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Published on: 1/24/2000
Last Visited: 1/14/2002
Others include Louis Cayer, Canada's Davis Cup team captain, and Robert Bettauer, Director of Sport Development at Tennis Canada.
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Bettauer pointed out that 74% of the 4.3 million Canadians who played tennis at least once last year played in public parks.Only 19% were members of year-round or summer clubs.
"You don't have a recruitment problem in tennis, you have a retention problem," he says.One-time players cite the difficulty in finding partners of similar ability as the main reason they don't play.Bettauer believes recreational tennis needs help from bodies like Tennis Canada an the OTA.
"We have to give parks and rec departments a turnkey program,"he says."We can identify the instructors for the summer.We can say "here are a range of programs."It doesn't cost anything because user fees pay for the programs."
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The answer, according to Bettauer, was that the OTA would help them to develop their programs.For example, tennis program could vary from year to year, he said.
"Most of them are asking why they should join us,"he said."We need to go to them and ask "why not join us?"
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The league will feature competitions for lower-level as well as top players, said Robert Bettauer, director of sport development at Tennis Canada.
The league will feature competitions for lower-level as well as top players, said Robert Bettauer, director of sport development at Tennis Canada.Encouraging more juniors to experience league play will help bring more involvement, he said.
Team Ontario faces Canada's best!
Ontario's juniors came up with big finishes in two national championships this spring.
Ontario boys captured all five of the top spots, and eight of the top twelve, at the Under 14 Canadian Indoor Championships at the Mirabel Racquet Club in Pointe-Claire, Que.Meanwhile, Ontario girls won three of the top four and seven of the top twelve spots in the Under 16 Canadian Indoor Championships at the White Oaks Inn & Racquet Club in Niagara-on-the Lake.