Pacific Daily News
Estimated printed pages: 3
December 22, 2008
Section: SPORTS
Page: 56A
Program gets kids in the swing
Nadia Fernandez Pacific Daily News
Torgun Smith is thrilled to hear the more than 100 kids screaming excitedly to play tennis when he helps
coach the ANZ Tennis Development Program. Smith, along with head coach Lency Tenai and a group of
four other experienced volunteers, have been conducting tennis programs at various schools that may
inspire one of Guam's young students to become the next Roger Federer or Maria Sharapova.
The students are provided the opportunity to play and learn mini-tennis once a week for four weeks under
the ANZ Tennis Development Program that is sponsored by the Australia and New Zealand Group Limited.
The mini-tennis program has been offered around the Pacific region for about 10 years.
Guam's coordinator for the ANZ Tennis Program is Juana 'Jane' Aguon. As a longtime player and tennis
advocate on island and a current member of the Oceania Tennis Federation's executive committee, Aguon
said the primary mission of the program is to increase the number of children who will play tennis in the
Oceania-Pacific region.
"It aims to create awareness and interest in tennis to children aged 6 to 12 years in schools through minitennis," Aguon said via e-mail. "The program also aims to develop the school's physical education staff by
encouraging more varied and fun physical education lessons."
The program was first conducted locally last school year at St. Paul Christian Academy and Santa Barbara
Catholic School. The most recent sessions were held at St. Anthony School and Agana Heights Elementary
School and ended on Dec. 18. The program will resume after Christmas break at Ordot-Chalan Pago
Elementary School and Tamuning Elementary School.
Equipment donated to schools
The equipment for the program is supplied by the International Tennis Federation via its local affiliate, the
GNTF, and is given to the schools after the four sessions are completed. The equipment includes scaleddown plastic tennis rackets, low nets, foam balls which are safe for kids and can be used indoors and court
markers.
"This (kid-friendly equipment) helps the children learn to enjoy the game quickly," Aguon said.
Talented coaches
Lency Tenai, the head coach of the program and the only paid coach, is no newcomer to tennis. In addition
to being an eight-time Oceania Davis Cup team member, he is a past winner of the South Pacific Games
tennis competition and is currently the head coach for the Tennis Association of Guam which runs the tennis
activities at the Hilton Guam Resort & Spa tennis courts. Smith, a former representative for Guam to the
South Pacific Games and former head coach of the Guam national tennis team, is joined by Joe Cepeda,
Pete Cepeda, Rick Ninete, Greg Santos and Chris Blalack in coaching the students. All of the volunteers
bring years of training to the effort.
"The message of the ANZ program is 'tennis is a fun sport that does not require a tennis court to enjoy,'"
Smith said.
The program is officially for groups of about 30 kids, and consists of 30-minute sessions once a week for
four weeks. Smith, along with the other coaches, volunteers and helps Tenai go through each session.
Although the program is supposed to be 30 minutes, they all volunteer for an hour extra to coach the kids.
They also coach as many as 100 kids at a time instead of 30. To organize this many young players, they
divide the kids into smaller groups and do a rotation of different tennis exercises. One of the exercises is
called the 'ANZ serve,'in which all the kids learn the basic service motion as a kind of group exercise.
Growing the sport
"Our mission with the Tennis Academy is to see as many people playing tennis as possible," Smith said.
"Maybe the next No. 1 player would never get exposed to tennis, if not for this program."
Aguon said that if parents want to get their kids involved, they can make arrangements with the school
principals at Ordot Chalan Pago Elementary School or Tamuning Elementary School for next semester's
sessions.
"The ANZ Program wants to insure that more young people have the chance to try tennis and have fun,"
Aguon said.
GET IN THE SWING
What: ANZ Tennis Development Program for kids
When: Next program will start in late January
Where: Ordot Chalan Pago Elementary and Tamuning Elementary schools
Info: Contact principals of Ordot-Chalan Pago Elementary at 477-9645, or Tamuning Elementary at 6468058; or e-mail Jane Aguon at jaaguon@guam.net
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