Academy shapes young budding
Kempele hosts tournament at Kingsridge High for the talented
YOUNG tennis talent in the King William’s Town region will enjoy a day of tennis action when a youth day tournament is held at Kingsridge High School (KHS) for girls today.
The tournament hosted by Tennis South Africa (TSA) registered pro tennis coach David Kempele, will attract youth from a host of primary schools around the district.
“This tournament is the first of its kind and is specially for the youth from rural areas and townships, like Bhisho, Zwelitsha, Dimbaza, Schorneville, and rural areas around Balasi as far as Kei Road,” said Kempele.
“This is a is a development competition involving 20 primary schools around KWT District with approximately 70 learners aged 10, 12 and 13 taking part.”
The programme was initiated by the David Kempele Tennis Academy which is a registered tennis school based at KHS.
“It involves a red ball to make tennis easy to learn and small racquets and nets which can be folded and carried,” said Kempele.
“This equipment is used in rural areas and schools where there are no facilities, using open spaces so that teachers and learners can play.”
A host of games will take place during the morning, with all taking part receiving a chance to play and show what they can do,” he added.
The schools involved in the tournament will also receive equipment to take back to their respective schools and use going forward.
“About 30 educators were trained from 20 primary schools around Buffalo City and Amathole district with the help of an NGO called SCORE from Cape Town,” said Kempele.
“Tennis is a very expensive sport not every child can afford to play it, hence with this programme we want to reach out to those underprivileged kids out there.”
In all, it is set to be an exciting day of tennis action for all involved and Kempele hopes to make it an annual event as it helped the community to introduce more pupils to the sport of tennis.
“Hosting these competitions is to get these learners together once in a while so to let them compete and have fun, and also socialise and learn to know each other, that is why we want to have this tournament to become an annual competition and trying to have some sponsors,” said Kempele.
“We want to thank SCORE for the racquets and nets and KHS for providing lunch packs for the learners.
“This will be a good competition for the learners to improve their forehand and backhand skills and also to learn the rules of the game.”