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NEWS - KTF'S QUEENSLAND ADMINISTRATOR MOVES ON
| Queensland - Published on November 30‚ 2009 |
 BY STEPHEN MURPHY
It seems like only months ago that Susie Norton invited me to succeed Mick Seeney as KTF’s Queensland Administrator. But it is years rather than months, and in fact all too soon the time has come for me to move on.
Being my farewell report in this position, please forgive me if I depart from the usual accounts of the various schools and their KTF programs.
It is a pleasure and privilege to be involved in tennis in Australia. We have an incredible tennis heritage, an exciting environment right now, and numerous talented and passionate people in the sport.
KTF is a wonderful organization. It expresses an Australian egalitarianism – the idea that children from disadvantaged backgrounds should not be excluded from tennis. In Australia, tennis has always been a sport for the masses. Of course, some of our greatest champions came from very humble, if not to say, disadvantaged, circumstances. The schools that some of our champions attended would have qualified for a KTF program, were there a KTF in those days.
It must be the same story around Australia, but in Queensland there are some truly wonderful people applying
themselves to KTF’s mission. How can you put a value on a capable and caring coach going into a disadvantaged school and making a difference to the lives of the kids there? I would like to thank all the coaches who have been part of KTF in Queensland during my time – including Sandra Field, Genevieve Knight, Scott Morgan, Mick Seeney, Kevin Banner, Paul Ladewig (pictured with students from Murphy's Creek State School), Bevan Mulholland and Bill McDonald.
My thanks to everyone at KTF, from chairman Paul McNamee down, for the opportunity to be involved. Like my predecessor I continue to be involved as a coach. I hope in these difficult times that KTF will continue to be supported by sponsors and that primary schools will continue to make space for tennis courts on their grounds. Australia has some wonderful tennis coaches and some of the most extraordinary seem to be in KTF. Long may it continue. Thanks and farewell. |
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