Recently elected GTA aims to spread Tennis & attract more fans

Apr 25, 2021 Sports

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By Sean Devers

Kaieteur News – With the proactive Minister of Culture, Youth & Sports Charles Ramson Jr Upgrading Lawn Tennis to a core sport in Guyana, new President of Guyana Tennis Association (GTA) Christy Campbell and her team has big plans to spread the game and to make the sport more attractive to fans.

“I travelled on a few occasions with the national team…Afruka (Gentle) was on a few of the teams while Vice-president Nigel (Niles) travelled as well and what I observed was that it was not the case that the Guyanese players don’t have the talent to match with the overseas players but their fitness and mental levels were not on par. So I thought maybe I could formulate a plan and act on the foundation that the past Administrations would have laid to take Tennis to unlocked levels,” informed Campbell, who along with1st Vice-President Nigel Niles and Secretary Delon Fraser were guests on last Wednesday Night’s Sean Devers Sports Watch on Kaieteur Radio.
“The issue was never about Administration we had strong Administration… what was lacking was Governmental support. But I believe now that we have a young and vibrant Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, the honourable Charles Ramson who has been extremely supportive to our sport. We have a new facility almost completed and I believe that’s a plus for Tennis,” Campbell, a five-time National Champion, continued.
“Now that Tennis has been upgraded as core sports in Guyana, we have a greater appreciation for the sport and it’s open to a whole new group of young people and other people who have not been so interested in the sport because they might think that the sport is just tied to only a chosen few could play the sport who have the finances to play the sport. When I first joined tennis that’s what I also thought.

We will now see a wider spectrum of persons appreciating the sport for what it is and now it will even be in the schools, hopefully as a full part of the school curriculum,” posited Fraser, the garrulous GTA Secretary.
Niles informed that the pandemic has been a big challenge for the GTA since from when Guyana first encountered Covid, all outdoor activates were shut down.
“We had clubs with numerous members who could not get the chance to play Tennis as normal. We are happy now that there has been some relaxation in the rules so now we are allowed to go out and play again.
To take Tennis forward in Guyana we need facilities. The Racket Centre is undergoing a very good upgrade right now, but the GTA still struggles to host tournaments because the only facilities we have are private and we have to ask in advance to use those facilities to host tournaments.
We have a lot of active clubs that need facilities to play Tennis in Guyana so I think that is one of the immediate needs we have right now. We are thankful for what Minister Ramson is doing for our sport and elevating it into a core sports means that more persons will become interested in the sport and become open to more persons and we expect to see more people participating in the sport in years to come.
We need more facilities…at our last elections four clubs had in excess of 50 members, while our club has 93 members. There is a lot of interest in tennis and with this initiative from Minister Ramson we hope others will come on board to help us to get more facilities,” said Niles.
It was disclosed that in addition to the Racket Centre, there is a Tennis court at Diamond (GBTI) on the East Bank, at the National Park, in Bel Air (GBTI), a few on the East Coast, one in Skeldon, one in New Amsterdam and one in Essequibo.
Campbell said very soon she would like her executives visit Berbice to identify a spot for a Court for developing a facility there, adding that with the Le Ressouvenir club withdrawing from the GTA, there are presently 11 Tennis clubs in Guyana including GCC which has been a member of the GTA since the 1980s but was not allowed to vote in the recent elections.
The GTA head spoke about the involvement of schools to attract young children to tennis and explained that the ITF sponsors a JTI programme which takes tennis into the schools as a part of their curriculum activities.
“The JTI coordinator is former National player and Tennis Coach Shelly Daley who is doing a great job, while the systems in the schools is actually to scout players and encourage them to join tennis outside of the school and subsequently fall into the National programme,” Campbell added.
“There is a Court at Marion Academy and the Junior programme helps us to find talent and how tennis is set right now, clubs are members of the GTU. We encourage parents to have their kids join clubs so they could be able to play more often outside of school.
The Coaches of the Clubs have scheduled times to use the Courts at the National Park and also the Racket Centre whenever that becomes available to us again. Each club has a scheduled time to be at these facilities to train the kids. We encourage parents to seek out the GTA to see which club is closest to them,” informed Niles.
In the 1980s and 90s sports in Schools were well structured with PE Teachers being employed at the Public schools and the students had to participate in every sport unless the child provided a ‘Medical’ to exempt them from sporting activates. Today only the Private school place any level of importance on sports to provide a balance for Academics with some students writing as much as 22 CXC subjects.
“It’s important to balance sports with academics. In my schooldays we had Physical Education and sport was a must. Every Wednesday we had cricket and everyone had to be out of your classes. We had a big ground at the Campbellville Secondary and football was a big thing… we also played table Tennis and athletics.
It is sad to know that we would have gone past that stage with the advent of technology. Kids spend so much time now on their phone and I-Pads and are being encouraged to be more academically inclined that they don’t have time to participate in sports.
I think the balancing of sports and academics must return. Tennis is the perfect sport to get your coordination working, it’s a social activity, it’s mentally stimulating and most important for young people, Tennis is fun,” noted Fraser.
Campbell informed that the GTA plans to have a meeting with the Minister of Education and the Tourism Minister to come up with ways to grow tennis and make it a part of Sports tourism in Guyana.
“In several Countries you find an influx of people travelling for sporting events like Motor Racing, Cycling, Squash, Cricket excreta. We also want to collaborate with both Ministers to see how we can push tennis further,” Campbell posited.
The GTA executives said for those ‘older’ players, who mostly play for recreation, to stay in the sport competitively, more prize money has to be at stake and the sport needs to be more visible; like local cricket and Football which are always in the news and this is not so with Tennis. We need more media coverage of tennis.
“We use social Media to promote our tournament but with the new look Racket Centre soon to be completed we hope we can encourage more people to come and watch tennis. With the lights installed now we can have tournaments in the evenings once the Pandemic is under control so that people can come after work like in the USA Open. We have to market and promote tennis so that we can attract more of the ‘older’ people back to the sport,” Niles stated.
The GTA is expected to look at Coaching development, selection of the National teams and the naming of sub-committees at a meeting that was held Friday.

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