El Nino Shows Up for Another Visit

2015 Registration  |  Are you all enjoying the incredible 'winter' we are having? El Nino has shown up on our door steps once more, his first since 2010. Looks like he is staying put for a long while. And thanks to him, we have been enjoying the warmer days and nights for the past many weeks.

It felt like April already and it felt like we should be starting our tennis lessons now. Not quite yet, another five plus weeks to go. Our 2015 registration brochure is currently available and the registration is now open. (The pdf link is on the top left corner.)

Most of the lesson groups remain the same as last year except for the High Performance sessions. The HP groups have been affected by the Coquitlam Open tournament moved from beginning of May to mid August and is now combined with our Coquitlam Junior Open Championships tournament. The new two weeks tournament also includes the Rookie Tour and Future Stars Tour divisions on the first Sunday for juniors. The Competition and Development divisions will spread over the weekdays and matches will be scheduled during the day while the adult divisions will be held during the evening and weekends.

2015 will also be the Coquitlam Tennis Club 50th anniversary of serving the community with tennis. Yes fifty years young! We have the largest and the most active memberships among our tri-cities neighbours. For the past 30 years we are the only one among the three cities with a junior program. That's as far back as I can tell. We have become the biggest and the most successful outdoor community program in BC.

Hope to see most of the old faces and new ones too when the season begins on March 28th!

High Performance Assessment

Registration Brochure  |  A clarification has been made to the High Performance assessment requirement in the registration brochure after it has been released to the public.

HP Orange Play (8 spots): An assessment is required
HP Green Play (8 spots): An assessment is required except for the 2013 HP 10 returning juniors
HP Development Play (16 spots): An assessment is required except for the 2013 HP 14 & HP18 returning juniors
HP Tournament Play (16 spots): An assessment is required. An assessment or a selection may be required for the 2013 HP juniors except for the 2013 club closed U18 & U14 top 3 placements

HP Development Play session is essentially the same HP 14 and HP 18 sessions from previous years, but the requirement is to participate in two Tennis BC sanctioned tournaments. HP Tournament Play session differs from Development Play session with twice weekly lessons from April and the requirement is to participate in six Tennis BC sanctioned tournaments during the junior program season. Both these sessions will come together during July and August on Tuesday to participate in the club closed U14 and U18 tournament.

The date for the assessment is on Saturday, March 15 at 2 pm. Please send an email to indicate you will be showing up for this assessment. (Email to ctcjuniorprogram(at)telus.net)

Supporting Our Community Youngsters

2014 Season  |  Tennis is for everyone and is a sport for a lifetime. Whether the ultimate goal is to play it recreationally or competitively, our aim is to promote a "tennis for life" lifestyle for every youngster in the community.

A new year means another new season is upon our doorsteps. The new registration brochure is now available and registration is now open. The junior program has been re-structured to help improve the flow from the start to the end of the junior age eligibility. The attached chart will illustrate the progression through the age range and learning levels. We have also enhanced the competitive streaming to support our home grown talents and committed juniors who are into competitive challenges. For those who are not competitively inclined, we still want you to enjoy tennis recreationally too. There is nothing better than to stay healthy and fit through life.

The upcoming season will have two levels for the high performance training in Kids Tennis consisting of the Orange and Green Play sessions. This will incorporate the play component into the training to facilitate the learning curve. The Green Play, the higher level group, is twice weekly and expands to three times weekly during the summer. The Orange Play is similar to the HP 10 session of previous seasons. It is twice weekly during July and August.

We plan to host a Future Star tournament (U10, U9) in September to support both our Orange and Green Play high performance juniors on home courts. The Green Play juniors can also participate at home in both of our club hosted open tournaments (Coquitlam Junior Spring Challenger in May and Coquitlam Junior Open Championships in August) at the Development Series level. There is also a Rookie Tour event in August and is organized by NETS.

