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We encourage all junior players, as well as their parents, guardians, and coaches to review the following statement about Tennis Alberta’s junior nationals selection process.

A message from our Executive Director:

As a former junior athlete and coach, I appreciate the value and importance of participating in a national championship. Whether it is the pride of representing your province or the development opportunity of competing against your peers from across the country, nationals is an experience unlike many others in a junior’s career. Therefore, I take Tennis Alberta’s role in putting forth a process to select our junior nationals athletes very seriously.

Recently, several parents and coaches have reached out and expressed a lack of clarity about our selection process. Since taking the helm of Tennis Alberta last year, I have committed to promoting a culture of transparency in our operations and pursued opportunities to collaborate with our member facilities to improve our community landscape.

This is why, as we head into our Indoor Provincial Championships, I wanted to put out this statement. I want to ensure the process for selecting our nationals players is clear and easily understood:

  • For the 2025 U12, U14, & U16 Indoor Nationals, players will be selected solely based on their national rankings, as of the rankings update date following their respective age group’s provincial championship.
  • The only exclusion to this selection ranking will be the removal of any players who have not competed in the Alberta Provincial Championship (5-Star) and at least one Alberta 4-Star in the age group they intend to represent.
  • This is the process outlined in more detail in our Junior Competitive Structure, and it is identical to the process used in the previous nationals cycle.

I recognize that no system is perfect, and the concerns raised by our community are valid. We have had similar concerns internally, which is why we recently assembled a group of provincial coaches to help assess our current system and propose a potential new system for future cycles. We are now expanding this group to re-launch our Junior Development Committee.

This group will work with us to finalize any proposed changes and determine a fair timeline for implementation. We are considering both the 2025 Outdoor Nationals cycle and the 2026 Indoor Nationals cycle as possible start points. Any changes will be communicated well in advance to participants and member facilities so everyone can plan their schedules accordingly.

The Tennis Alberta Team is committed to—and, in fact, excited about—improving our sport’s competitive landscape. We look forward to sharing our work with you as it develops, and we encourage your feedback along the way.

—Colin Latchford, Executive Director

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