THIRTY-FOUR teams will be taking part in the 2015 Access Financial Services/Proven Wealth High School Tennis Championships, which started on Thursday and ends tomorrow at the Eric Bell Tennis Centre.

The launch of the teams championships was held at the offices of Access Financial Services Limited on Half-Way-Tree Road earlier this week where the draw and seedlings were done for the boys’ and girls’ Under-19, and the boys’ and girls’ Under-15 team competitions. Approximately 300 players were down to participate in the four-day tournament.

Nine teams were to contest the boys’ Under-19 competition, including defending champions Hillel Academy, last year’s runners-up Wolmer’s, Campion College, Ocho Rios High, St George’s College, Ardenne High, Jamaica College, Kingston College, and American International School of Kingston (AISK).

Eight schools were to contest the girls’ Under-19 team event, which has last year’s first-time champions Montego Bay High seeded at number one over many-time champions Immaculate Conception High, Campion College, Wolmer’s, St Andrew High For Girls, Holy Childhood High, American International School of Kingston, and Hampton School.

Seven schools were to take part in the boys’ Under-15 category with Hillel Academy as the defending champions, Campion College, Wolmer’s, St George’s College, Jamaica College, Ardenne High and American International School of Kingston.

Defending champions Campion College were seeded at number one in the girls’ Under-15 category that included Immaculate Conception, Wolmer’s, St Andrew High For Girls, Hillel Academy, Ocho Rios, Holy Childhood, Mount Alvernia, and Hampton School.

Richard Russell, chairman of the tournament committee, said the best of Jamaica junior players are expected to showcase their skills and the championships promises to be very exciting.

“This is the cream of the crop of Jamaica’s future players who will be in action and will be looking forward to see these young players doing their best,” said Russell.

Meanwhile, Deveta McLaren, marketing manager of Access Financial Services, said this is the second year her company will be sponsoring this event, although it has sponsored other tournaments.

“This is also part of nation-building and development of the youth, and also promotes discipline and leadership, and we are very proud to be part of the event,” said McLaren, who said the players should play hard and have fun and display good sportsmanship throughout the tournament.

Ryan Reid, head of wealth management at Proven Wealth, said he was extremely proud to be a part of this event as it promotes national development, especially in sports.

Access Financial Services presented their sponsorship cheque of $200,000, while Proven Wealth presented $150,000. The other sponsors are Hi-Lyte Sports Drink, Tastee Limited, Rainforest Foods Limited.