09 Nov 2014

Tennis has been played in Botswana for many years, but it remains among the sporting codes still struggling to gain wide recognition among Batswana.

Unlike football, softball, athletics, netball, or volleyball, few players in Botswana chose tennis as their preferred sport from a young age.

In order to encourage their pupils to take up tennis as a sport, an association of sports for private schools has established a tennis development programme aimed at grooming players at a young age.

The Southern CHOPS (Committee of Heads of Private Schools) Sports Association’s tennis development programme has been running for the past three years, according to Shelton Benzah, who is the treasurer of the association.

He said through the 10 months programme, which runs from February to November every year, pupils aged between five and 10-years-old in private schools are taught basic tennis skills every week. The programme culminates with a one day tournament where winners in different age groups are awarded medals.

“Our development tennis programme targets students aged 10 years and below coming in to be coached by qualified coaches. We have two coaches who move around the schools every week to make sure that they have at least one hour with a group of 15 students per centre,” said Benzah who is also a teacher at North Side Private School.

Benzah said the coaches, Freedom Tapera and Thabo Nokane, also impart coaching skills on teachers who also handle the young players.

Schools involved in the programme this year were North Side, Tlokweng Day Spring, Baobabo, Legae, Thornhill, Crescent, Acarcia, and Broadhurst.

He said they follow the International Tennis Federation’s play and stay programme, where a softer and slower ball is used to allow pupils time to react to the ball and retain it in play.

Benzah explained that the association stresses that two-thirds of players in every centre must be girls. 

“We are doing this in order to encourage the girl child’s participation in tennis by catching them at a young age instead of having a situation where boys are always dominating every sport,” said Benzah.

He further stated that their other objective is to produce players that can feed into the Botswana Tennis Association structures and end up representing the country at international level.

He said one of their products, Tshegofatso Tsiang, was already doing well in tennis and has won a scholarship through the BTA programmes.

Benzah paid a glowing tribute to their sponsor Komatsu, which has been sponsoring the programme for a long time.

Komatsu has this year sponsored the programme with P80 000. “The money is used to pay the two development coaches for administration of the programme, feeding of players and officials, buying of equipment and medals. Komatsu has been generous to tennis,” he addedsaid.

The one-day tournament attracted  over 100 players from eight schools. Players were divided into groups and finalists in each category were awarded medals. 

The winners of gold medals were as follows: Ratsoma, Arnold Bleskit, Somika Bilayan, Daphney Mwobobai, Anthony Kealeboga, Merrylin Sibanda, Maria Alula and Cindy Kefaleng.

Silver medal winners were; Emilyn Sibanda, Gumbungani Maphosa, Vongwaishe Chari, Dorah Mooketsi, Katlego Kashiwa, and Oratile Ramonaka.

Botswana Tennis Association secretary general Boikobo Gaolebalwe praised the programme by private schools, saying it was an important component of tennis development. He encouraged the coaches, teachers and parents to continue encouraging the young players so that they could continue playing tennis. ENDS