Free annual tennis camp for children begins tomorrow
Former national lawn tennis player Errol Campbell will be in the island conducting a six-day training camp as he continues to give back and develop the sport he loves so much.
Campbell, who played, captained and coached the Jamaican team, is currently the senior tennis coach at Midtown Tennis Club in New York, and has been doing this for the last four years.
The free training camp begins tomorrow and concludes on Saturday at the University of the West Indies’ (UWI) tennis courts between 10:00 am and 2: 00 pm daily.
As an added bonus this year and to round off the six-day camp, there will be an exhibition match on Saturday at 2:00 pm, featuring five former national representatives — and Victor Rutherford, Errol and Peter Campbell and Kenneth Lawson.
Errol Campbell, who now lives and works in New York City, started playing tennis and learning his trade by making his own board racquet and playing tennis with his wall.
Along with his brothers and a few other children, they got summer jobs as ball boys at the very same UWI tennis courts where they did the honours for the likes of Michael Manley, Eric Bell, Carlyle Dunkley, Barclay Ewart, and Dick Pixley.
The beneficiaries of the annual tennis camp are all children from the August Town area, and as Campbell says: “They just show up every year, learn tennis, enjoy themselves and have a ball in the process.”