20 November 2020 | Tennis West

The Esperance Tennis Club was a hive of activity on Friday 20 November with more than 120 students hitting the courts for the highly anticipated 2020 Red Ball Gala event.

Twelve teams made up of eight of more players of years 3 and 4 students from Esperance Primary School, Castletown Primary School and Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Primary School came together for the interschool round robin event, with the match play format delivering a fun and social team tennis event.

With students proudly hitting the courts as school representatives, the day encouraged participation for all abilities and focused on skill acquisition and sportsmanship with the aim of establishing the foundations for continued participation and enjoyment.

The Red Ball Gala event was offered to all schools in the region and is coordinated by Tennis West Regional South Schools Development Coordinator Carina McMillen, who works closely with schools and teachers from a number of Tennis Australia Partner Schools across the South West to deliver tennis programs in line with the schools curriculum.

“The Red Ball Gala is a great way to get kids from a number of schools all together on court for a mass participation event,”

“It’s a fantastic opportunity for the kids to put the skills they’ve learnt at school into match play situations whilst competing against kids of similar ability,’

“The kids love the opportunity to represent their school and it’s available to all students irrespective of their ability,”

“The Red Ball Gala is a fantastic culmination event for the students who have been doing tennis during school PE lessons,” McMillen said.

Understanding the health and wellbeing benefits afforded by physical activity and in particular those from tennis, the Esperance Tennis Club was involved in the day’s activities aiming to help transition players to participate at club level.

Given the 2018 Mayo Clinic report* findings that tennis players live some 9.7 years longer than participants of other sports and activities, the key driver is in helping to transition junior players along the tennis pathway with the overarching goal of long term enjoyment and participation.

Benefits of Tennis Australia’s Partner School Program includes a host of resources and including; access to National Curriculum aligned tennis programs, tennis equipment packs, professional learning for teachers and free racquets for pre-primary students.

The visit to Esperance by the Tennis West team was in addition to a special visit to Munglinup Primary School for the delivery of a student coaching clinic and teacher PD.

Red Ball Gala events have been held across regional and metropolitan Perth including events in Busselton, Margaret River, Geraldton, Mandurah and a number of clubs across Perth.

The winner of each event is invited to compete at the State Red Ball Championships to be held late in Term 4 at the State Tennis Centre in Perth.

*Mayo Clinic Study findings: https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/

Tennis Australia’s School Partnership Program aims to encourage more children to pick up a racquet and learn tennis as part of their health and physical education curriculum. Thanks to Tennis Australia’s partnership with ANZ, more than 170,000 tennis racquets have been delivered to pre- primary school students since January 2015.

To find out more about Tennis Australia’s School Partnership Program, head to: https://www.tennis.com.au/schools