Tennis club head wants coaches to unite

Head of the Grassroot Tennis Club Grant Connell has called on local tennis coaches to put aside their differences to the benefit of young players.{{more}}

Connell, speaking at the closing of the Milo Junior Tennis Tournament at the Grassroot Tennis Club courts recently, called on coaches “to drop the barriers”.

He was reacting to the response of some tennis clubs to an invitation to play in the tournament.

“The coaches have to put down the swords. It is about time. It is not about the coaches. It is not about Grassroot kids, it is not about X-Cel kids, or Bonan kids, because when you travel, you represent St Vincent, you are Vincentian,” Connell said, as he named some of the other tennis clubs here.

“If the kids do not compete against each other, you will not know who is the best in the land, so [you] don’t know who to send … This ignorance must stop now!” Connell said.

“It does not make sense having fifty kids on one court, and you play a few balls and you leave the National Tennis Centre empty,” he further said.

Connell said he felt it important to fully utilize the National Tennis Centre, especially when international tournaments are played here.

“That is your home court. Those courts become as foreign to us as the foreigners … so we don’t have any home court advantage, because you don’t know the bounce, you don’t know anything. So it’s time you take off the blinkers,” Connell said. (RT)