CLUBS OF THE MONTH
Last year marked a significant shift in the history of the Marion Tennis Club with a new committee/structure coming in to take over the legacy left by former long-serving President Rick Davey.
Having an even greater presence and pro-active committee has enabled them to further build their relationship with the Council at City of Marion. This helped with their current $35,000 clubroom kitchen/toilet upgrade whilst also ensuring future disabled access so they can boost participation in this space.
ClubSpark has also been great for the Club. It has increased its online presence; social members are going through the roof while enabling online membership payments which has also been in line with a growth in their general membership numbers.
With coach Justin Tredwell, things are moving along nicely in the area of junior development – he just loves what he does and loves supporting them. He is at the Club from early Saturday mornings to the end of the day along with coaching every day of the week.
Also, in the competition space the club is setting high standards and to achieve strategic KPIs in growing female participation to around six teams in women’s seniors.
Congratulations Marion Tennis Club!
The Tintinara Tennis Club is the Rural Club of the Month for March 2022 after a reinvigoration of the club following a long hiatus.
The Club, which had not had any junior tennis since the early 2000’s, began to re-establish themselves in mid-2021 following a successful facility upgrade inclusive of all sports at the main Tintinara Recreation ground.
The Club began rebuilding from the ground up, gathering a core set of parents who were keen to provide playing opportunities to kids of all ages in the region.
With assistance, friendship and support from both the Borderdowns Tennis Association (currently in recess) and the Keith Tennis Club, Tintinara set about becoming affiliated with Tennis SA, and subsequently registered to deliver the Tennis Australia Hot Shots Community Play program.
Club President Shane Vowles said that the Club has seen an explosion of interest for the term one Community Play program.
“We gauged interest prior to affiliating and knew that we would have about 20 kids as regulars for the planned six-week program.”
“By the time our first session came around, we had 51 participants registered which completely blew our minds!”
Shane and Secretary Kelly Nankivell along with other keen parents, attended a Tennis SA workshop in November which gave them the confidence to be able to run the sessions themselves and to get other parents involved.
“The Community Play program is a great way for rural clubs, without a coach, to provide a quality option to teach kids not only tennis skills, but also a range of other valuable skills such as hand-eye coordination and how to interact with other kids their age.”
“Our committee would like to give a special thanks to the parents who come out and get involved every week – we couldn’t do this without them.”
Tennis SA thanks the Tintinara Tennis Club for their commitment to re-establishing tennis programs in the region and look forward to standing beside the Club and supporting their efforts every step of the way.
Congratulations Tintinara Tennis Club!
VOLUNTEERS OF THE MONTH
Sheree Frost has been a stalwart of the Crafers Tennis Club for a number of years and has been one of the driving forces behind the Club’s participation growth, which is why, she has been nominated as the Tennis SA Rural Volunteer for the month of March.
Sheree came across the Crafers Tennis Club when she moved to the Adelaide Hills in 2010 after having played tennis in metro Adelaide.
The President at the time, Amy Thornton, encouraged Sheree to get involved and from her time she started on the committee in 2012, she has held both the Secretary and Treasurer roles and is till the Treasurer today.
Sheree has two young daughters involved in the Club’s HotShots program and she thoroughly enjoys watching them grow in the Club environment alongside her volunteer roles.
“Anyone thinking about volunteering at their local club should absolutely get involved because without volunteers, there would often be no clubs,”
“Everyone has something, and a different set of skills to offer and when everyone contributes and shares the workload it is so rewarding, and our members are so grateful for the work we do.”
Tennis SA would also like to highlight Sheree’s ongoing volunteering at the Adelaide International Tournament held each year, where she is a regular friendly face at the important accreditation office.
“Having International Tennis in Adelaide is fantastic and I absolutely love being part of the Adelaide International Team,”
“Although I love watching and being involved with the tennis, I met many other volunteers that weren’t ‘tennis’ people and they absolutely loved it too!”
Sheree made particular mention of the entire Crafers Tennis Club committee (past and present) and their influence on her time at the Club as well as their considerable impacts in areas such as running competitions, relationships with the local council, submitting countless grant applications as well as their commitment to growing the sport across the Hills.
Tennis SA would again like to thank Sheree for her ongoing contribution to tennis from both a grassroots level at Crafers as well as her integral participation and valued membership of the Adelaide international team.
Congratulations Sheree Frost!
Liz Hearn has been with Marion Tennis Club since 2020, where she currently resides as the secretary. Noticing a sign on Marion Road, Liz walked to the club and joined the committee, and also simultaneously took on the role of Ladies Team Captain.
Liz has been instrumental in the club’s transition to ClubSpark, an online platform which assists in managing memberships, payments, and much more. Marion have shown initiative in using the platform, so much so they were selected to feature in a promotional video for ClubSpark.
“Taking on ClubSpark has been revolutionary for us as a club and making us look a million dollars, particularly the website for Justin’s coaching business and also school holiday clinics”, Liz says.
Within her time at the club, Liz has achieved a successful grant application for the club through City of Marion Community Grants for $3,500, which was put towards a new ball machine.
Adding to her duties, Liz also manages all ingoing and outgoing correspondence for the club, including emails and grants. Liz manages the club’s social media platforms which has been instrumental in the club’s increase in social and junior memberships.
Liz is a big advocate for volunteering at your local club and would suggest it to anyone looking to get involved in their community.
“You get this amazing sense of happiness making a difference and bringing such a good vibe to the club” Liz suggests,
“When you see how positive the parents are and how their kids feel included here, that’s a great aspect”,
“We also embrace multi-culturalism too with many nationalities represented here amongst our members which we love and want to see more of.”
Congratulations Liz Hearn!
Latest
SA