NSW Maccabi initiates Tennis Scholarship
12-year-old tennis young gun Mitch Maloon is the inaugural recipient of a Maccabi NSW Tennis scholarship, as the tennis club opens its doors to facilitate the development of talented youngsters.
Mitch Maloon
Mitch, a student at Sydney’s Moriah College, has backed up that award by storming into the country’s top-10 rankings for his age bracket after a strong performance at a Gold Optus Tour event in Bathurst this week. He finished fourth in the singles and bowed out in the semi-finals of the doubles of a tournament featuring some of the state’s best under-12s.
Mitch’s resume features a host of top-eight finishes in Optus Junior Tour events over the past two years, including a win at the 2011 Hills Open Doubles, a runner-up finish at the Nepean Championships and semi-finals in six other events. Mitch is also in the NSW State squad, which trains twice a week, and was also selected in the Davis Cup development squad.
He has represented NSW schools and Metropolitan Sydney, but of the Maccabi scholarship, he says: “it feels good to be selected by Maccabi and to be given a sponsorship”.
Maccabi Tennis’ Steve Loeffler said: “this initiative by Maccabi Tennis club is looking toward Maccabi Tennis Club’s future.
“Mitch was rewarded with the scholarship based upon his tournament performance in 2011 and 2012 and his keenness and attitude to training and competing. As part of his scholarship, Mitch will receive high performance training with Maccabi Tennis coaches at its White City site.”
Mitch will also be competing in the Maccabi Tennis JSS Competition, where over 160 kids compete on a regular basis each Sunday. He is currently ranked second on the Maccabi Tennis Junior Ladder board.
One of the tennis club’s other new initiatives, for youngsters like Mitch, is the formation of a Maccabiah Development Squad for talented juniors.
“This program selects potential Maccabi Games Israel 2013 Juniors who wish to represent Australia at the games.
Kids selected in the program receive free squad training with a high performance coach and receive valuable training in preparation for the Maccabiah Games trials. There are currently 12 kids selected in the program.”
Selection for the squad is through the Director of Maccabi Tennis, Steve Loeffler and the new Development Officer, Daniel Sheining, and is based upon skill level, attitude, attendance and performance.
