The LTA this week announced the Regional LTA Tennis Award winners. Three Dorset county winners were successful and will now go through to the National Finals. Good luck to them all.
Many congratulations to :
Coach of the Year – Phil Loose
Phil runs and is Head Coach of Wimborne Tennis Club, a small club with 3 outdoor courts. Despite this, Phil has 14 players in country training with 3 playing at National level. 7 of his players represented the county in County Cup events in 2019. He has one player in full time regional training and took 10 players to the Nadal Academy last December to play in their first international tournament.
Wimborne Tennis Club welcomes all regardless of age/ability and is as focused on grass court tennis as with top performance players. He is developing some of the older children as Assistant Coaches, supporting in junior groups and encourages the older children to hit with the younger ones. A sports academy school send their students to work at Wimborne Tennis Club during the summer holidays to gain valuable experience.
Community/Parks Venue of the Year – Poole Park, Brett Townsend
Brett opened up tennis in 2019 by running Tennis for Free sessions on Sunday mornings which has seen 3025 attendees from 1st January 2019 to 31st December 2019, the highest number of attendees out of 120 sites that run Tennis for Free. Poole Park also holds the record for the largest number of people to attend a single session of 112 on 14th July. They have been in the top 10 for statistics for Tennis for Free every week. The sessions offer everything from fun children’s activities and games to basket feeding for intermediate players to match play for those wishing to play points. A number of wheelchair players also attend the sessions. In recognition of Brett’s hard work and commitment to Tennis For Free, he was awarded the Tennis for Free Coach of the Year Award for 2019.
Disability Award – David Sanger
David runs a comprehensive weekly programme for a wide range of people with disabilities including transplant, learning disabilities, hearing impaired, mental liabilities, wheelchair users, Downs Syndrome, autism, visual impairment.
The programme David runs sees 119 people taking part over a month. The 7th learning disability tournament took place with 15 competitors, the 2nd wheelchair tournament and the 3rd Dorset SEND (special educational needs and disability) School Games in addition to the weekly programme. David also set up an additional session with Wessex Autism Life Skills which has 14 young adults attending.
David trained as an Open Your Doors Tutor in 2019. He is also solely responsible for successfully fundraising all the resources for the work alongside training and recruiting volunteers. In 2019, David personally raised £4500 and secured two sports wheelchairs from the Youth Sports Trust.
