As a child, Alexis François discovered Tennis thanks to Fête le Mur. Today he is a teacher at TCAB. A look back at a beautiful story, between love of tennis and the desire to pass it on.
Vou discovered tennis in a rather atypical way. Tell us…
I grew up in a district of Beauvais, the Saint-Lucien district, 500 meters from a Fête le Mur site. There were two outdoor tennis courts and I regularly walked past them without really being interested in them. One day, for once, I stopped and the site manager offered me a chance to hit the ball. It was a revelation! I started playing a lot, I did a lot of competition quickly. At 16, I became a volunteer for Fête le Mur, I helped introduce tennis to younger people. It turned into a vocation, I wanted to get started in the teaching world. At that time, I signed a future contract with the association and the club, the two being linked. I passed the CQP (professional qualification certification) then very quickly the DE in tennis to make it my job.
What are your responsibilities at the club now?
I have been a sports manager since last September. The former manager, who was my mentor, left and I took over the reins of the club. At TCAB, there is always a Fête le Mur branch. So I am the club teacher and also a Fête le Mur teacher, I intervene directly to get the children playing in the neighborhood and I do it at the club. I am happy to be able to give back to children what was given to me.
How would you define TCAB?
Our club has around 400 members and I would say that we offer family tennis geared towards leisure tennis. We have two additional covered courts that have been brand new since the start of the school year. Before, we only had two place settings and it was complicated to set up a competition center. Anyway, it’s not really what we wanted, even if we have many teams that play in departmental championships. Our best team is in the regional.
We are very closely linked to Fête le Mur, which continues to tour in priority areas of the city. The association’s teacher travels to teach classes in the neighborhood. We come every week, Wednesday and Saturday to let the children play. Children from the association can also come to the club, we try to develop a mix between children from priority neighborhoods and those from the traditional club, by inviting them to joint events. For example, we are having a Christmas party where everyone is invited.
What are the club’s objectives?
Increase the number of licensees! We would like to reach the 500 mark. We have been implementing adapted tennis for several years and we recently launched health tennis at the club. We signed a contract to let people with health problems play. We don’t yet do padel or paratennis, but we really want to develop, to open the club to children who want to discover this sport or train more.
Related News :