A 17 year old tennis enthusiast from Durham has just returned from a week long volunteer placement at Wimbledon. John Heppell, a coach and player at the Durham Archery Lawn Tennis Club was invited to volunteer in the ‘Play Tennis Zone’ at the All England Club after being awarded the Aegon British Tennis Young Volunteer of the Year award in the North.
John was on hand in the Play Tennis Zone for the second week of the Championships helping school children try different tennis activities and answering questions from the general public about the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), Wimbledon and all things tennis! Participants in the Play Tennis Zone can try their hand at a variety of challenges from measuring the speed of their serve to taking on ‘The Wall’ or beating the coach on site! ‘On the first day, the presenters of ITV’s Good Morning Britain & This Morning came and tried out the different activities – I got on TV in the background!’ enthused John.
John worked shifts of 2 hours with an hours break between each which left lots of time for spectating and enjoying the event.
‘My staff pass meant I was able to watch tennis on Centre Court and Court 1 as well as skip the lines for food and drinks. We got £18 a day for our meals on site’ explained John. ‘The highlight was watching all of Roger Federer’s week 2 matches at some point from his round of 16 right through to the finals – he is fantastic’.
Roger Federer made history at this year’s Championships claiming an 8
th title after defeating Croatian Maran Cilic in straight sets.
As well as volunteering & spectating, John was also invited to the British Tennis Wimbledon Ball which took place at the Hurlingham Club on the evening of Saturday 8th July where he met Australian tennis legend, Rob Laver. John was afforded both opportunities as a reward for all of this volunteering in tennis at Durham Archery Lawn Tennis Club.
John was inspired to take up tennis at the age of 4 after watching his hero Roger Federer on television. He took to the grass courts at Durham Archery Club and a decade later started volunteering on a Saturday morning, helping the coaches with the younger players. Now aged 17, John has taken on the role of Assistant Coach at the club helping young players achieve in their first tournaments. He is a Level 2 qualified coach and hopes to take his Level 3 and become a fully qualified coach when he turns 18 and embark on a career in the sports industry. He has shown great commitment giving up his Friday evenings and Saturday mornings to help younger players and loves inspiring people to improve – ‘I want to make players feel happy and able to enjoy the tennis as it really is a great game, I love it’ said John.
Speaking of his Wimbledon trip, John said ‘I loved the whole experience and I would definitely recommend it to anybody else that had the opportunity to take it’.
