One of the key ingredients of any club or coaching programme is the staff & volunteers that help to run it.  Tennis is no exception to this and has over the last 6 years provided young people aged 14 years and over the opportunity to stay in the sport and find out what it’s like to coach, referee and help in an a club or within a coaching programme.  A course designed to start young people off in tennis was launched in 2006 to give them an insight into what the sport can offer and Writhlington has been embracing this concept for 5 years, with over 50 young people having attended the course over that period of time. 

It was with great pleasure that Clive Sampson, representing the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), the national governing body of tennis in the UK and a member of Avon Executive Committee & member of Writhlington Trust, awarded 10 young people their certificates on Friday 2^nd December at Writhlington  Tennis Centre. 

Role of honour:

Harry Bushill & George Beechener, both 16 years old, achieving 50 volunteer hours and both already passed their LTA Level 1 coaching qualification, they work in the coaching programme at Writhlington.

Poppy Devey-Waterhouse aged 17 years & Jake McEwan aged 15 years both achieving over 200 volunteer hours having passed their Tennis Leaders course in March 2010.  They work every Saturday morning with Steve Bosworth in Frome. Steve says “they are trustworthy & reliable I would and could never do it without them both’.

Chris Goulding aged 16 years, achieved 200 hours volunteer hours, passed his Tennis Leaders course in March 2010 and works every weekend with Brian Wessell at Camvale Tennis Club in Paulton.

Kira Harding aged 15 years, achieved over 150 volunteer hours so far, works in the tennis & trampoline programmes at Writhlington as a volunteer, says Melissa Reeves (Head Trampoline Coach at Writhlington) “Kira is a great asset to the trampolining programme and has an excellent rapport with the children”

Laura Hunt aged 18 years, Jack Greenwood, aged 17 years, Simon Jones aged 18 years & Alex Hull aged 18 years all have been playing tennis since a very young age and have all recently passed their Level 2 qualification having started as Tennis Leaders. They all work at Writhlington and have become an integral part of the coaching team.

Said Mandy Stonier, Tennis Development Officer at Writhlington ‘I am very proud of all these young people, I run the Leaders course myself and to watch these young people grow and develop their skills and play important roles within their respective clubs is fantastic.  It’s a great opportunity for us to showcase what is possible and achieving all these volunteer hours and then taking further qualifications its a tribute to how hard they work and have become valuable and responsible members of the community’.