Western Australia has celebrated a decade of travelling to the Border’s leading junior tennis event at this year’s Margaret Court Cup.
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The 15-member squad consists of youngsters from Perth, Albany Geraldton and Narrogin, who have enjoyed the exposure of playing in the respected annual tournament in 2017.
Albany Tennis Academy coach David Kerr took a group of 16 on a California college tour in the US early last year, with start of the Australian summer of tennis capping off a busy 12 months.
“A couple of the older guys will hopefully look to go to college in the next year and a half,” Kerr said.
“If they do the right thing, they’ve got the world at their feet.”
While travelling long distances for tennis has become the norm for most of the group, four members of the squad are away from home for the first time.
“It’s good experience for them,” Kerr said.
“That’s where the older kids come in and look after the younger ones.
“WA is a little fishbowl of a tennis community, so it’s great to get the exposure and come over here.”
Being a proud AFL state, the Western Australians have also arranged a trip to North Melbourne’s training facility at Arden Street with the help of Albany product, Declan Mountford, who spent his first year at the club last season.
“He’s going to give us a tour of Arden Street and let us view a training session,” Kerr said.
“He actually came on this tour with us five years ago and we did a Collingwood tour with Tarkyn Lockyer, who I went to school with.
“He was pretty inspired by that and went on to get signed by North Melbourne.”
Mountford was taken at pick 60 by the Kangaroos in the 2015 AFL National Draft.
“He should make his debut this year because he killed it in the reserves last year,” Kerr said.
“It’s great because he did the tour and has put back into the sport.
“Tarkyn was a jet tennis player through school and went on to do the same thing.
“He worked hard, got drafted to Collingwood and played 250 games and is still involved.”
Kerr added while the players travel to several of tournaments interstate, the Margaret Court Cup is the biggest and the best around.
“We’ve had some kids come back five or six years in a row,” he said.
“They love the tournament, love the area and we always end up at the Australian Open for a couple of days at the end as a bit of a reward for the kids.”
Western Australia finished runner-up in division one of the teams event last Thursday.
The group will stay for the Victorian Junior Grasscourt Championships in Wodonga, starting on Wednesday.