The previous High Performance 14 and 18 sessions have also been restructured into Development Play and Tournament Play. Both these Play sessions are not separated by U14 and U18 age groups anymore but are now available to juniors 11 to 18 years old. The Tournament Play session will be twice weekly and three times weekly in July and August. The Development Play session is two times a week in the summer, the same as the previous HP sessions. All four high performance sessions are now from March to September. It will no longer be segregated into the spring and summer sessions.

The previous spring+summer Intermediate session has been incorporated into the HP Development Play session. Last summer six week Beginner, Novice and Intermediate sessions stay on in the program and these three levels will also see an additional spring session as well. The spring session starts in May.

Kids Tennis 1 (ages 3-5) and 2 (ages 6-9) are now labelled Kids Tennis 1 (ages 3-9). Previous Kids Tennis 3 and 4 levels are now Kids Tennis 2 and 3 respectively.

The junior program will continue to have five summer tennis camps spread through July and August. These popular tennis camps attract registrants from around Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody and cities and municipalities beyond these tri-cities boundaries.

The arrival of spring is just round the corner and the scenery will change. Our junior program has changed. Let us now look forward to the start of a very promising season with new and familar faces to welcome back onto the tennis courts.

Evaluation/Selection Day

High Performance  |  The weather is currently sunny and dry. We will go ahead with our evaluation and selection for our High Performance spring session. Please dress appropriately, as it is still very cool outside.

High Performance Evaluation/Selection

High Performance Spring Session  |  The evaluation and selection for our spring sessions is on Monday, March 18 from 4 pm. All new registrants and last year's returning juniors not exempted from this process are required to be present.

This will be conducted outdoors at the Coquitlam Tennis Club (Town Centre tennis courts). We hope the weather cooperates. However, if it does get rainout it will be moved to Tuesday at the same time. There will be an update on this website no later than 3 pm on Monday. Figures crossed that the forecast will hold.

This spring evaluation and selection will be at the following times:
High Performance 14 – 4:00 pm
High Performance 18 – 4:30 pm
High Performance 10 – 4:45 pm

If you are planning to show up, and if you have not already done so, please send me an email at ctcjuniorprogram(at)telus.net (please change (at) to @).

Let's Get Ready To Rumble!

2013 Registration  |  Ooo... the weather has been quite awesome so far. The last time this happened at this time of the year was in 2004. The 2010 Olympic year cannot match that even with the lack of snow on our local mountains. 2004 turned out to be a great eight months plus stretch of warm dry weather that started early that year. Let's hope it is time we get a repeat of 2004 and put last's year extra long summer to shame.

A new season is approaching, and a new program is about to start. And there are some changes to the program. After five years, well it is more like a nip and tuck. Our program has to keep moving forward.

Until we get some tennis courts, indoor and/or outdoor, for our club exclusive use, we just have to go by with what we can get from the Coquitlam Parks and Recreation. Certainly a big thank you to Brian McLennon and Kevin Powell at the Parks and Rec who have been very supportive of our junior program and our club as a whole. It is very assuring and encouraging for me and our club executive directors to run a club like ours as elected volunteers.

Our city council revealed a couple of weeks ago at the council meeting that the proposed project for an indoor facility of some sort would have to wait another five years before any decision can be finalized, as there is no money left is our current five year budget plan for recreation. What is another five years? It is a long time. There have been a few proposals of this sort that have been put forth since the early nineties.

We are not looking for option A, but it would be nice to have the Davis Cup or the Federation Cup here in Coquitlam. But option B would be a more community minded option. The Coquitlam Tennis Club has always been a community tennis club since 1965. We are not going to be like some big facilities that require a high five figure initiation fee. The club and our junior program just want to reach out to the community to come and have a good time in tennis.

With the limitations and constrains, we just have to work around it and aim for another successful season. First off, there are many many names on our waiting lists trying to get into our program. Since most of our sessions are filled on a first come first service basis, the early birds are the ones that get the spots. However for the High Performance (HP) sessions this year, there will be an evaluative and selective process. This is to ensure the competitive goal oriented juniors have a competitive environment to excel in. Just as much as we want our HP juniors to benefit from our program, we want them to contribute to it as well. Everyone benefits because it is the interaction between these HP juniors that propel the group to a higher level.

