Nova Scotia – Girls Leading Girls Tennis is a passion project for Mary-Anne MacDonald and her daughter Lillian Pappas, an initiative that has helped grow the game in Nova Scotia while providing an environment for girls to develop a love for tennis, and a pathway to foster strong leadership skills.
Their efforts have not gone unnoticed, and they were recently named one of the inaugural recipients of the newly established Game. Set. Equity. Community Tennis Grant presented by National Bank.
GLG Tennis came to fruition as the result of Pappas, who started playing herself at 9 years old, getting a group of her friends together to put on some Try Tennis events for girls. They proved to be quite popular, and Pappas quickly realized that it could be something bigger. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she and her mom decided to build a more structured program with weekly sessions throughout the year that would include mentors to help inspire the new, younger players who joined to stay in tennis.
“I think one of the things that’s really important for girls in sports is having a group of girls they can work with and what we did for our program was we made it girl-centric, and we came up with things that would make girls motivated to play and also help them improve. This is what made our program unique,” explained Pappas, Co-founder of GLG Tennis.
A total of 80 girls between the ages of 6-18 who are from the Halifax and Bedford areas participated in GLG Tennis this year and were divided into five different groups: red ball, orange ball, green ball as well as U10-14 and U16-U18 competitive groups. MacDonald, who is always looking for ways to create spaces for women, and Pappas ensure that GLG is present in as many different communities as possible to maximize the program’s reach. Pappas, now 16, leads all of the on-court sessions along with the mentors and has been doing so since she was 12.
One way that GLG distinguishes itself is its approach to the youngest red ball group. It features a warmup routine with music that involves tennis footwork to help make the girls more comfortable. They also use ribbon racquets when they first start so they can mirror the movements more naturally. As the players grow up and improve, they advance through the different groups, and some even move into the competition stream. Pappas has noticed how many of the girls have grown in confidence since taking up the game and how proud they are to let everyone know they are tennis players.
FINDING INSPIRATION IN ONE ANOTHER
Previously, Nova Scotia had very few U12 and U14 girls playing tournaments with nobody else in the pipeline. Today, they have 16 players competing in those age groups and GLG Tennis is a big reason why. Pappas and the other mentors help the girls prepare for the events and have begun identifying areas where individual players need assistance.
Courtesy: https://www.tenniscanada.com/