Jeff Bourns

Bourns was born in Parkersburg, West Virginia in 1981. His family relocated to Houston, Texas when he was a child. He is the oldest of three boys. He attended Clear Brook High School in Friendswood, Texas graduating in the year 2000. He played the Euphonium in the marching band and competed on his High School tennis team, playing against other able-bodied students. Jeff grew up in an era where Adaptive Sports were not wide spread and well known. Following high school he signed a contract as an athlete with Hanger Prosthetics and Orthotics. Kevin Carroll built his first sprinting prosthesis in the year 2001.

He is a graduate of San Jacinto College.[7] While attending college he was a member of Phi Beta Lambda. He worked in the hospitality industry as a waiter and associate manager at Truluck’s restaurant and has a level one wine sommelier certification. Jeff Bourns is the father of one child, a son, Parker Richard Bourns who was born December 16, 2004.

He rediscovered his passion for tennis after recovering from a spinal cord injury in 2010. He found a wheelchair tennis program available at Houstons Metropolitan Multi-Service Center. Instead of playing in a wheelchair he played standing or ambulatory on his prosthesis as he did growing up. While a student in the class he searched for adaptive tennis programs for amputees who played standing. He could not find any, anywhere. In 2014 Bourns started an amputee tennis program at Houston's Metropolitan Multi-Service Center. He partnered with the United States Tennis Association of Texas, (USTA) and city of Houston. In 2014 Bourns was selected to serve on USTA Texas' adaptive and wheelchair committee charged with helping pioneer and grow the sport of tennis for amputees.[8][9] He learned of an International adaptive standing tennis tournament to take place December 11-13,2015 in Santiago, Chile after being contacted by the founder of the TAP Foundation and TAP WORLD Tour, Enzo Amadei Jerez. Bourns finished in the quarterfinals of the Masters Final TAP and began competing on the TAP World Tour.[10] [11]The TAP World Tour is a competitive circuit for tennis players with physical disabilities who play tennis standing rather than in wheelchairs. At the Brazil Open held in Uberlandia, Brazil July 30-31, 2016 he was eliminated in the second round. Bourns was instrumental to bringing the first International Adaptive Standing Tennis Tournament to the United States, the USA TAP Open where he was an organizer and player with Houston, Texas playing host.[12] The USA TAP Open helped to popularize the growth and development of a new modality of tennis for individuals in the United States.[13][14] His best International showing came at the Malmo, Open, the largest Para-Sporting event in Europe, where he was a semi-finalist.[15][16] In 2019 he played in his last tennis tournament at the Inaugural CAST Open in Greensboro, North Carolina where he was a finalist.[17][18] He retired from competition in 2019 ranked No. 4 in the world and top ranked American in his classification.

In a venture off of the court Jeff Bourns has a cast and producing credit in film on the Documentary Film Tin Soldiers.[19][20] The film is a look into the world of adaptive sports, where athletes with spina bifida, cerebral palsy, amputations or paralysis find new ways to enjoy the sports they love.[21]

Bourns is a strong advocate for Adaptive Sport and physical activity for individuals with disabilities.[22]

Bourns began his adaptive sporting career with an athletic contract from Hanger Prosthetics and Orthotics in swimming and as a sprinter from 2000 - 2002. He signed an athletic contract with New Life Brace and Limb in 2016.[23] Bourns became a Babolat endorsed athlete in 2016 and brand ambassador as a member of Babolat’s inaugural Hit Squad established in 2019.

Bourns is a Babolat Brand Ambassador and member of the Inaugural Hit Squad formed in 2019.

He was the first Adaptive Standing Tennis player to be contracted to instruct a Gateway to Gold Paralympic tennis clinic at Lakeshore in Birmingham, Alabama with Paralympian Wheelchair tennis player Karin Korb.[24] In 2018 he was contracted to be an instructor at a Wounded Warrior Tennis camp in San Diego, California alongside United States Women’s Wheelchair Tennis coach Paul Walker[25] at Balboa Tennis Club.[26] Wayne Luckett of Louisville Prosthetics and Orthotics contracted him to work with Special Olympic Tennis champion Dionte Foster in Louisville, Kentucky.[27]

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