The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

WHILE she’s excited to be back home, Bahamian collegian tennis player Sydney Clarke said she’s looking forward to having another eventful trip during her Christmas break.

The 20-year-old Clarke, in her sophomore year at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, has her hands full this week with her food drive for the Children’s Emergency Hostel.

Next week, the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture’s junior female athlete of the year turns her focus to the Bahamas Lawn Tennis Association’s Giorgio Baldacci National Open Championships at the National Tennis Centre.

In the meantime, Clarke said she needed the break to get back home where she was a stellar performer at CR Walker Secondary High before she transferred to Windsor School and played in the Albany Tennis Academy.

“It feels amazing. It’s a great feeling. I feel excited,” she said. “I’m a little bit sad because some things changed and some people I know passed away, but I’m just glad to be home with my family and friends.”

In addition to her parents, Shayvon and Bernard Clarke and sister Sarai, one of the other persons she was glad to see again was her grandmother, Mary Coakley. She spent some time making up for her absence when she was away attending school in Birmingham, Alabama.

Like she did two years ago, Clarke is putting on another food drive for the Children’s Emergency Hostel. But unlike the initial effort in 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic forced her to cancel last year’s effort, Clarke said this year’s drive will be a little different.

The food drive will be staged between the hours of 2 to 5pm at the hostel where people wishing to make a donation of food or cash can do so by passing by the home on McKinney Drive, off Carmichael Road, to make their contribution.

“I expect to get a lot more support than the previous one. A lot of people have been reaching out to me and extending their help, so the response has been very good,” Clarke said.

“I just hope that as it goes on, it will get better. I know I started the planning for this year’s event during the last week of exams at school, so I wasn’t able to do as much as I wanted to, but a lot of people have been reaching out to me and are coming to drop off items at the hostel on Saturday.”

Immediately after she’s done her charitable chores, Clarke will be suiting up in her tennis attire to defend her title in the BLTA’s National Open Championships, starting on Monday at the National Tennis Centre.

“I think I’m ready for this year’s event,” Clarke said. “I’ve been prepping, so I feel as though I’m in top shape to do some damage this year.”

The 5-foot, 5-inch power-packed Clarke is expected to be among a list of eight female players signed up to compete.

The others are Billie Jean King Cup captain Kerrie Cartwright and team-mates Sierra Donaldson and Elana Mackey, along with Grand Bahamian Simone Pratt and juniors Maddison Bowleg, Sierra Rodgers and Sapphire Ferguson.

“It will be interesting. Even though it’s only eight of us, I think the competition will be very keen,” Clarke said. “I think the field is still a very good one, so the competition is going to be very keen.”

At UAB, where she has held her own, Clarke said her season got off to a rough start, but she was able to turn things around before she came home.

“This was a time for me to rebuild my game going into spring and I think that is what I was able to do,” Clarke said.

“I’ve seen a lot of improvement at the end of the season, so I’m really excited to pick things up for the spring season.”

Once she has completed all of her duties over the Christmas holiday, Clarke will resume her season and her studies at UAB where she is pursuing her degree in entrepreneurship with a minor in mass communication.