collegiate tennis ranks.

“It is very hard in college because now the coaches demand the same routine as the basketball and football coaches,” he said. “A lot of kids end up saying, ‘I’m going to college, I don’t think I want to do that.’”

However, Harris is hoping to provide them with the skills to continue to play for the rest of their lives.

“Once we take them away from the craziness of the outside world and get them here, we can teach them a positive sport and they can play the rest of their lives,” he said. “We just have to get them away from the television and all of the other things.”

Harris said the key is parents recognizing the opportunity that kids have to play the sport.

“There is a lot of stuff for kids to do, it is just finding the activities and putting the kids in them,” Harris said. “People realize there is stuff out there, they just have to find it.”

The camp also reaches out to other age groups, with 3-9 year olds going Monday through Thursday and junior high and high school ages Tuesday and Thursday.