CLUB & SCHOOL OF THE MONTH
East Torrens Kensington Gardens Tennis Club’s nomination comes as no surprise following their hard work behind the scenes to grow their club.
Following their 100-year celebration in 2018, the club has dedicated its time to redeveloping their courts in order to appeal to new members whilst retaining existing memberships.
They have increased their footprint from 6 to 8 courts, and also refurbished their clubhouse and surrounds. This has shown a direct result to their membership figures, as they proved to retain and even increase memberships during a time when they didn’t even have access to their own club courts.
The club has put a key focus on working with the local council and stakeholders to raise funds that will go towards improving their facilities, an act deemed successful following the addition of 2 new courts, clubhouse and Book a Court facility implemented.
Thanks to these contributions, ETKGTC has been able to implement Wednesday night Social Tennis to continually provide offerings for their loyal members.
Congratulations East Torrens Kensington Gardens Tennis Club!
Cobdogla Primary School is a small rural school in the Riverland with 134 students, recently winning the prestigious Newcome Medal of Most Outstanding School for 2021.
Cobdogla have an ongoing commitment to tennis, implementing the Sporting Schools program for many years. The school proudly accesses and supports Tennis Australia qualified tennis coaches, such as Shane Nettle and John Pick.
Students at Cobdogla Primary School love tennis and play enthusiastically at recess and lunch time. Age and ability is no barrier as you will often see our upper primary leaders and experienced students having a hit with the younger ones, which creates a positive school culture and inclusive environment.
The school has developed strong links and relationships with the Cobdogla Tennis Club, and this is evident by having over half of the school population joining and playing for the club. The volunteers and professional coaches at the Club are truly inspiring with their commitment and willingness to support and foster growth in our students.
One of our school’s biggest highlight’s was being crowned State Tennis Champions at Memorial Drive with the students having the opportunity to meet Ash Barty. The experience of playing on Centre Court was truly inspiring.
Congratulations Cobdogla Primary School!
VOLUNTEER & TEACHER OF THE MONTH
Alan Wells, current Vice President of East Torrens Kensington Gardens Tennis Club, has been with the club for 35 years in an effort for social contacts following a move from Melbourne in 1987.
Proving to be tech-savvy, Alan’s key achievements as the VP include the set-up of the club’s website and the club records system on Dropbox that has all the club history on it, which all members have access to.
Alan proves to be very busy in the role, with some of his key duties including: project manager of the redevelopment site, negotiation with the council and key stakeholders, supporting the other committee members, extracting player performance data from league manager, setting up and running internal membership database – along with My Tennis, and coordinating maintenance around the club.
Alan would strongly recommend volunteering at your local tennis club, describing it as a key element of his social life.
“[I’ve] met lots of new people and became more involved in the community,”
“[I’ve] made life-long friends and travelled with people to tournaments and gone away on trips” Alan said.
“It’s a great opportunity for younger people to become involved and get understanding as to how club runs and shows they’ve contributed to a community organization and gained some new skills”.
Congratulations Alan!
David Ness joined Cobdogla Primary School as the principal in 2018 and has made significant strides in developing Tennis within the curriculum.
With his eyes set on success, David entered the 2021 Newcombe Medal Awards for the Most Outstanding School, leading the nomination process with fellow teachers. Their hard work paid off as they took out the title of Most Outstanding School, a well-deserved award.
David has undertaken some key tasks to ensure tennis is supported at Cobdogla Primary School, even going to the lengths of implementing a hitting wall at the school for students to be able to play anytime of the day, which is accompanied by an extra tennis court recently built within the yard. You’ll often find David out on the courts having a hit with the students during recess and lunch!
Working with teachers and local coach John Pick to deliver Tennis through Sporting Schools every year has been an important role for David. He’s also built a strong relationship with the Tennis Club to have student’s play there during the day and to practice.
We thank David and the fellow teachers at Cobdogla Primary School for their continued passion and emphasis on promoting tennis to all students.
Congratulations David!
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