As stated in our registration brochure, the following will list the Top 10 HP 18, Top 10 HP 14 and Top 4 HP 9 juniors from 2012. These juniors upon registering for our 2013 program will be exempted from this evaluation and selection process. The graduated juniors have been removed from the list. As we have only listed the Top 10/Top 4, there will be juniors who are just as deserving to be on the list including those moving up an age group. That does not mean they are already out of this season's program. The HP 18 and HP 14 will accommodate 16 juniors each, while the current HP 10 will take on 8 juniors. The number of spots open will depend on the number of juniors on the lists returning this year to our program.

For more details, please refer to our registration brochure.

High Performance 18 Top 10 List (in alphabetical order)
Alexander Baumann

Anastassia Krasnova

Andrew Lin

Donica Labayo
Giselle Bonny
Ian Chok

Sam Yan

Steven Shen

Vanessa Mansfield
Winnie Zhuang

High Performance 14 Top 10 List (in alphabetical order)

Cate Belton

Christian Georgiev

Dickson Zhuang

Eddie Wu

Franzene Tsui

Jenny Jia

Joshua Yang
Kevin Baumann
Steven Baumann
Tiana Andjelic

High Performance 9 Top 4 (It will be HP 10 in 2013)

Armandt Hediger

Dylan Tse
Ella Nielsen
Jennifer Shui

Also new this year, apart from the summer camps, are the summer only lessons. These sessions will offer beginner, novice and intermediate lessons twice a week over a six week period. These summer only lessons are for ages 10 years and above. Our kids tennis is including a Kids Tennis 4 session to bridge the gap between Kids Tennis 3 and the High Performance session. This Kids Tennis 4 session is a season long session from May to September.

Here We Go Again!

Here we are, half a generation into the new millennium. Time seems to past by too quickly. It wasn't too long ago we had just wrapped up the season with the Awards & Banquet evening in October. After much needed rest (or maybe not enough!) from the hectic junior program of last season, we are once again standing at the door step to another season. My groundhog says it's less than 6 weeks to the start of the spring session.

This will be my 5th year since I took up the reins of this program for the second time. This program has grown steadily from its initial 2008 groundwork. This year is no different than the previous years. This program has expanded once again.

The Kids Tennis benefits from the addition of a High Performance session. Over the past four years, many of our home grown youngsters have worked hard on their basic tennis skills and are now ready to step forth to the next stage of their skills development.

The High Performance 9 is for youngsters between the ages of 7 and 9+. In addition to the an hour and a half lesson on Saturdays, there is also a play component to the session during the summer. This will allow them to put their newly learned skills into action. This High Performance is geared towards a competitive environment. The idea is to prepare them for competition in not too distant future.

This season will also see the re-introduction of the BC Junior League Tennis into the summer schedule after an absence of 6 years. This is basically an under 18 team tournament for the tennis clubs in the Lower Mainland. From 1992 to 2006, after which this event was cancelled, our club has won it 3 times and was runner up on 2 other occasions. We were champions in 1993, 1994 and more recently in 2005. Our runner up years were 1992 and 1995. The club was also victorious in 1975 and runner up in 1980. There is no doubt we can be as competitive as any other big tennis clubs in the region. I am confident we will have a good team this year.

Our ever popular summer series of tennis camps had seen long wait lists over the past 3 seasons. The good news is there will now be a 5th week of tennis camp this summer.

A number of our older juniors have mature into highly competitive ranked junior players. Five of these juniors are available for a hitting session or two. If you are looking for a good cardio workout for yourself or looking for a good hitting partner for your child to practice against, these hitting sessions will be ideal. Take advantage of these juniors for an hour or more for a minimal cost and work your game into shape or help your child's game improve. This will go a long way in helping these juniors with their tournament entry expenses. Please contact me directly.

