Former Australian tennis star Mark Phillippoussis famously hailed from Williamstown and judging by the popularity of the sport at Bayside P-12 College, there could be a few more tennis stars coming out of Hobsons Bay in the future too.
The Williamstown school has had a tennis program for almost two decades and according to Bayside physical education teacher Natalie Tancredi, interest had never been stronger.
“Students have to try out for the program, it’s select entry,” said Ms Tancredi of the program which is open to students from years 7 to 10 who play 11 hours of tennis per week as part of their day to day curriculum.
The school currently has 33 students involved in the program, playing both singles and doubles on the 11 courts at Bayside’s Williamstown campus.
And while there hasn’t been anyone on the level of Mark Phillippoussis’ produced by the program, Ms Tancredi said plenty of good players had still come out of the school and gone onto to bigger and better things.
“Often students will go off to US colleges, that’s often the pathway they take or they become coaches themselves and some continue playing outside of the college,” she said.
