Parents Slam “Inexperienced” National Team Coaches

NASSAU, BAHAMAS – Parents of junior national tennis players who travelled on two recent trips say the inexperience of the coaching staff led to poor performances, and nearly caused one boys team to be disqualified from play.

Jared Higgs has their story.

This group of parents all dream of having their child play grand slam tennis one day but instead they find themselves slamming the coaching selection of two recent national team trips.

On those junior national trips to El Salvador and the Dominican Republic, the parents say coaches without experience or expertise dealing with high-performance players were selected, despite high-level coaches being available.

Chandra Ferguson, whose daughter is 14 and went on both trips, says the inexperience affected the players’ performance.

Another parent, William McCartney III, says similar issues with coach selection emerged on another trip to the Dominican Republic.

On that trip, the boy’s team was nearly disqualified for going into the common area of the girls accommodations to study, which was against tournament rules. That information was supposed to be relayed to the players by their coach, but the concerned parents say that didn’t happen.

The group of parents says their children train with high-level coaches and they weren’t satisfied that most of the coaches selected don’t coach high-level players.

The parents say they make significant sacrifices- financial and time- for their children to play tennis at the national level.

Our news reached out to Bahamas Lawn Tennis Association (BLTA) President Perry Newton jr. for comment.

Ferguson, who was on the ground during both trips, says they made the issues known.