A brand new initiative has been launched to search for the district’s best tennis talent amongst primary school-aged children.
The scheme, which is called find an ace, is being launched by Batchwood Tennis Centre.
It is one of the first developments following the Batchwood site becoming the official LTA regional academy, one of only 11 centres in the UK to receive the prestigious status.
The high performing team have been recognised as the best in practice in Great Britain for its player pathway from the school playground to international tennis.
Dan Smith, who heads up talent identification and the academy’s schools tennis network, said: “We’re making our district wide talent search bigger and better than ever before and are passionately searching for the next stars of the future.
“In fact, many of our current national and international players first picked up a racket with us in their school environment as young children.
“The support so far from head teachers has been fantastic and we can’t wait to introduce our amazing sport to thousands more local children.”
As part of the scheme, Batchwood will be offering several scholarships on programmes to selected boys and girls through LTA-funded talent spotting sessions.
These are being offered to all primary schools and nurseries in the district.
And those children who take up the offer of tennis at their school will receive certificates and progress reports as well as the chance to show off new skills to their parents in open parent sessions.
LTA head regional coach Sarah Hylton said: “St Albans’ residents are so lucky to have one of the country’s leading tennis programmes on their doorstep.
“They have a proven track record of taking children from their first experience of tennis in their school to international tennis, while gaining a hobby for life.
“I would encourage every school in the district to get onboard.”
For more details on the initiative and to find out how your child can get involved, contact Dan Smith at dan.smith@winningways.me or call him on 07754 016 067.
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