Tennis is once again on the upswing in the Lower Mainland. This community junior program has continued to attract interests from communities far beyond the Tri-Cities boundaries. As such it may have already become the largest outdoor program of its kind in our province. As our outdoor junior tennis program continue to develope, it has something for everyone. Download the registration brochure and check out our program.

It's Time!

2011 Summer Season |  Tomorrow marks the start of the summer program for the beginners to high performance sessions. After one of the coldest and wettest April and May on record, Mother Nature should spare a thought for these youngsters who are eager to make tennis part of their summer season. We will keep our fingers and toes crossed and hope the warm and dry weather makes a return to our west coast. And soon!

Registration has been going well. The sessions B and C of Kids Tennis are fully registered. Both sessions have a wait list. Session D of Kids Tennis is 99% filled. Both of our High Performance sessions (12 & 18) have also reached the registration limit. A fourth Beginner group has recently been opened up for registration. There are only a few spots left in the Novice and Intermediate sessions. The four summer Tennis Camps in July and August are still available for registration.

The write up and pictures from the recently concluded Coquitlam Junior Spring Challenger tournament will be posted very soon. Some of our club juniors did very well. There is also a new twist in another chapter of Big Brother versus Little Brother. All these will be in my next posting.

Registration For The Season Is Now Open

2011 Junior Program | This week it may not feel much like spring, but we are only 23 days away from the spring equinox, and 16 days until daylight saving time begins. Cheer up, it won't be long before the temperature warms up.

Our junior tennis program will kick off the season with our spring sessions for the Kids Tennis and the High Performance groups. Both lesson groups will start on April 2nd. The summer sessions for the beginner, novice and intermediate tennis lessons will begin on May 28. The other 3 Kids Tennis sessions will start on May 21, July 2 and August 13. Once again we will offer 4 week-long tennis camps in the summer. The start dates for these camps are July 4, 18, 25 and August 15.

The registration for all these sessions is now open. In the past seasons, popular lesson groups do fill up quickly. Register early to avoid disappointment, and take advantage of the Early Bird discount. The link to download the registration brochure pdf file is on the top left corner of this page.

2010 Summer Tennis Camps

On the heels and success of the past two years, this coming season of summer tennis camps at the Coquitlam Tennis Club is the most popular in the surrounding areas of Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, and beyond. We love tennis and believe that a good tennis game is a friend for life. Tennis may not be nearly as popular as some other Canadian/North Amercian sports, but with the right basic skills and proper training, a child may find tennis to be his/her sports niche. Our tennis camps give a child an opportunity to learn or improve and discover new interests, and make friends in a fun and positive atmosphere. Registration is still open for all sessions for beginners to intermediate level, from 6 years old to 18 years old. Please refer to our registration brochure for more information, and register early to avoid disappointment. Join us this summer for a rewarding tennis experience.

Registration 2010 Update #2

The following sessions are now full: High Performance 1, 3, & 4, Beginner, Novice and Intermediate. Only the Kids Tennis 1 session C 9 am group is still open for registration. Both Kids Tennis 2 session C 9 am and 10 am groups are nearing full registration.

All of our Summer Tennis Camp sessions, Play Tennis sessions and Kids Tennis session D are still open for registration. Don't wait, register now and get the Early Bird discount on most of our upcoming summer sessions.

New Lesson Groups and Levels Added For 2010

Tennis Lessons | It is time to start another season of junior tennis at the Coquitlam Tennis Club. It seems like we had just ended last season recently. And thanks to the Winter Olympics Games here in Vancouver, January and February came by in a hurry and was gone in a heart beat.

