Nova Employment treated a group of its trainees to a day of tennis in Windsor this week, giving many of them the opportunity to try out the sport for the first time.
Trainees from Windsor, Richmond, Blacktown, Rouse Hill, Parramatta and Hornsby took part in a professional coaching clinic at Windsor tennis courts under Tony Podesta who recently received a coaching excellence from Tennis NSW.
A spokesperson for Nova said promoting inclusiveness of young people with a disability was paramount to their organisation.
“Being able to take part in social activities, accessing local facilities and encouraging a healthy lifestyle is the key to long term independence and well being - and tennis does all that,” the spokesperson said.
“Some of these trainees had never been on a court before or have ever held a racquet but boy were they competitive.
“We knew we were in for a day of fun when our coaches, Tony and Arvind arrived with a boot full to the brim with racquets, balls, nets and hula hoops, not to mention a barbecue.”
After some warm up games, the trainees were organised in groups of four for half court doubles games with the winners going on to play in the singles championship.
The coaches award went to Bethany (Windsor), Rhys (Blacktown), Farah (Parramatta) and Laura (Rouse Hill). A trainee from each outlet was also chosen by their job coach to receive a participation award.
Trainee, Farah, said she had never held a tennis racquet in her life and found she was quite a natural and Bethany, who had played when she was very young, said she was definitely going to play again and planned on challenging her mum.
The clinic finished with a barbecue which was cooked by Windsor trainee, Alex, who cooked up sausage sandwiches for all.