Twenty coaches from across Australia, including WA’s Lucie Fraser (Perth) and Megan Henry (Wheatbelt) have been named as recipients of the President’s Women in Tennis Scholarships for 2023.
A key component of Tennis Australia’s commitment to increasing the number and quality of female tennis coaches nationally, the scholarship program has been designed to provide more opportunities for women coaches at all levels of the sport.
The selected coaches also had the opportunity to develop their skills, grow their coaching networks and observe Australia’s elite junior players at a workshop at the 12’s and 14’s Australian Junior Clay Court Nationals in Canberra last week.
A focus of the three-day workshop was to build the network and support system of coaches through Tennis Australia’s Coach Connect program, which aims to engage, educate, and connect women coaches across the country through mentoring and professional development opportunities.
Tennis West Regional Development Officer for the Wheatbelt Megan Henry was thankful to receive the scholarship and opportunity to develop further as a tennis coach.
“I’m excited to continue to learn and expand my knowledge by accessing experiences that foster growth and bringing this knowledge back to share rurally with both juniors and adults.
To be surrounded by and in the presence of such a high calibre of high-performance coaches, retired pro players helps to strengthen all areas of tennis in WA and foster connection with National coaches, said Megan.”
Last year 154 coaching scholarships were granted to women, with all of them now working at various levels throughout the tennis community.
Women make up just 28 per cent of tennis coaches nationally, so boosting the numbers and providing women coaches with the tools and support to succeed, is a vital component of Tennis Australia’s Women and Girls strategy.
“I’m delighted to congratulate this terrific group of 20 women from across the country on being awarded coaching scholarships. They’ve already achieved and contributed so much to tennis, and I look forward to following their continued progression,” President and Chair of Tennis Australia Jayne Hrdlicka said.
“Coaches make an invaluable contribution to our sport and by delivering additional learning and growth opportunities for women coaches, we not only make the coaching pathway a more attractive career, there’s also the advantage of attracting and retaining more girls in tennis at all levels.”
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