From National Tennis Champ to Outstanding Coach… Shelly Daly-Ramdyhan is a ‘Special Person’

Jul 12, 2015 News

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“I just knew that anything I applied myself to I would be able to do it and do it well.”

By Sharmain Grainger

Coming from a modest background was certainly not a prerequisite to delve into and excel in the perceived ‘elitist’ sport of lawn tennis a few decades ago. But Shelly Daly-Ramdyhan was able to defy the odds and become a national tennis champion on multiple occasions in a sport that she was even believed too old to conquer.
Today, at the age of 42, she holds the proud title of National Coach among other prestigious titles in the lawn tennis arena.
Daly-Ramdyhan first stepped onto a tennis court at the age of 18, when most of her competitors were doing so before their teenage years.  Embracing the sport was not about status for her, but rather it was a passion that drove her to earnestly practice in her quest to become the best possible player.
Achieving her goal was not without condemnation as she recalled hearing demeaning comments about her tennis-playing aspiration.
“’Why is she wasting her time in this sport at this age? She will get nowhere’,” she remembered hearing one senior person in the fraternity intimate to another.
The remarks reduced the young Shelly to tears, but were not nearly enough to kill her passion for the sport; in fact it might have been the necessary fuel that drove her to success.
Her lawn tennis career officially ‘served-off’ when she turned 19 and she remembers all too well how it all got started. It was through her younger sister, Christina Daly, who was the first in the family to have an interest in lawn tennis.
At the time the sisters were taking dance classes together. But one day after class, Christina disclosed that she, along with a friend, was heading to tennis practice. Shelly was intrigued by the idea and expressed her desire to go too. “I think she (Christina) said no, but I followed them anyway,” recounted a smiling Shelly.
It was there that she would meet William Skeete who would eventually become her tennis coach. Fortunately for her, Coach Skeete was at the time conducting a programme for schools and was happy to allow her to participate.
Although Shelly had little knowledge of tennis, since only few people had the privilege of playing the sport at the time, she was very anxious to learn about it.
Skeete was impressed with her performance and soon she was playing for the Non Pareil Tennis Centre now known as the National Racquet Centre. Within a year and a half Shelly was competing with some of the more seasoned tennis players, and half a year later she was winning tournaments.
She played with such passion that her coach was convinced that she had the potential to even be a champion.
“He saw something in me that I never saw in myself and he kept pushing me,” Shelly recalled.  Being a part of the sport could have been a pricey endeavour for her, but because of the ability she exhibited her coach ensured that her participation was free, especially since there was no way her mother was going to finance that.
She went on to become national tennis champion for four consecutive years during the 1990s, but mostly retained a top spot in the sport throughout the period 1993-1997. Interesting to note, she also found time during that period to indulge in other sports such as basketball and football.
In 1998 her competitive drive eased as she had become pregnant with her first child.
You see during the early stage of her career she had met and eventually married her sweetheart André Ramdyhan. Their union produced three girls – Nicola, Nathalie and Nandanee – all of whom have embraced their mother’s passion for lawn tennis.
But after her first pregnancy, Shelly’s competitive drive resumed – complete with her national top ranking status. She was also selected to represent Guyana in the Caribbean on a number of occasions.
SHIFTING FROM TRADITION
Although she was born on October 13, 1972, to parents Joan Lindo and Charles Henry Daly, Shelly recalled being raised by her mother at a domicile in Durban Street, Lodge, Georgetown. Ms Lindo worked hard to maintain her children. And it couldn’t have been an easy task for her having given birth to 16; Shelly being number 14.
When she was three years old her mother moved the large family to Laing Avenue, West Ruimveldt, Georgetown. Shelly attended both primary and secondary schools in Georgetown before moving on to the Government Technical Institute to further her studies.

