During my college years, I worked for Giorgio at the weekend at the Hyde Park Sporting Club where he was the manager. It was fantastic – playing tennis part of the day, serving coffees for the rest. However, as you can imagine when it rains sometimes the club would be pretty empty. One Sunday, a conversation unfolded between Giorgio and me about the sporting facilities available at my school and how great it would be if we could move Hylands to the school.
Our thinking was simple – we could build more facilities which both the club and the school could benefit from, making tennis and other sports available to more people.
Tennis is a prime example of how certain sports can seem extremely unavailable to the general public. I would say it even still holds an air of being exclusively for people who can afford expensive memberships and dress in white polo shirts?
Anyhow, during this conversation, a small sketch on the back of a Hyde Park Sporting Club compliments slip was made laying out the schools existing sporting facilities and how we could add to them. I left that day thinking we had discussed an idea which could be described as no more than wishful. So being here today to witness the merging of Hylands Tennis Club and The Albany School can be seen as a true testament to what can be achieved with both hard work and determination.
It was at this point, that work began towards pursuing this odd and fanciful idea which we had brainstormed about that Sunday. I can only imagine the amount of hard work and hours which must have gone into progressing the idea. I would love to say I was part of this, however; it was at this point in my life that I actually left Hylands as I went off to university in Southampton to study for my degree in physiotherapy.
Needless to say under the expert and enthusiastic tutelage of all the staff at Hylands the club continued to grow. Giorgio’s email updates, whether about securing even more funding or new and exciting programs which the club wanted to introduce, always left me with a look of pure astonishment. No email was as welcome as the one I received 12 years after that random conversation though stating the project had been finalized and Hylands were joining The Albany.
One of the reasons I have relished the opportunity to be able to come and speak to you all today is because projects like these I feel are particularly important. I am lucky enough to have two fantastic parents who would not have thought twice about getting up early on an extremely cold, wet, Sunday morning and driving me to football or driving me to the park so I can play tennis AGAIN for the 4th time that week.
However, it is only now as I grow a little older that I start to realise that being given the opportunity to participate in sport makes up a large part of who I am today. It’s not just having willing parents as a child that enables this to happen; you also need the programs in themselves to exist. This is where projects like this come into their own.
This joint venture will provide so many opportunities for children. Being part of a team, the chance to gain roles like tennis leaders, now being able to link in with the schools gifted and talented program, sportsmanship, competitiveness and the realisation that dedication and hard work are required to achieve goals; be it academic and or sporting. Something as simple as being part of a team and learning how to operate within one can serve as examples to use on university applications and also job interviews. This is just one small example. It’s not about being the best tennis or netball player it about enjoying what you are doing and taking part in character-building experiences.
In my opinion, not enough environments like this exist to give children the chance to learn some of the skills they need in order to stand them in good stead for the rest of their life. I was fortunate enough to go to the summer course that year and have these opportunities available to me – the easier we can make it for children to get involved in these projects the better.
Playing sport and taking part at Hylands armed me with the skills and determination I needed to push myself to get to where I wanted to be. Since finishing my physiotherapy degree I have worked in a variety of settings; after progressing through the ranks of NHS physiotherapy, I achieved a major goal of mine to work in sport and was lucky enough to work as a physiotherapist for Chelsea Football Club. I thought I’d finally reached my goal, but as often happens the goalposts change and I now find myself back at university and halfway through a degree in Medicine.
Today is a great example of how a seemingly unfeasible idea can, in fact, turn into a reality with hard work and determination. Providing safe environments for young people where they can learn skills to help them make the most of all their opportunities throughout life is vital; joint ventures like this are perfect. By mixing both sport and study more children will be reached and thus provide further access to the wider community.
Places like Hylands not only helped create my enthusiasm for sport and helped provide me with important life experiences but has also shown me with inspiration and no lack of effort fanciful ideas can be engineered into reality. These skills will stay with me for life and that is why their slogan of ‘CREATE, INSPIRE and SUSTAIN’ is nothing but superbly fitting.
