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BULAWAYO Tennis Association (BTA) is set to venture into primary schools to promote tennis at grassroots level. In an interview yesterday, BTA chairman Zebediah Mawisire said they engaged the National Association of Primary School Heads last year so they give them the go ahead to recruit players at schools.
“The idea is to promote tennis here in Bulawayo especially at grassroots level, we engaged Naph last year for the go ahead, now we are implementing it.
“Last weekend, we did our first recruitment, we also want to do more than recruiting players, but also to train the coaches from all primary schools, so that they can spread the sport,” he said.
Mawisire said their target is to dominate at national and international events.
“Our aim is not limited to only schools already playing tennis, but all schools in the city, so that we can dominate events such as National Youth Games or even international tournaments,” he said.
Mawisire said they have come up with challenge fixtures set for every two weeks for juniors to play in and compensate for the shortage of tournaments.
“During our meeting last Friday we adopted a programme to keep our youngsters active even when they are no activities like tournaments.
“We lack tournaments here in Bulawayo, so it was suggested that we introduce a fortnightly challenge match programme so that our kids can play regularly,” he said.
Mawisire said this would also be a boost for the youngsters when they participate in the holiday tournaments.
“Most of our tournaments are set for holidays especially nationals, so when the kids are not playing they will be disadvantaged because in South Africa they play every weekend, so the gap between our players and theirs is huge,” he said.
Online Reporter