She had long become aware that she was raised in an environment that many considered “depressed”, but she was determined not to be limited by this reality.  Added to this, from a very young age she had a desire to be different.
“There wasn’t a lot that my mom allowed us, especially the girls, to do (in terms of sports)…we weren’t allowed to go outside and my mom was very strict,” Shelly recounted.
She recalled however being very intrigued by outdoor sports.
“My eldest brother (now deceased)… he was into football and a couple of other sports…and I developed this passion for ‘ball’ sports,” Shelly intimated. At secondary school she emphasised this interest by joining the female football team.
So it was no surprise that her interest was immediately evoked when she learnt of tennis – yet another ‘ball’ sport.
“What motivated me more to play is when I realised that it was actually being played in Guyana…I remembered seeing Rudy Grant and Harry Panday on national television playing tennis and I was impressed with what I saw,” Shelly related.
In her mind she was convinced that if given a chance she could be just as good as the players she saw on television.
“I just knew that anything I applied myself to I would be able to do it and do it well.”
COACHING CAREER
As a player she was always expected to help groom novices. Moreover, it was a simple task for Shelly to transition to becoming a coach herself around the year 2003. But her coaching career evolved in 2005 following a P & P Insurance Brokers lawn tennis camp.
She was asked to assist the then national coach, Ms Debbie Bunbury, to facilitate a camp for children who wanted to learn to play lawn tennis. Shelly confessed that while at the time she hadn’t a true passion for coaching, after that camping exercise she was convinced that it was the best way she could have given back to the sport that made her into the person she is today.  “The interest that was shown by the parents (of the participating children) for me to continue coaching was overwhelming, and for me that is when I really found my passion for coaching,” she disclosed.
Ever since she has been a coach, catering to the training needs of local tennis players. Although her desire to compete surfaced from time to time, she recognised that it would have been a conflict of interest, since she was training those with whom she’d have to compete with.
“All of my students are the top players, so I couldn’t find myself performing against my students; it just didn’t feel right. So I decided I wasn’t going to compete anymore,” Shelly reflected.
She was however forced out of retirement, though briefly, because of a request from her eldest daughter, Nicola, to compete against her. Nicola currently holds the national champion title and proved to the nation exactly why, when she defeated her trainer/mother.
DEVELOPING TENNIS
Having been a part of the sports arena for more than two decades, Shelly has been able to safely deduce that “a good sports person is not merely based on the fancy clothes you wear or the expensive equipment that you have, it is the passion.”

“My mother could not have afforded to buy anything for me and it was because of the passion I had and the support of my coach, that motivated me to play,” Shelly said. She has been passing on what she learned over the years to her students in the hope that she too could be able to bring out the very best in them. Her career thus far has seen her touching the lives of scores of young people.
In addition to being the National Coach for the Guyana Tennis Association, Shelly is the National Coach of the Park Players Tennis Club and National Coordinator of the lawn tennis programme in Guyana.  She is also currently working on extending programmes outside of Guyana as part of the local effort to foster an evolution of lawn tennis.
While there has not been much support from Government for the sport over the years, Shelly is optimistic that this could change in the very near future.
“I am hoping that the new Government will find the time to look into sports generally, but more so tennis. We were never given that support to expand the sport as we would like because people still see it as an elite sport,” Shelly observed.
This is however not the state of affairs overseas, Shelly explained, in her capacity as an International Tennis Federation (ITF) Coordinator.
As an ITF Coordinator she has been able to travel overseas and witness firsthand the support governments there have been giving to help develop tennis.
“We have sought help many times from the past government and we are using that same approach with the new government. We are hoping they can see our plan, and we have always had a five-year plan, which includes the need for facilities,” Shelly stated. She therefore stressed the need for a tennis centre in Guyana complete with, at the minimum, four tennis courts in one location.
Once tennis is at the recommended place, Shelly is of the firm belief that it has the potential of helping to boost the economy since it would attract more tourists to these parts, as international tournaments could be held here.
“Once they come here and they like what they see, they will come again, and that could be a big boost for our tourism,” added Shelly, whose involvement in tennis over the years and continued efforts in this regard makes her especially deserving of yet another auspicious title – Special Person.

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