New Glasgow native honoured for service

For Eric Knoester, it all started on the tennis courts on New Glasgow’s west side.

Knoester was one of several honoured for their service to the sport of tennis by the Tennis Professionals Association of Canada.

“It was because of the opportunity to learn the sport on the Westside Tennis Courts 40 years ago that all this happened,” Knoester said in a news release.

Knoester, a former New Glasgow West Side Community Centre tennis player presently living in Victoria, B.C., was this year’s recipient of the TPA Club Professional Excellence Award.

The TPA Excellence Awards were presented at the annual TPA national coaching conference on March 2 in Toronto.

Each year under Knoester’s leadership as Racquet Sports Co-ordinator at Victoria’s Panorama Recreation Centre, the club hosts a $15,000 International women’s tennis event as well as the Victoria International Junior ITF event, which last year featured 90 competitors from nine countries.

Knoester has been working at Panorama for the past 21 years. In addition to his time in Victoria, he has coached tennis in 14 countries around the world, all a payoff from playing tennis on the Westside Community Centre tennis courts in New Glasgow.

“Coaching internationally and directing programs in Victoria for the last 25 years, the West Side and those morning tennis battles with my brother has allowed me to travel the world and enjoy the sport for a lifetime,” he said.