Yesterday marked the end of a very successful one-week intensive tennis training camp in Freeport, Grand Bahama. IC Bahamas wanted to reach out to Grand Bahama and inspire our young talent pool there to further develop their game. Neil Mactaggart from IC Bahamas stated, “After hurricane Dorian and now COVID, our juniors needed encouragement and support.” IC selected the kids based on their previous performance in the Bahamas Lawn Tennis Association (BLTA) sanctioned IC Winterbotham Junior Series. An invitation was extended to the top performers in Freeport amongst the 8-13 year-olds in Grand Bahama(also Kofi Bowe 16).
Veteran coach and decorated Fed Cupper Larikah Russell and Rodney Carey Jr.(former Davis cupper) coordinated the week-long training camp in conjunction with IC Bahamas. These coaches are highly talented and skilled and IC is grateful for their supervision and coaching. Benefitting from Larikah’s and Rodney’s skill and experience were Noah Russell, Tatyana Madu, Joleen Stan Busic, Jerald Carroll, Kayla Fox and Kofi Bowe as they accepted the invitation to participate in the tennis training camp.
IC Junior Series which made its debut in January 2018 has increased tournament play in the specific age groups for Bahamian juniors. There are 5 tournaments a year that are included on the BLTA scheduled calendar, 1 in Freeport and 4 in Nassau. The IC Junior Tournament hosted at Bahamar last year featured 47 participants in the 10 and 12 under categories. IC has also attracted competitors to fly in from Ecuador and the US.
Mr Mactaggart spoke briefly about IC Bahamas giving back, last year they assisted in granting 10 $250 travel vouchers to Brajaxba kids to attend a camp in Bradenton, Florida. They have also made charitable donations, to Eleuthera, Freeport and Nassau. IC Bahamas has also garnered sponsorship internationally from The Little Mo foundation for 5 free entries into their tournaments assessed at $220 per entry.
The IC Bahamas Junior Series has provided many opportunities and will continue to organize similar tournaments sanctioned by the BLTA for increased competition and matchplay for our juniors.
