East Glos scoops three county tennis awards

East Glos has won three out of 12 awards presented at the Gloucestershire LTA Annual Awards, held at their AGM on Monday 4th December 2017.

The Gloucestershire Awards are the start of the British Tennis Awards process, with the winners of Gloucestershire going through to the South West Regional Awards and winners of that going through to the National British Tennis Awards.

The following were presented with the following awards by wheelchair Paralympian Louise Hunt.

Female Coach of the Year: Esther Curtis.Esther

Esther has coached at East Glos and this years passed her level 4 senior performance coaching qualification.

She has taken numerous players through to county standard and beyond, and acts as a tremendous role model for girls at the club, heading up our all girls’ initiatives at 8, 9 & 10 & under age groups.

Esther captains the Gloucestershire Ladies and under 18 girls’ teams.

Mary Eyre Junior Boy Player of the Year: Sammy Vrabtchev.

Sammy, 15, has an outstanding passion towards his tennis both as a player and when he helps out with younger children on the coaching programme. Sammy dedicates his weeks to his training and travels across Europe playing competitions. He recently won the Gloucestershire County Championships 16 & under singles title. He has had some outstanding success in competition including winning the 18 & under Edgbaston Priory grade 3 event in August this year.

Sammy is a role model both on and off the court. He has worked hard on his concentration and positive mentality when playing and the hard work is paying off. He teaches these positive values to the young mini red players whom he helps on the East Glos coaching programme every week and displays role model like behaviour in his squads.

Community Programme of the Year – Montpellier & Pittville Park Community Programme.

The Montpellier and Pittville Parks Community Programme was set up in 2016 to get more people playing tennis more often. The coaching programme is delivered and run by East Glos Club coaches Mark (pictured right) and Tom Jacobsen. East Glos works in partnership with the LTA and In the Park who manage the park cafes and court bookings.

Mark and Tom have grown the programme to around 120 regular weekly attendees through the spring and summer months

The programme caters for all, including Cardio Tennis, Tennis Tuesdays, Mini Tennis, Advantage Tennis and Tennis for Kids.

The programme offers affordable tennis to members of the community to engage them in our sport and to provide easy access.

The link with East Glos provides participants of the parks programme with a more substantial option as their need becomes greater.