A few members of the Tennis West team travelled up north to the Pilbara and Kimberley region for a 16-day trip to engage with tennis clubs, schools, local government, coaches and deliverers, and the wider communities of South Hedland and Broome.
The regional trip was aimed at increasing Tennis West’s presence in regional areas to service, support and sustain our sport.
The Tennis West team delivered tennis to over 1,000 students across six Primary Schools and one High School, met with two local governments with the Shire of Broome and Town of Port Hedland to help support local clubs with infrastructure, delivered two activations to two local tennis clubs to club members, conducted one Introduction to Hotshots Community upskilling session, and two professional development sessions resulting in 11 teachers becoming up skilled around the Hotshots pathway.
Tennis West Development Lead for Regional North Sam Gulliver highlighted the success of the trip and value for visiting the regions.
“There is so much talent that we identified during the last two weeks which is why it is so important for us to get out and work with our stakeholders including schools, clubs and local governments and develop and maintain that classroom to clubhouse model.”
“We look forward to working with the clubs and schools in these areas remotely over the next 12 months until our next visit next year,” said Sam.
Thank you to the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries and Lotterywest for their ongoing support of Tennis in Western Australia.
Summary of the regional trip:
Day 1 – South Hedland
Starting the regional trip in South Hedland at Cassia Primary School where the team took five classes of years 3-5 teaching the students the basics of tennis with Cassia Primary School planning to apply for the Sporting Schools grant to run Tennis again in term two.
Day 2 – South Hedland
Staying in South Hedland, the team visited Baler Primary School teaching to four classes. The goal was to ensure that not only the kids get their first experience of tennis in a school environment, but also educate the teachers on what is on offer through the Sporting Schools grants and link schools with local coaching providers.
Day 3 – South Hedland
The team worked with the new committee at South Hedland Bowling and Tennis Club to find ways to utilise and activate their courts by getting programs up and running. The team ran four sessions which focused on delivery to kids ages 3-6 years, 7- 10 years, 11-17 years, and adults for Cardio aimed at bringing the community to the club and showcasing what the club has to offer.
Day 4 – South Hedland
The team escaped the heat and delivered an Introduction to Hotshots Community Coaching Workshop at Wanangkura Stadium. Four community champions attended the course to learn the fundamentals of Hotshots, enabling and empowering them to continue to offer tennis at South Hedland Tennis Club.
Day 5-8 – South Hedland
The next three days were spent at Hedland Senior High School, teaching students from year 7-12 the basics of Tennis. The team also ran a teacher professional development session with schoolteachers focused on delivering curriculum aligned tennis activities from resources provided by Tennis Australia and Sporting Schools. The focus of these workshops was to target movement concepts and strategies along with active and healthy pillars of the secondary school’s curriculum.
Day 9 – Travel to Broome
Day 10-11 – Rest
Day 12 – Cable Beach
The team travelled further north to Broome starting at Cable Beach Primary School taking classes from all year groups and teaching students the basics of tennis.
Day 13-15 – Broome
The next few days were spent at Broome Primary School and Broome Tennis Club. The team facilitated two come and try sessions at Broome Tennis Club, these sessions saw kids from the local schools participate. The first session targeted at kids aged 4-7, focused on the fundamental movement skills as well as basic tennis skills. The second session involved 17 kids aged 8-13 years old which involved tennis games involving rallying. These sessions were the perfect example of the Classroom to Clubhouse model, designed to get school kids to tennis clubs.
Day 16 – Broome
The team finished the trip with a radio interview with ABC Kimberley to wrap up the last two weeks up north before heading back home to Perth.
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