Tennis. Christophe Jacquart hands over the leadership of the Ariège committee

Why did you decide to hand over the leadership of the departmental committee?

I think that after several mandates, we are less efficient than at the start. We lack motivation to carry out projects. I wore a very big one in recent years with padel which took up a lot of my time. It is also time to leave the organization of tennis in Ariège to another team. National or regional meetings are still quite time-consuming, in addition to departmental ones. It’s time to take a breather for me. But I am not moving away from the world of tennis. I will help my club, TC Foix, for the development and teaching of padel.

Being president of a departmental committee is very demanding.

The Tennis Federation is a Federation which has many projects and, at the regional or departmental level, we must implement federal policy. This indeed requires a lot of investment. You also have to improve your skills a lot to be able to keep up with this pace and know the files. When you’re a volunteer and when you’re still working, like me, it’s not easy. The family circle must also accept it. It’s good to hand over.

What are you most proud of?

I am especially proud to have, over the past 10 years, been able to create this proximity with club presidents. With the departmental technical team, we were able to ensure that teachers felt concerned by the development policy. It was a challenge. At this level, I leave with a lot of confidence for the future. And, of course, I am happy to see the result of the padel project. The FFT has taken padel into its fold, which is an associated discipline like beach tennis and pickleball, and has therefore launched a policy of developing this practice in terms of equipment or training for management. The objective was to establish padel throughout the territory. It doesn’t seem like much, it’s work.

Under your mandate, Ariège saw an increase in the number of its licensees.

We have seen a big increase since Covid. We will exceed 2,500 licenses, which has almost never happened in Ariège. There has been a resurgence whether among young people or adults. The padel helps us a lot, obviously but not only that. There have never been so many adults competing, which is also a strong sign. This shows that the licensees are satisfied with the competitions that the Ariège committee is setting up. For young people, it wasn’t easy at the start. There, things are much better. At the detection level, our Technical Advisor Hughes Bonafos has implemented many actions and detections. We have increased the budget for detection so that children can benefit from training grants. We see the benefit since we have a young person from Pamiers detected at the national level and two young people detected at the regional level. This had never happened.

Do you have any regrets, projects that you could have implemented?

We often organized decentralized meetings throughout the department but we were not able to do so, especially after Covid. This is something that I have entrusted to the future management team so that they can get closer to our licensees in the different sectors.

With Alexandra Rodriguez, a smooth transition will take place.

When I arrived, I was very well supported by my predecessors. They passed on a lot to me. I tried to do the same thing this time. It’s been two years since I said I would leave, even though people didn’t really believe me at first. I forwarded the large files to my treasurer and my secretary. I passed on the keys to the truck to Alexandra with the various projects to follow, including that of padel of course, and the various mission letters from the FFT. I am proud of the work accomplished. I have fulfilled myself in this role even if it is very demanding. I am passionate about sport and tennis in particular. It’s a mission that is pleasant. We meet passionate people, whether in Ariège or at Roland-Garros. In a small department, you have to do a lot of things, including in committees. This is perhaps the most thankless side of the job, the most difficult. For a volunteer, it’s hard to last a long time with, I hope, a minimum of recognition. I was sensitive to that, valuing volunteering. For 5 years, I have ensured that the volunteers of the departmental tennis committee have been valued.

The winning bet of padel

With 100% of the votes, the list led by Alexandra Rodriguez was acclaimed by the Ariège clubs. Secretary general of the committee for four years, it is therefore she who becomes president of the Ariège tennis committee for the next four years. A succession in continuity. “The idea is obviously to continue the work that has been done by Christophe and his entire team. There are many members of the steering committee who remain in office. We’re just going to try to bring in some new blood. Of course, we will continue the development of padel but also install pickleball in the landscape (the activity has also been added to article 1 of the statutes of the Ariège committee). We will also try to communicate a lot more with the clubs and place a particular effort on women’s tennis. »
2505 licensees, plus 3% in one year.– Alexandra Rodriguez knows it, Ariège tennis is doing very well. As of August 31, 2024, there were 2,505 licensees spread across 23 clubs. This is 3% more than last year. If among the 1,160 young people (429 women, 731 men), we note a slight decrease of around 5%, it is offset among adults (1,345 licenses; 424 women, 921 men). On the club side, it is still FC Foix (534 licenses) which leads the way ahead of TC Pamiers (350) and TC Varilhes (199).
A healthy financial situation driven by the good results of padel.- A dynamic driven by a healthy financial situation. The 2024 income statement shows a positive result of €18,613, an increase of €8,000 over one year. “The commitment to competitions with an increasing number of licensees and the development of the practice of padel explain these results” specifies Laurent Tournier, treasurer of the committee. After a full year of exercise, the challenge of padel is more than successful. It is he who drives up the good financial results. The committee’s forecast budget presented (€52,792 compared to €49,251 in 2023) should allow the financing of the various actions decided by Hughes Bonafos, the Territorial Sports Advisor. To prove the enthusiasm around padel, the committee also presented a forecast budget padel for a total amount of €247,919 which will allow the implementation of the projects of the padel commission.
“A real dynamic in Ariège. »- On the technical side, smiles were also in order. “We feel a real dynamic in Ariège,” says Marc Barbier, federal director of performance. When there is desire, a dynamic, we can have interesting results. » Hughes Bonafos’ areas of work are numerous. “We must densify and increase the level of young competitors in the department, create a departmental dynamic by promoting and involving teachers. » The organization of competitions (multi-chance tournaments, tournaments) for categories 10 years and over is also in the works.
After the 12 years of Christophe Jacquart’s reign, Alexandra Rodriguez inherits a departmental committee which is doing very well.