Centreville Primary ‘plays tennis’ for fourth week

By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

CENTREVILLE Primary School students have made great strides since partaking in The Bahamas Lawn Tennis Association’s (BLTA) Play Tennis programme for the spring session.

The group of kids have been spending their Saturday mornings at the National Tennis Centre (NTC) courtesy of their very own physical education teacher, Sherline Moss.

The primary school students have been training at the tennis facility since early May and have steadily improved their basic tennis skills.

Although the school is no stranger to the sport as their debut to the programme was in 2017, the physical education teacher talked about how the BLTA got the primary school back on board this time around.

“This would actually be the second time that Centreville Primary has been involved in an initiative like this.

“Our first time would have been in 2017 where impact tennis came onto campus and conducted a course for eight weeks during my PE classes,” she said.

Moss added that when Michelle Armbrister reached out to her and the school’s principal as a means to sponsor the students to the Play Tennis programme, she saw it as an opportunity for them to rekindle the flame and get the kids acclimated to another sport outside of the school’s curriculum.

The goal of the BLTA is to expose tennis to those who normally do not have access to the sport, to teach them the basic fundamentals, and to spark and develop their interest in a fun, educational way.

After a month on the tennis courts at the NTC, Moss has noticed some impressive improvements by the students of her school as a result of BLTA’s community programme.

“They are becoming more comfortable with the movements of the game, are better able to manipulate the tennis racquet.

“So I am happy about that and they have been more and more excited week after week about having to come out and get some practice in,” the teacher said.

Her final message to all local physical education teachers was to give it a try, particularly for the primary school students, and to take advantage if the opportunity presents itself to get them exposed to sports other than basketball and volleyball as persons are willing to invest in the children.

Perry Newton, president of the BLTA, reminded the public that the association does not only offer a youth Play Tennis community programme but there are sessions for adults as well.

“Our overall introductory programme for beginners is our Play Tennis programme that initially catered to ages 5-18 but we have since added an adult portion which allows parents to take advantage, while their kids are being taught tennis, they can learn how to play the sport as well,” Newton said.

The president said the main focus of BLTA is to make tennis a family sport so that parents, kids and other relatives can play against each other to have a family-oriented activity.

The introductory cost for adults is $7 and classes are held on Saturday mornings at 9am.