Holder secures four-year tennis scholarship
By Leeron Brumell
Guyana Chronicle
August 23, 2004
NATIONAL Under-18 female lawn tennis champion Avonelle Holder left these shores last Saturday to take up a four-year scholarship at the Acnord State University in the United States of America. The scholarship begins today.
Holder a sixth form graduate of the St Stanislaus College will be playing tennis while majoring in Business Administration and Management.
The scholarship is fully covered by the University with Holder required only to stand the costs of acquiring her playing racquets and personal spending.
The 18-year-old said that she was fortunate enough to be spotted by the Director of the US Peace Corps Earl Browne. She explains:
"The whole story is one day I was playing tennis at Castellani House. Just by chance I was there and he (Browne) was there the same day and he saw me playing.
He asked me about my grades, I told him about my CXC grades, then we kept in contact and a few weeks after, the vice-president of the university was here and he set up a meeting with us. He was impressed, he spoke to the coach (university) about me, I did a video and the coach contacted me and I was awarded a 100% scholarship."
The bright-eyed player standing about 5ft 8ins was also required to take the SAT American examination and to submit her CXC grades.
Her aspirations for the four years are to acquire her degree and to be a part of gold winning teams.
This month marks six years since she has been playing competitive tennis on the local scene.
The slimly built player said that she thought her tennis career would be as a local star alone, but now with the acquisition of the scholarship she intends to make the best of it.
Playing the game without having a coach and being the national junior champion is something that we're not accustomed to, but she however credits her progress to watching the game and learning the technique from former national coach William Skeete.
"I don't think when I started tennis I was a total beginner because I had the eye-ball coordination and I used to do my practice.
“I just think it's motivation and a lot of time, because I find it very hard to give up stuff that I've started."
She is ranked in the top four in Guyana as one of the leading female players.
The player said that she hopes by forging new friendships in the US she would be able to share the history of Guyana, the Land of Many Waters, which in turn she hopes will bring more tourists to the country.