NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Over the years, the Commonwealth of The Bahamas has contributed to the pool of international tennis players attending colleges and universities in the United States.
The Bahamas Lawn and Tennis Association (BTLA) recently acknowledged nine of its players that are currently competing on the collegiate level throughout the United States.
“We are excited for our returning athletes and our new athletes who will be adjusting to the college scene,” the BLTA shared in a released statement.
The student-athletes BLTA highlighted include Jacobi Bain, Xavier University of Louisiana; Donte Armbrister, Hampton University; Elana Mackey, Mars Hill University; Anthony “AJ” Burrows Jr., University of Missouri-St. Louis; Abigail Simms, Indiana Institute of Technology (Indiana Tech); Sydney Clarke, University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB); Peyton-Lynn Anderson, Southwest Minnesota State University; Kofi Bowe and Shaytonya Missick, Johnson C. Smith University.
Wishing that “all are successful on the courts and in the classroom,” the BLTA said it prides itself on the organization’s ability to “marry the vast talent pool of players of the Bahamas with a solid foundation of accredited coaches, talent development and competition to spur performance locally and abroad.”
The inaugural BLTA National Championships for juniors was held sixty years ago in 1962, paving the way for the development of tennis as a sport in The Bahamas. In 1992, the BLTA joined the newly formed Central America and Caribbean Tennis Confederation (COTECC), providing additional opportunities for Bahamian youth to pursue a pathway to playing American collegiate tennis.
There are over 20,000 international student-athletes enrolled and competing at NCAA higher education institutions. American college tennis, men’s and women’s teams, have the highest percentage of international student-athletes competing in an NCAA-sponsored sport, according to NCSA College Recruiting.
The BLTA provided a list of former American College Tennis players of Bahamian descent, including John Antonas, Rod Carey, Joyanne Carroll, Luigi D’Agord, Nikkita Fountain, Mark Knowles, Mark Merklein, Baker Newman, Spencer Newman, Simone Pratt, Alanna Rogers, Chelsi Russell, Errol Smith, Erin Strachan, and Ryan Sweeting.
Loading ...
