Damien Applewhaite, a former Davis Cup player, was presented with his Level 3 coaching certificate recently by Dr Raymond Forde, president of the Barbados Tennis Association.
Applewhaite has been coaching since 2000 after successfully completing his International Tennis Federation (ITF) Level 1 coaching course.
In 2004, he passed with distinction the Level 2, which was held in neighbouring St Vincent and the Grenadines.
He would later be selected as one of the team coaches for the Central American and Caribbean Confederation (COTECC) Under-16 touring team to Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.
In his address to the membership during the awards ceremony for the recently concluded National Tennis Championships, Forde referred to the continuing efforts by the ITF to invest in coaches’ education worldwide.
The expected outcome is to make individual member associations self-sufficient in this area.
Forde said Barbados was fortunate to have the only Level 3 coach in the English-speaking Caribbean, while more than six active Level 2 coaches and over 20 Level 1 coaches had been trained over the past eight years.
Applewhaite completed all the stipulated requirements of the association. He was also appointed director of coaches education in Barbados which entails coordinating the education of all practising coaches.
He is one of only 85 coaches worldwide with this certification and plans to become more involved in assisting with the development of top juniors here. (PR/SAT)
