The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedis.net

Perry Newton, the president of Sub Region Three of COTECC, will be seeking another two-year term as president of the Bahamas Lawn Tennis Association when the BLTA holds its annual general meeting and election of officers on Saturday.

The AGM and elections are scheduled to begin 3pm at the National Tennis Centre and will be open to all financial members.

Newton, elected to serve on the COTECC board in August with the responsibility for The Bahamas, Jamaica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Haiti over the next two years, said he’s looking forward to regaining the confidence of the BLTA to serve for another two-year term here at home.

“I think it’s a part of the process that federations undertake,” Newton said.

“Recently, we used to go every year, but some people felt it was a short time.

“Even two years is a short time, but this allows the federation to stay fresh.

“We have a lot of things to report to the membership about the growth of the sport during the pandemic and being incorporated after being registered as a non-profit organisation last year. So we made a lot of progress during COVID-19. This year, we will focus a lot more on the players by having more tournaments this year compared to the last term in office.”

Newton, who was opposed by Daphany Mortier during the last election in 2020, said while they managed to get in some tournaments during the past two years, it wasn’t sufficient to keep the local players active, especially those who are vying to obtain athletic scholarships to further their education in school.

“This term, once we are re-elected, we want to focus on getting more tournaments for our players to participate in, not just the ones who are at home, but those who are on the tour and just try to build a stronger relationship with all of them,” Newton said.

As for the elections, Newton said he’s looking forward to the elections.

“It’s a time to get people to join in and be part of your vision for tennis in the country,” he said.

“We have a lot of exciting things moving forward. No matter what the outcome, we need to have dedicated people in positions representing each island association in Abaco, Grand Bahama and Eleuthera. So it’s exciting because they are in a unique position representing their respective island.”

During the break in the pandemic, Newton said they got to send out their nomination list with the deadline closed for them to be returned on Sunday.

He said the list will be available on the ballot sheet for everyone to peruse on election day on Saturday.

While the AGM will be face-to-face, Newton said there will be a virtual setup for persons who choose not to attend because of the COVID-19 environment. He anticipates that there will be a number of persons who will be in attendance at the NTC.

“At the last elections, we had about 140 persons who showed up to participate in the AGM,” Newton said.

“We really can’t say how many people will show up, but we anticipate that the numbers could be around the same as the last one in 2020.”

Although he was elected during the start of COVID- 19 in 2020, Newton said there were some projects already in the works under the previous leadership of Darnette Weir, whom he served as treasurer and his administration was able to carry some of those out when they took office.

“COVID-19 affected some of the things we wanted to do because of the restrictions that were put in place (by the Ministry of Health),” Newton said. “But based on that, we saw a lot of growth with tennis being viewed as a safe sport. “So we’ve seen some growth since 2020 and I think if it wasn’t for the pandemic, we would have seen a lot more growth. But it was a good two years. We learned a lot. We had to make a lot of adjustments on the fly because it was something new for everybody.”

Through the measures they implemented, Newton said the Bahamas gained a lot of recognition by the International Tennis Federation in regards to the return of tennis in the pandemic and he credited a lot of that from what Weir left in place.

“The Bahamas also did very well in a lot of the international competitions that we participated in,” Newton said. “We saw a lot of growth with new players at the beginners and adult levels, so it was a really good two years.

“I would definitely say my team really meshed together around February- March last year and we really clicked as a unit. So I expect more growth and I hope that the country maintains a low level of COVID-19 inflections and once we do, we can bring back our international tennis to allow the local players who don’t have the opportunity to travel to get some experience here at home.”

As for his slate of officers, Newton said he anticipates that those seeking to join him on the board will be successful as he is in securing their positions as they look forward to serving in another two-year term on the BLTA board.