18 Sep 2024

Botswana Tennis Association (BTA) will send three coaches to the ITF regional coaches’ conference to be held in Cape Town, South Africa from September 20 to 22. 

The coaches are Wellington Sibanda, who is running a junior kids programme in Chobe that is sponsored by Chobe Holdings and Kelebogile Monnayo, who is based in Gaborone and has been in charge of the girls U12 and U14 national teams as well as Moeng College-based coach, Tolamo Marebola, who is also running junior tennis programmes in conjunction with the BTA.

BTA president, Oaitse Thipe said  in an interview that some of the topics that would be discussed at the conference included among others, creating a competitive mindset, transforming tennis in Africa and innovative approaches to holistic players’ development.  

Thipe said the conference would also discuss topics such as how to increase the amount of ball contact in one hour during training in the under six and under eight methodology. 

Meanwhile, the BTA, which was recently upgraded to Botswana National Sport Commission Tier 1 category, continues to make strides and came up with robust development programmes as well as empowering coaches and administrators. 

Recently, two of their board members, vice president Nonofo Othusitse and Atang Mokgware, were appointed by the Confederation of African Tennis (CAT) as members of the CAT Davis Cup, Billie Jean King Cup Africa, Commission and 2024-2025 CAT Administrative and Finance Commission respectively. 

Othusitse said their appointment was a show of confidence on their leadership’s abilities, experience and expertise. 

He said it was an indication that tennis was on the right path and had shown growth not only on tennis, but sport in general in Botswana.  

“The benefits are enormous. To serve in a continental board such as this one gives us credibility and visibility within the international tennis community. 

We further stand to benefit as we get to understand and appreciate the CAT operations better,” he said. Ends