We have a thriving tennis community on campus covering every aspect of tennis from social programmes to professional coaching and our amazing accessible tennis opportunities. Our tennis programme was recently nominated for six categories at the county-level LTA (Lawn Tennis Association) awards evening. The nominations were:
- University of the Year – University of Kent
- Young Person of the Year – Roxanne Dougall
- Coach of the Year – Nick Skelton
- Performance Coach of the Year – Sun Keon Lee
- Official of the Year – Sophie Kitson
- Junior Performance Team of the Year – Ruben Harris (GB Boys Wheelchair Team)
We are absolutely thrilled to come away from the awards having won four out of the six nominated categories. Testament to the incredible work happening at the Kent Indoor Tennis and Events Arena.
Winner – University of the Year
We were awarded University of the Year based on the variety and quality of our Student Tennis delivery and also for the high attendances to staff tennis, the growing Community Tennis and Cardio tennis programmes and additions to our inclusive tennis projects on Wheelchair tennis, Visually Impaired Tennis and a partnership with a local Learning Disability group.
Runner-up – Young Person of the Year and Coach of the Year
Roxanne and Nick both got Runner up in their categories. Roxanne has inspired students through her Vice-President role on the student society as well as being a coach and organiser for Kent Sport. She regularly has full sessions for the Sunday Social Tennis, Cardio Tennis and has proved to be very capable with any challenges that arise on the tennis court! All whilst studying Law away from home, working two jobs and being a very proactive member of the Student Society (and playing in our promotion – winning ladies 1st team this year!).
Nick is our Tennis Development Manager and drives the tennis programme forward whilst trying to cater for the wide range of people who play. Notable activities last year include what is surely the first ever ‘Wombles of Wimbledon tennis festival’, wheelchair tennis development, staff tennis team challenges, school festivals, working with Ellen Tribley at various international tournaments and the US Open, and a fine array of cheesy jokes.
Winner – Performance Coach of the Year
Sun won Performance Coach of the Year against some strong and well known nominees. Sun has had an incredible year. He arrives most days for 7am sessions with his players and it’s clear to see that his strong coaching principles are adapted for the individualities of each person – it really comes across that he develops life skills as well as world class tennis coaching. Just this weekend, one of his players, Iris Grosso, won an ITF tournament in Liverpool. His players have had great results all year, too many to list here which really evidences the quality of the work they’ve been doing on the training court with their coach.
Winner – Official of the Year
Sophie Kitson won Official of the Year! Sophie was our student society president from 2022 to 2023 who notably was a Line Umpire for the last Wimbledon men’s final to have Line Umpires – she really is a superstar in her own right on the tennis officiating circuit! This category also had some well known nominees and we are so happy for Sophie and proud to see her building a career for herself in Tennis – she currently works for BUCS in a partnered role with the LTA to organise their tennis programme nationwide and still managed to shoehorn in all her officiating outside of that role – truly inspiring!
Winner – Junior Performance Team of the Year
Ruben and the GB Boys Wheelchair Team won the Junior Performance Team of the Year following their success in the World Team Cup last year, beating USA in a thrilling final held in Turkey. That was Ruben’s last year in juniors and we are very proud to continue supporting him as an honorary Kent Sport member as he ventures into the Seniors (he’s already won his first 2 senior titles in Lithuania and Czech – go Ruben!).
Huge congratulations to all the winners and runners-up for their outstanding contribution to tennis at the University of Kent. We can’t wait to see what the next year brings!
If you’re even a little inspired or tempted by this news to try tennis, you can get involved with our inspiring tennis team by visiting our Tennis at Kent webpage. We have sessions for students, staff, local people, wheelchair tennis, Cardio Tennis (you should definitely try this at least once!) and more! Contact Nick with any questions N.Skelton@kent.ac.uk