Seaton Tennis Club’s adult and junior performance coach, Derek Blackmore, already acknowledged as Devon LTA’s Coach of the Year, is one of the finalists for the prestigious 2015 Exeter Foundation Devon Sports Awards at Sandy Park, writes Belinda Bawden.
Derek has reached a shortlist of three for coach of the year, chosen from over 130 nominations in 32 different sports, ranging from archery, athletics, Taekwondo-do, trampolining, sailing, skateboarding and golf.
The winners will be presented with their awards at Sandy Park on Friday, May 8, by Britain’s most decorated swimmer and Strictly Come Dancing star, Mark Foster.
As if to prove Derek’s inspiration and effectiveness as a coach, both Seaton’s Ladies teams finished division champions in the Exeter and District Winter League for the second year running.
The A team finished 18 points clear of Torquay in Division 2 while the B team topped Division Three with a 15 point gap over Kingsteignton.
Seaton Tennis Club has a full range of junior, teen and adult coaching programmes, ranging from beginners to performance standard. There are seven club sessions at different times during the week with adult beginners and intermediate coached Pay and Play sessions twice a week.
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