Tennis: Top honour for Greendale dynamo Sarah Shand

Greendale Tennis Club president Sarah Shand reflects on her success at the national body's awards function in Auckland. Photo/Paul Taylor

It's fair to say Hawke's Bay tennis dynamo Sarah Shand has seldom looked back on a Rotorua luge accident almost two decades ago with any degree of fondness until now.

"That accident and a bad dislocation forced me to lose major use of my legs. That's why I'm more of a volunteer these days than a player," Shand said as she reflected on winning of Tennis New Zealand's Volunteer of the Year award at the national body's awards function in Auckland at the weekend.

Like most volunteers Greendale's Shand, who last played tennis almost three decades ago when she was in her 20s on her OE at the Holland Park club in England, got involved in volunteer work for the code when her sons Hamish and Andrew took up tennis at Crownthorpe School in 2004.

However, it was the work she did during her second year as club president last year which won her the award. Her biggest project was overseeing the installation of three new plexi-cushioned courts at a cost of $120,000.

"Andrew and other Hawke's Bay junior reps were going to tournaments and regularly losing their first round matches because there weren't enough hard courts here in Hawke's Bay to get regular play on," Shand said, pointing to her 18-year-old son who will leave the country on Thursday to begin a four-year NCAA division two tennis scholarship at Davis and Elkins College in West Virginia and pursue a four-year degree in sports management.

Those three courts will enable the club to host tournaments on the national wheelchair tennis circuit in future.

"When I was in Auckland at the weekend I found out I qualify to play wheelchair tennis so I could be making a comeback," the jovial teacher in charge of textiles technology at Napier Girls' High School quipped.

Other key highlights for her last year was the delivery of the largest Hot Shots tournament in the country with 80 players, the introduction of "Playball", which teaches fundamental movement and co-ordination sporting activities to children aged 2 to 5, and the introduction of "Pay to Play" at the club - a system which gives the general public access to book and use the club's playing facilities.

These initiatives have been instrumental behind the 9 per cent increase in club membership last year to 376 seniors and 200 juniors. A similar increase is expected this year.

Shand pointed out the club plans to add another three hard courts to their complex in the near future and they will be partially covered to allow play in wet weather.

"Twelve courts makes it a lot easier to host tournaments. The dream is to host a tournament of similar quality to the Te Anau Open and we're working with potential sponsors now with the aim of running it in December."

In addition to her work at Greendale, Shand is also a Tennis Eastern committee member and helps with the running of tournaments throughout Hawke's Bay. One of her key focuses is liaising with parents of junior rep players.

"I'm a big fan of making sure parents and kids know the etiquette required. I like to see plenty of interaction between junior and senior players and I'm a strong believer in encouraging junior players to attend club working bees."

During her eight years at NGHS Shand has seen the number of teams increase from four to 10. Last year NGHS attended the national secondary schools tournament for the first time and finished seventh.

What makes her feats even more of an achievement is the fact Shand has also had to run the family farm since her husband and former Canterbury tennis rep John died 12 years ago after losing a battle with an aggressive brain tumour.

Greendale club professional Luke Donovan, who has regular planning meetings with Shand over lunch, was spot on with his summation of her with his quote in Tennis Eastern's nomination for the award. It read:

"Sarah is a high school teacher, president of the Greendale club, a Tennis Eastern board member, a Taradale Rotary Club board member and a solo mother. She lives and breathes tennis throughout all these organisations. As if this isn't enough, Sarah volunteers her limited time to running successful international junior tournaments on the weekends, raises two incredible teenagers and is always there within a heartbeat for her friends and the tennis community. You're truly awesome Sarah, thank you so much."

■ Andrew Shand will be one of two Hawke's Bay representatives starting United States College scholarships later this month. New Zealand age group rep Finn Reynolds, 17, will represent the University of Mississippi at division one level. His older brother Rob Reynolds played for the University of Louisiana in 2016.