This season we have added spring sessions for Kids Tennis to go along with the existing High Performance spring training session. The Kids Tennis program will also introduce a level 3 group for the 6 to 9 years old juniors. This is an extension to the level 2 group and is for juniors who are able to sustain a 3 to 4 balls rally across the net consistently. This level 3 will allow juniors to move on to other basic strokes of tennis such as volleys and serves. For those who are already at the high novice to low intermediate level, and are ready to seek more competition, our High Performance level 1 is specially designed to move you farther along in your tennis training. At this level, tournament play is encouraged at the progressive, rookie, and even at the challenger level.

A third new group to be added this year is our brand new Play Tennis session and is opened to juniors from the Kids Tennis 2 to the Intermediate level. This once a week session takes place over the summer holidays in July and August, and will complement the lesson groups. The concept is to organize a play session for the juniors to exercise their learnt skills in singles and doubles play, as well as learn the finer points of the rules of the game. For the intermediate level, singles and double strategies will be covered.

With the expanded range of tennis lessons, activities and competitions in our junior program this year, there is something for everyone. Our junior tennis program serves the cities of Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody and beyond. See you all on the tennis courts real soon.

Registration Update #7

Registration for Kids Tennis 1 & 2 session D, our final session of the season, is full. I'm still getting inquiries about more sessions after D. I would certainly like to keep the program going all year around, but our club is an outdoor club, and so is our junior program. Granted, we have enjoyed such a wonderful sunny weather this year since April, but we have to keep in mind about the highly likely rain interruptions in the Fall. Our session D will end at the end of September. A local group NETS is working on a proposal for a public indoor tennis facility for the Coquitlam Town Centre. So get in touch with our local city council and let them know such a facility is needed in this north east sector. Please check us out again next year in early Spring, our season begins mid May right after a couple of weeks of tournament play for the adults.

Registration Update #6

Tennis camp D is now full. Email me (adriantan@aol.com) if you like to be put on the waiting list for tennis camps C & D. Session D of Kids Tennis 1 (11 am) & Kids Tennis 2 (10 am), starting August 29, have only a few spots left for registration.

Registration Update #5

Registration is closed for Kids Tennis 1 and 2 session C. Session D (starting August 29) has limited spots open for Kids Tennis 1 at 11 am, and Kids Tennis 2 at 10 am. Both Tennis Camp B and C are also full. Tennis Camp D starting from August 17 to 20 is still open for registration. Our High Performance group has also reached full capacity.

Registration Update #4

Kids Tennis 1 and 2 starting June 27 are full. A Kids Tennis 1 group starting at 12:30 pm was added to the session B schedule has also been filled. Session C Kids Tennis 1 starting August 8th has limited spots available. The 11:00 am group is full, and a 9:00 am group has been added to the session C schedule.

All our 11 am beginner groups are filled. A 12:30 pm beginner group has been added to the schedule. This is an on-going lesson group and has limited spots available. Our first tennis camp of the summer at the Coquitlam Town Centre tennis courts has already been filled. Tennis Camp B, C and D are still open for registration. Sign up early to reserve your spot.

Kids Tennis Registration Update #3

Kids Tennis 1 session B (June 27) 11:00 am group has been filled. A second group has been added to Kids Tennis 1 for this June 27 start date. The new time is 9:00 am.

Kids Tennis Registration Update #2

With the Kids Tennis 1 session A (11:00 am) filled, a second group has been added to the schedule for the May 16 session. This session is from 9:00 am to 9:45 am and spaces are still available. Both the 9:00 am (A1) and 10:00 am (A2) sessions for Kids Tennis 2 have been filled. 

Registration Update #1

Our Kid Tennis 1 session A at 11 am is now full. A waiting list is now available. There is a chance that a second group will be added for this session A. Session A2 for the Kid Tennis 2 at 10 am has only one spot available.

Registration Brochure Corrections

Under the High Performance Spring Training section, it should be noted that the Early Bird and Sibling discounts do not apply for this session.  Also under the Beginner section, the lesson time should read 11:00 am to 12:30 pm, not 11:00 pm to 12:30 pm. These two corrections have been made in the updated registration brochure.