Sebastian Liggenstorfer spoke to Richard Buscombe about UEL tennis, and caught up with twins Camille and Marie Prulhiere about their UEL scholarship.
UEL Tennis is one of the most successful sports programmes at UEL. Only one game was lost last year and the programme’s players are still unbeaten this season.
They are continuously growing in numbers and now have 15 scholars this year. As a new programme, all the UEl teams had to start in the lowest division, but they have been promoted each year so far.
Richard Buscombe, a senior sports and exercise science lecture, is the university’s tennis coordinator. Though Buscombe doesn’t coach the sport himself, he talked with great enthusiasm about coaching and the development of tennis at UEL.
“Three years ago UEL started out with only one tennis scholar,” Buscombe said. “The following year it was three, then four, and now this year 15, eight men and seven women. Like in every sport you need time to set up a programme.
“The first few years we worked to establish a programme, to get funding from the tennis foundation the LTA (Lawn Tennis Association), which recognises high-performance universities.
“Our performance program is delivered by a high-performance tennis provider and we are sub-contracting to them”
Though UEL’s main target is to develop British talent, they also work hard to attract a good mixture of international students as well.
“The most important thing is, that the people who are coming in have a positive impact on the group,” says Buscombe. “It’s hard work to get an international scholar, because they have to apply for a visa and need to have recognisable qualifications. It’s easier to get European scholars”, explained Buscombe.
“There are only nine high performance Universities in the UK which shows how good the tennis is at UEL. After the programme was set [up] they could focus on recruiting to get more students.
“Our goal of the programme is to take players and to have them in the system as an undergrad for three years. Within six months after they graduate we want them to play some tournaments and then to have a world ranking,“ explained Buscombe.
Two of the 15 scholars UEL are twins, Camille and Marie Prulhiere. The scholars are both second year business management and marketing students.
Successful
The pair were born in France, before they moved to the United States at the age of 12. They went to high school in Dallas before moving to the United Kingdom for university.
The two both enjoyed a successful season during the 2014/15 season, mostly playing doubles together. Even though tennis wasn’t the main influence on the pair coming to UEL to study, it certainly influenced their decision.
“Here at UEL we are mainly doubles players, but we have to play singles and doubles this year. We won the league and the cup with UEL last season and the team got promoted. It was definitely a successful season” Camille said.
They are looking to continue their unbeaten streak so far this season. The university offers both Marie and Camille great coaching to improve their tennis. It also provides them with an education and a degree, which will prepare them for life should they decide not to pursue careers in tennis.
“We definitely improved our tennis thanks to the coaching. It is great and so are the strength and conditioning sessions. We get challenged every practice because the players we play with are really good” explained Marie.
It is important to the University to not only help the scholars during the years in which they are studying at UEL, but also after they graduate. Buscombe explains how he tries to keep in contact with scholars after they’ve left Docklands.
“One guy works in the media and marketing section for the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association), another former scholar is in banking and finance, and one girl does a sports graduate science post-grad course” added Buscombe.
With the programme gaining scholars in different stages of their careers UEL is mainly trying to help them transition into a life away from tennis. However, they continue to support them as part of the deal the scholars have up to one year after they graduate.
With the tennis programme having already had such success, UEL tennis looks to be going from strength to strength.