Tennis Coach Cultivates Young Talent In Kenya’s Slums

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Tennis Coach Cultivates Young Talent In Kenya’s Slums

By James Waterson

Photo Provided By Collins Agwanda

(October 30, 2011) Standing inside the baseline, Collins Agwanda demonstrated a forehand and volley drill as his five young students watched attentively.

After going through the routine a second time, he sauntered to a basket of tennis balls and began hitting them to his players.

The first child to go, a 12-year-old boy, drew his racquet back and deftly swung through the shot and finished over his left shoulder. He followed that in for a forehand volley, but the ball was too far away and he had to awkwardly stretch for it.

The second boy, another 12-year-old but much smaller than the first, was caught off guard as the ball took an awkward bounce over his head. Yet he adjusted well and, despite looking as if the racquet was too heavy, hit the ball cleanly.

“Go! Go! Go!” Agwanda shouted. “You should be on your toes!”

This drill, designed to teach the student how to use the forehand to transition into the net, is used by coaches on public courts and in country clubs across the world.

But Agwanda's court isn't made of cement, nor does it even have a net. Instead, the lines are chalked into rust-orange dirt, the net is a piece of string tied to two posts and there is no fence.

His training ground is an empty lot behind a school in the slums of Kisumu, the third largest city in Kenya located 215 miles northwest of Nairobi.

Agwanda is the 22-year-old director and founder of the Victoria Tennis Academy, an organization that teaches tennis to children aged six to 17 in the poorest areas of town.

Many of his students had never been exposed to the sport before he started his program because tennis had always been a sport for the town's wealthiest people, Agwanda said.

“There are only six courts in Kisumu,” he said. “Tennis is seen as a new sport in (town). Traditionally, tennis was only played in Nairobi.”

In part, that has a lot to do with the town's demographics.

More than half of Kisumu's 530,000 residents live below the poverty line and only 41 percent of its children attend school, according to a study conducted by Kenya's National Coordinating Agency for Population & Development in 2005.

Despite the high level of poverty, Awganda said he wants to show the locals that tennis can be enjoyed by everyone.

“I want (the kids) to at least believe that tennis not just meant for the rich, but that they can do it too,” he said.

Getting Started

Unlike many of his students, Agwanda was educated in a private school. The 22-year-old said he was introduced to tennis by some European friends when he was 17.

He was then coached by Steph Belton, a 22-year-old woman from the United Kingdom, for one month. Belton was one of five players who traveled to Kisumu in 2007 to expose the children from the slums to the game of tennis. The group, Jambo Tennis, worked with high schools to develop tennis programs in the area. But the group broke up after their first trip, and no one ever returned, Agwanda said.

Seeing the impact Belton and her fellow coaches had on the children motivated him to start his own tennis program for kids in need.

“There were few coaches in Kisumu and this motivated me to work with the less fortunate kids of the slums,” he said. “What I came to realize is tennis is a big opportunity … maybe for the players to study in the United States under tennis scholarships.”

In November of 2008, as an 18-year-old senior in high school, Agwanda founded the Victoria Tennis Academy with two of his classmates.

He said the initial goal was to reach out to local schools where they would start tennis programs, similar to what Jambo Tennis did.

The Victoria Tennis Academy started with only a handful of students and its three founders. But money was tight, and the other two left to pursue jobs at the private clubs.

With low income, there was a lack of training equipment and no standard tennis courts. Still, in 2009, Agwanda organized Kisumu’s first tennis tournament using money he saved up when he was still in school.

Since then, the academy has grown to 100 students, which has presented more issues regarding equipment. He said his program has only 30 racquets to give to its students, and classes have to be arranged so everyone gets one.

Because of that, he said, he spends just as much time using facebook and other websites to appeal for financial aid or equipment.

“I’ve been trying to spread the word through the media, still trying to get a company to help lend us a hand,” he said.

Finding Success

It was just before 12-year-old John Onyango’s first tournament, and he was nervous.

His opponents seemed bigger and more experienced than him, and that knocked him off his game.

“Everyone hit the ball so hard. They beat me (the) first time, then the second time I said to myself ‘this time I will (beat) them,” Onyango said in a Skype interview. “And I (beat) them.”

Less than one year before, the 12 year old picked up a racquet for the first time after he’d seen some of his peers playing tennis at his school, the Migosi Primary School.

“I saw people playing tennis and I liked (it) because I saw Serena (Williams) winning some tournaments. So I started to play,” Onyango said.

He said Serena Williams is an inspiration for him because of her success in spite of her disadvantaged upbringing. Williams lived in Compton, a suburb of Los Angeles known for its high rate or gang activity, until she was nine years old.

“(Agwanda) told me stories about Serena. They told me Serena (grew up in a rough environment), and she started playing tennis and she became a champion,” the 12 year old said. “I want to be a champion.”

Since his first tournament, Onyango has played his way into the top 20 in the under 12 group in the Kenya Lawn Tennis Association rankings.

Now he’s part of an elite group of players that occasionally travels to tournaments in Nairobi and Uganda.

This group includes 12-year-old Linda Janet, who is the first girl from West Kenya to be ranked in the top 100 in the continent, Ricky Omondi, who is ranked tenth in the 12-and-under division in Kenya, and 15-year-old Dennis Mabiria, who is within the top 30 in East Africa for the under-16-age group.

Despite their early success, Agwanda said his students could be ranked higher if they enjoyed the advantages their competitors from Nairobi have.

“The difference between here and Nairobi is (the players there) can get access to training at the private clubs, standard courts, and they can travel a lot for their ranking,” he said.

Although Agwanda said the goal of the Victoria Tennis Academy is to give its students the opportunity to get a scholarship or play professionally, some of its students would rather follow in their coach’s footsteps.

“I want to be a coach because in the Kisumu slums because you don't have too many coaches to help the poor children. To show them they have the talent to play tennis,” Mabiria said.

Looking forward, Agwanda said his dream is to establish a school with its own standard tennis courts high-quality facilities.

But until then, he will enjoy the satisfaction that comes along with seeing his students do something they can be proud of, regardless of where they come from or how much they have.

“Tennis is not just a sport for the rich; the poor have the talent to play it too,” he said.

To donate to the Victoria Tennis Academy, contact Collins Agwanda at [email protected]

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