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Whangaparāoa Tennis Club coach Jon Speed has been acknowledged as Club Coach of the Year in the 2025/6 Sporting Excellence Awards.
The award recognises a standout season for the club, with all eight interclub teams finishing in the top four of their grades, a 64 per cent rise in junior interclub players, and Speed’s focus on developing the next generation of coaches.
Since taking on the head coach role just over two years ago, Speed says more juniors are getting involved in coaching, matches, and interclub competition.
“It’s great to be recognised for the effort I’ve put into developing juniors and adults at our club,” he says. More than anything, I hope this inspires more local kids to give tennis a go because we’ve got some fantastic young players coming through.”
Alongside his own hard work, Jon also credits former Whangaparāoa Tennis Club coach Ken McLeod for helping to build the club’s success.
Beyond the club, Speed is also seeing players progress to higher honours. Whangaparāoa member Jai Kumar was selected for Tennis New Zealand’s 11-and-under North Island Camp, recognising him as one of the country’s emerging young talents.
Additionally, outside the Coast, Speed has also coached Ryann Wang since he first picked up a racket at age eight at Albany Sports Park, and Wang recently represented New Zealand at the 13-and-under Australian Teams Event.
Jon says his favourite part of coaching is helping players of all abilities improve quickly and seeing the skills and values they pick up through tennis carry over into other parts of their lives, such as strategic thinking, hard work, curiosity, and respect.
Jon was also appointed captain of New Zealand’s 11-and-under boys team for the Australian Junior Teams event, where the team exceeded expectations, finishing third against some of Australia’s strongest junior programmes.
As captain, he was able to assist the team courtside, something coaches aren’t normally allowed to do, with Luke Bray, Xanthus Gao, Bruno Reed and Nicolas Leite, helping them work through mental and tactical challenges during matches, which he says is a big help for the mental and tactical side of the game.
“It was a pleasant surprise. Australia has a much larger player base and more resources, so to finish third was a fantastic result. What impressed me most was the boys’ competitive spirit. Several times they lost the first set but found a way to turn the match around,” Jon says.
