Club of the month: a youth program feature

Published 2026-06-23

This month's Club of the Month goes to Hollowmere Racket Club, a mid-sized club whose junior program has grown from a handful of Saturday mornings into a full weekday coaching schedule serving over ninety young players. The federation's regional panel singled out Hollowmere for the way it turned a small volunteer effort into something other clubs are now visiting to study.

How it started

Three seasons ago, Hollowmere ran a single Saturday session for juniors, staffed by whichever parent-volunteer had a free morning. Attendance hovered around a dozen kids, and the club nearly cut the session altogether during a quiet winter. Instead, longtime member Renata Kavelsund offered to take over scheduling and recruit a small rotating panel of coaches. What started as damage control turned into the club's biggest growth story in a decade, one committee member noted at the time.

From Saturday mornings to a full weekday schedule

Within eighteen months, demand had outgrown the single weekend slot. The club now runs junior coaching five days a week, split by age group and skill level. A typical week looks like this:

Monday — Under-10 fundamentals (footwork, grip, and rally games)
Tuesday — Under-14 match play and tactics
Wednesday — Beginner drop-in session, no experience required
Thursday — Under-14 fundamentals and conditioning
Friday — Under-18 competitive squad training
Saturday — Open family session, the original slot that started it all

Coaching structure and philosophy

Hollowmere's approach pairs a small core of certified coaches with a larger group of club members who volunteer as session assistants. New volunteers shadow an experienced coach for a full term before running drills on their own, which the club credits for keeping quality consistent even as the program scaled. Sessions rotate between technical drills, small-sided games, and short match-play blocks, with an emphasis on keeping beginners on court rather than standing in line.

In their own words

We spoke with head coach Owen Halverstoke, who has led the weekday program since its second season:

"We didn't set out to build a five-day schedule. We just kept saying yes to one more session until the calendar was full. The thing I'm proudest of isn't the numbers, it's that half our under-18 squad started out in that Wednesday beginner drop-in."

Tips for clubs looking to grow their own program

The organizing committee shared a few lessons for clubs considering a similar expansion:

Start with one low-stakes drop-in session before committing to a full schedule.
Recruit assistant coaches from your own membership rather than waiting for qualified hires.
Keep a beginner-friendly slot permanently on the calendar, even once competitive groups exist.
Track attendance by age group so you know exactly when a session needs to split in two.
Revisit the schedule every season rather than treating it as fixed.

Clubs interested in setting up something similar can find a short organizer's guide on the Clubs page, and the federation's regional office is happy to connect interested organizers directly with the Hollowmere committee.

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