No club. No problem.
Cochrane, Alberta, with almost 40,000 people who call it home, is one of Alberta’s largest population centres without a formal tennis club.
With only four public courts in town—two at William Camden Park and two at Quigley Park—there has been little programming or events for tennis-loving Cochranites.
That’s until this year, when Ken Staniewski took matters into his own hands.
Staniewski recently retired from a 30-year career at Canada Post (thank you, Ken!) and moved to Cochrane to be closer to family. Much to the benefit of Cochrane’s small tennis community, Staniewski is an experienced TPA-certified coach, having most recently coached at OKM Tennis Club in Kelowna. Since returning to Alberta he’s also coached at the Calgary Tennis Club.
He started Coach Ken’s Community Tennis this spring, holding open houses to get to know the community and have them give tennis a try. And with some support from Tennis Alberta, he offered all sorts of programs this year: Red Ball, Orange Ball, and Green Ball for kids. There were programs for ‘Tiny Tots’ (4–5 year olds) all the way up to adult programs.
Ken coaches for fun. And for his love of the game.
When we asked him about his favorite takeaways and what makes coaching in Cochrane special:
“One of the things unique to Cochrane is that they do not have a tennis club, and just 4 public courts. It was really nice to hear from tennis players in the community that they were excited to see some structured tennis programs being offered in Cochrane. After coaching in Kelowna for the last ten years it has been very rewarding to be able to get some new players hooked on the great sport of tennis in a community like Cochrane. I had kids and adults asking me when the next sessions start. That has been the most rewarding part about coaching here, seeing kids and adults having fun and wanting to continue learning the great game of tennis.”
– Ken Staniewski
He’s away for the winter somewhere warm (yes, we’re jealous!), but he plans to get programs back up and running next spring.
Great work, and thank you, Ken!
