Josh is the a third generation Goddard to be involved with Wortham TC, his grandparents were past Chairman and Secretary of the Club, his Dad Steven was the junior rep on the committee 30 odd years ago and is still actively involved with the club and both his aunty, uncle and cousins have either held roles of chairman/secretary or are current players within the club, so it was only natural that he would carry on the family tradition.
However, 14 year old Josh is a unique young man, not only has he been up at the club since before he could walk, and must have turned out dozens of times to watch teams play in all weather, he is a fantastic young ambassador for the club, helping out in organising junior and social tournaments, playing 14 out of the 18 hours in the tennis club fund raising marathon, he is a tennis leader, press officer for the South Norfolk Tennis League, liaising with the local press and arranging for photographers to attend the closed tournaments, he is vice-captain of one of the men’s senior teams, where his captain refers to Josh as the "logistics Co-ordinator" such are his organisational skills.
He recently played in an Ipswich floodlit match and one of the opposing players said "is that the little boy who used to come to watch", Josh is becoming well known in both South Norfolk and Suffolk. Last weekend was the village quiz with 21 teams taking part and Josh was a member of the Wortham TC team which went on to win the quiz, he wants to get involved in everything the tennis club take part in - such is his enthusiasm for tennis and Wortham in particular.
Josh would like to make a career in tennis organisation, and is hoping to be able to do his work experience at either the LTA or ITF, so we wish him well for his future aspirations, but one thing for sure he is a future chairman of Wortham Tennis Club in the making.
Both, Wortham and Suffolk are extremely proud of our LTA Young Volunteer of the Year for 2012, at the awards ceremony held at the ATP World Finals at the O2, the first to receive his award was Josh and the last person to receive his award for player of the year was Andy Murray, I wonder if ever a member of Wortham TC will appear on the same citation list as Britain’s first Grand Slam winner in 76 years.
During the day Josh had a long chat with Roger Draper CEO of the LTA about one of Josh's favourite players David Ferrer, and we can see why he would be one of Josh’s favourites as Josh demonstrates the same Never say Die attitude on the court as the player himself.
At a recent LTA Council meeting Peter Bretherton President of the LTA stated how much he had enjoyed presenting the awards but the one he most enjoyed presenting was to the young lad for Wortham TC Suffolk, which was fantastic to hear.
Well done Josh – Keep up the good work