It's 'Game, Set and Match' for Ellesmere
College who have won the prestigious 'Education Award (School/School Provider)' for the Midlands
Region in the 2021 LTA Tennis awards - and it doesn't end there.
The College
will now do battle with the best of England, Wales and Scotland at the national
award finals to be held virtually on June 24. It follows
on from being named the best in Shropshire as County Award Winner - one of just
38 across the UK.
Claire
Brown, the LTA's Head of Region - Midlands, said: "Congratulations to Ellesmere
College on behalf of the LTA for winning this award. It is an incredible
achievement and rightly acknowledges all they do for tennis and the community."
A spokesman
for the LTA Tennis Awards team added: "This is a very special achievement and
Ellesmere College should be immensely proud. The LTA
Tennis Awards are designed to reward and recognise exceptional contributions
made at the grassroots level of our sport. Without Ellesmere College and the work they and their fellow winners do,
people in Great Britain simply wouldn't be able to play tennis and experience all
the joy that tennis brings to people's lives and communities."
About Tennis At Ellesmere
Ellesmere
College has long operated a pathway to elite coaching programme and over the last four years, they have held a comprehensive tournament
programme at their LTA approved state of the art Tennis
Centre at the College, which was adapted to become Covid compliant over
the past year. As inter-school competitions were cancelled, Ellesmere College
increased the number of its own tournaments on site to give players
opportunities to compete. As the Covid restrictions
relax, the College will resume its highly successful community programme
including links with local schools and clubs.
At the state-of-the-art facilities, over 100
students receive private coaching each week,
48 players are in development and performance squads, all students in the
school do tennis in PE lessons and tennis is available as an option in GCSE PE.
Players
from the Academy have progressed to represent their County and National teams,
and achieve National or World rankings. Through Tennis Smart the College also offers a player progression pathway for
students to apply for scholarships to play and study
at American Universities.
Stephen
Welti, Senior Performance Coach and Director of Tennis at the College Tennis
Academy, said: "The LTA Tennis Awards are a flagship programme for recognising
achievements and promoting the sport on a national level, so to have won both
county and regional awards is a major honour. It
reinforces the College Tennis Academy's position as one of the leading schools
in the region and we look forward to the national awards ceremony with great excitement
in June."
"Ellesmere
College has a great reputation as a centre of sporting excellence, a tribute to
the ongoing efforts, commitment and hard work of the school, coaches and
students who continuously strive to be the very best. We are
delighted to have achieved so much and that this has been recognised in this
way by the LTA - the leading light for tennis development in this country."
The LTA
Tennis Awards highlight the achievements and contributions of people to the
sport in Britain - recognising the many thousands of inspirational individuals,
schools, clubs, coaches, officials and LTA approved tournaments.
For more
information on the Tennis Academy at Ellesmere College visit: Ellesmere Tennis Academy
25th May 2021 Back to News