Agassi makes a big serve via foundation

Victoria Sun

Tuesday, May 2, 2000 | 11:50 a.m.

The praise 18-year-old Anthony Yglesias has for tennis star Andre Agassi mirrors the respect Agassi has for the college-bound teenager.

Agassi has helped Yglesias achieve what once seemed impossible, and Yglesias is determined not to waste the lifeline provided by Agassi through the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation.

They met for the first time Monday afternoon at the Assistance League of Las Vegas/Operation School Bell office, where the native Las Vegan announced the recipients of his foundation's grants totaling $1.45 million for this fiscal year.

The largest grant -- $750,000 -- was awarded for the start-up of a charter school to open in September 2001. Another $189,716 was given to the Andre Agassi Boys & Girls Club.

"The goals of the foundation were to help kids at risk," Agassi said. "There are so many people that help make the foundation possible, not just me.

"We kind of set a long-term goal of raising $10 million so that we could see a million of it kicked back into the community year after year, and we far exceeded that. So now we just realize setting goals only limits what people are really capable of in their hearts. So we kind of rid ourselves of goals and are marching ahead."

Yglesias will be marching down the aisle during Bishop Gorman High School's graduation ceremonies, making him the first in his family to get a high school diploma.

Agassi presented Yglesias with a first-class plane ticket to Minnesota, where the Southern California native will be attending college in the fall. Yglesias earned a full scholarship to attend St. John's University, which also will make him the first in his family to go to college.

"Andre, thank you for the wonderful opportunity you've allowed me to have," Yglesias said. "I am speechless over the support you and the foundation have given me as well as the program.

"The program is just awesome. It pulled me out of a situation that I never thought I'd get out of."

About 2 1/2 years ago, Yglesias and his family moved here from Riverside, Calif., hoping to find jobs and make a better life.

But it never happened.

The family wound up living in the MASH Village homeless shelter, and Anthony continued to attend Valley High School.

"I maintained my grades as much as I could," Yglesias said.

It was enough to get the attention of MASH Village counselor Scott Smith, who referred Yglesias to the Boys Hope/Girls Hope of Nevada shelter, which is dedicated to providing kids with a safe and nurturing environment so that they can further their education.

After Yglesias started living at Boys Hope/Girls Hope, he transferred to Bishop Gorman.

Boys Hope/Girls Hope of Nevada received $75,000 from the Agassi Foundation this year.

"It helped give me one spark of a chance to be successful and that's what I felt I needed," Yglesias said. "They're just awesome and outstanding."

That's what Agassi thinks of Yglesias.

At St. John's, Yglesias will major in biology. One day, he said he would like to become a doctor.

"Anthony has shown that you can rise above your circumstances," Agassi said. "And he has accepted responsibility for himself.

"He hasn't played victim and said that because he wasn't given this or that, he's not going to care. The fact that he earned a scholarship speaks for the human spirit. Anthony deserves a lot of respect, and he certainly gets it from me."

It also was announced that Schick became a new corporate partner of the foundation and contributed $400,000. Schick pledged of $1 million over four years.

After the announcement, Agassi walked six kids into Operation School Bell for a shopping excursion. Operation School Bell is a beneficiary of the foundation, which provides new clothes and shoes for needy children.

While the girls and boys tried on tennis shoes, Agassi clowned around with them.

"I think helping others is the greatest thing that is learned by these children," Agassi said. "While they take advantage of the opportunities they get, they become committed to helping others because they know what it's like to be helped."