Grassroot gets heads up

The Grassroot Tennis Club recently purchased 50 Head Crush Junior 25 Tennis rackets, which will be accessible to its members.

Another 50 are to be handed over by Richard Schaffer of the Mustique Tennis Club, soon.{{more}}

The acquisition of the rackets, further lifts the financial burden off parents whose children attend the club’s Saturday mornings free clinics.

From the outset of the programme which got going in February, participants were required to supply their own rackets, in a promotion dubbed, “Bring your racket and come”.

The new rackets, supplied by the club, are sized for the tots up to teenagers.

Head of the Grassroot set up, Grant Connell, at the club’s base at the Haddon Tennis Courts at Murray’s Road, told SEARCHLIGHT last Saturday morning, “We just want to lower the cost of the sport, make it affordable, and break down the barriers.”

He said that the club will distribute about 50 rackets throughout the island for use in the various communities.

Among them is Hot Vibes Promotion of North Leeward, which partnered with Grassroot in August in taking the sport to that constituency, through a one day summer clinic.

“We are therefore encouraging any school, any community group, any church organization who has access to a hard court, and is interested in Tennis, to contact us and we will offer any assistance that we can,” Connell stated.

“We cannot wait on the International Tennis Federation for any of their hand outs, we got to get going,” he said.

Connell said that the club in the second phase will source another 300 rackets from Head, and sell them at cost price, thereby lowering the cost of a racket to under EC$100.

The Head of Grassroots also disclosed that his organisation is pursuing Penn, to become the official balls supplier.

“We want quality balls, quality rackets and all that augurs well for the sport,” he added.

Connell said that his club’s efforts are paving the way for the full implementation of a structure based on the findings of Surinamese, John Goede, that will be rolled out soon. Goede is an International Tennis Federation tutor, who conducted a four month stint here under the Olympic Solidarity initiative, through the National Olympic Committee.(RT)