Junior Tennis Program
Our coaches give lessons to juniors from 6-17. Their philosphy is to make learning fun and not to place too much pressure on the kids.
An important step in the development of a player is their entry into competition. Our coaches actively encourage and support all their coaching students to join in, when they are “ready”. For those who are not coached at the club, we can arrange a “try out”, to see if the player is ready for junior comp and to assess what team they should be in. It is always an exciting moment for juniors, to play their first match in Junior competition.
Our club enters teams in the Eastern Region ( ERT ) run competition. Teams on Saturday and Sunday mornings are available in boys, girls and mixed sections. Matches involve teams of 4 players on Saturdays and 3 players on Sundays, playing 2 sets of doubles and one set of singles over a 14 week plus Finals season.
The Juniors at South Hawthorn Tennis Club are known as the “South Hawks”
There are 2 seasons each year ( summer and Winter ) with breaks during the school holidays.
Entry for the Winter season is usually open from January to the end of February, with play running from May to September. Click here for registration form for the Winter season.
Entry for the Summer season is usually open from June to the beginning of July, with play running from October to March. Entry forms can be found in the Competition Registration section of this site.
At the end of each season the club gives trophies for the MVP from each team and “long service” awards for players who have represented the club for 8 seasons. The club also awards the “Bascomb Trophy” for girls and the “Don Mann” Trophy for boys, to players who have reached a high s tandard and have made a significant contribution to the tennis program at the club.
For players who make it to section 1 teams, the club can enter them in the Tennis Victoria run, “Junior Pennant” competition, as representatives of Eastern Region Tennis. Junior Pennant is a 10 week plus finals season, on Sunday mornings in the second half of the year.
Eastern Region Tennis also runs Junior tournaments every year. Details of these tournaments can be found on the ERT web site www.ertinc.org.au and we will endevour to keep details on our web site as well. All of these activities are very helpful in developing the game of Juniors. When our Juniors have “outgrown” Junior comp, our coaches can arrange to find adult teams of the appropriate standard. The club has some Saturday teams entered in the Waverley district, Eastern Region and Bayside region and can enter teams on Sunday afternoons in the Summer, Senior section of ERT.
The Junior program at South Hawthorn is run by Junior Convenor Dylan Edgley.
Other contributers to the Junior Program include Sue Davey and John Best. We welcome any parent who would like to help Dylan in the running of the Juniors and make a contribution to the club. Please contact Dylan Edgley for futher details juniorconvenor@southhawthorntennisclub.com.