It’s been a busy few months for EA Tennis rising star Josephine Jarvis. Josephine was recently selected to play for Norfolk Under 8’s for the first time, this feat is more impressive given that at the time she had not yet turned 7, making her a full year younger than all the other players in the team. Josephine and the other Norfolk girls (also comprising EA Tennis players Caitlin Parfitt and Millie Brooks) travelled down to Stevenage for an East Region Inter County event. This event pits the best Mini Red players from Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire and Kent against one another. Josephine had the daunting task of playing at number 3 (out of 6) and had 7 tough matches. However she more than held her own in a very strong field – winning 3 matches and narrowly losing 4 making her the most successful Norfolk player on the day.
Josephine also recently took part in a Mini Red County Talent Identification day. Each club in the county selects their strongest children born in 2003 to come along to a day of fitness and tennis tests. The day was run by Warren Sawyer who is the Talent Performance Co-ordinator for the East Region, his job is to identify and monitor the most gifted children in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridge. Josephine obviously stood out on the day as she was one of only three children (and the only girl) to go through to the next round.
As part of the next round of talent identification Josephine was invited to attend a Regional Talent ID day in Stevenage and also a Regional Matchplay Event held at Culford Sports and Leisure Centre. Josephine was one of only 8 girls in the whole of the East Region to be invited to these events (and the only girl from Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridge). Once again Josephine can be proud of her performances in both events and there was very little between any of the girls. It is obviously very early days but we think that Josephine is definitely one to watch for the future!
Josephine has been playing tennis for one year and currently trains as part of the Norfolk Tennis Academy under the guidance of EA Coaches Tom Kenny and Chris Evans. Josephine was spotted last year at one of our ‘Hotshot’ days at Taverham Tennis Club. These are free fun taster tennis sessions for 5 and 6 year olds with our team of coaches and assistants. As part of these sessions Chris and Tom are on the lookout for potential stars of the future. Particularly talented children may be offered a term’s free coaching, discounted individual lessons and like in Josephine’s case a scholarship to the Norfolk Tennis Academy. The EA Tennis Team will be coming to your area soon to run Hotshots days, if your child is 5 or 6 and would like to give tennis a try for the first time or you think they might have what it takes to be a rising star like Josephine then make sure you come along!
