A new Australian Tennis Foundation program is helping to inspire brighter futures for young people through tennis in Central Australia.
Central Australia, 26 October 2022 | Mike Sexton
The community of Soapy Bore lies three hours from Alice Springs in the Utopia Homelands of Central Australia. It is made up of half a dozen houses, a grassless football field and a one-room school and this year it became the most remote part of Australia to have its first taste of tennis.
“I had one student ask me what this game was called,” said Zac Murfet, who runs the after-school sports program. “He had never seen it before.”
Under a clear outback sky, a small net was stretched out and racquets and balls given to a handful of kids. Although they had no experience of the sport, within minutes they were captivated, and their cries of excitement spread.
The clinic was overseen by Anzac Leidig, who travels hundreds of kilometres each year through the Northern Territory running the Indigenous program for Tennis NT. His work takes him from the tropical Tiwi Islands off the northern coast to Soapy Bore and almost everywhere in between.
Rarely is there a tennis court to play on – instead he adapts, setting up to play wherever he can, such as gyms, carparks, school halls or even roads.
As a coach he can’t help but spot the natural talent, but finding a potential champion isn’t his reward.
“I see these Indigenous kids come out of their shell,” he said. “Some take longer because everyone is different, but it is my favourite thing to see the kids slowly come over say hello and then maybe ask for a hand. That growth towards feeling comfortable in your own skin, that is my favourite part.”
The tennis program called Jintangka Kamparru (Forward Together) spreads over nine Aboriginal communities in Central Australia and is a partnership between the Australian Tennis Foundation, Tennis NT and Wanta Aboriginal Corporation.
The program is funded for four years by the Australian Tennis Foundation – Tennis Australia’s official charity – as part of its aim to inspire brighter futures for children and young people through tennis.
The young people living in desert communities face social and economic challenges rarely seen in other parts of the country.
One of the main roles of Wanta is to work with young Aboriginal people to get them into school and one of the tools used is sport and recreation. Each school term a sport is…
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