Tennis Club

Club History

The Western Youth Centre Tennis Club has a successful history and has seen many members achieve success at a high level. As a club we pride ourselves on our integrity, family environment and continuing to strive for the best.
In 1959 the Western Youth Centre were given permission to lay down 4 bitumen tennis/netball courts. The Western Youth Centre Tennis Club competed in its first season in 1960 in the W.U.L.T.A. The club saw early success in the summer of 1961/1962, which put other clubs on notice, we were going to be a strong force!
Graham Young was the first club coach, he provided a strong junior development program which emulated with Mark Ellul and Louise Stacey both of whom went on to represent the State and Australia as Juniors and compete on the Junior and Senior World Circuits.
In 1982 the courts were in need of resurfacing and updated with the sport becoming more advanced. The courts went from Bitumen to the hardcourt surface.
The 1992/1993 summer season saw many new faces join the club as we merged with the Post-Tel Tennis Club to become known as Westside Post-Tel Tennis Club. The new faces included Ian McGee, Terry Clayton and Cheryl Barry who still remain with the club as players and committee members.
Louise Stacey returned to the club in 1993 as our head coach. She continued to develop the junior program and the club became a reckoning force in the junior associations. In the late 90’s the club began fielding its highest number of junior teams in the Woodville Districts Tennis Association. Our senior list was also at an all-time high. We have produced juniors who represented the Association and State.
In 2008 Louise moved clubs and unfortunately we lost the majority of our juniors in the process. Former junior and senior Tina Balomenos took over coaching a small group of students.
In 2009 we wished Tina the best of luck with her career in the Health Department as she moved to Melbourne to advance her studies. We were on the hunt again for a new head coach and in walked John Gericke.
Since John joined the club he has built up our junior program and we are currently fielding 6 junior teams in the Association for the summer 2014/2015 season. John has worked hard with our juniors and as a club we believe we can become a dominating force just as we were in the late 90’s.
In early 2011 the West Torrens Council approached the tennis club to have an open court policy, inviting the local community to use the courts with no cost and no bookings. Since the courts became open to the public we have seen them used by not only our members but of the local community.
Over the years our club has been known as Adelaide Westside Post-Tel, Westside Post-Tel, Airport Westside and Western Youth Centre and during this time we have seen members move away, children of members join and we have become culturally diverse. We would like to thank members who have been loyal to our club and who have contributed beyond the clubs expectations.

We as a club continue to strive for success and to provide a facility for the local community.

Life Members

Ian McGee
Cheryl Barry
Terry Clayton *
Jenny Boulton
Dennis Phillips
Steve Carman
Leith Lavender
Trevor Pressley
Robert Haines