Founder of Bosses Tennis Academy, Rhonda Solomon-Mohammed, has witnessed the victories and defeats of the scores of players she has coached. But win or lose, they always get on and off the courts with the understanding that they must sacrifice to benefit, by investing time and effort into perfecting their playing and competition skills.
Solomon-Mohammed told Business Guardian she learned the lesson of foregoing to profit decades ago, especially when she took a decision to start the academy.
“I put out my first advertisement flyer 25 years ago. I had a relative with a printery, and she charged me $200 to make the plate. I printed the flyers and took them to TT Post, and they circulated it in North and South Valsayn. I paid about $300 for that. That was my capital; my last bit of money, yes.
But I said, ‘Sacrifice to benefit.’” One that, years later, would yield national players who represented T&T at a local, regional and international level, among them her only daughter Calista Mohammed, Che Sanchez and Nabeel Mohammed.
“And Bosses has had a lot of children winning the Catch National Junior Tennis Championships, and who have represented the academy in Red Ball and Orange Ball tournaments, as well as the Davis Cup and Fed Cup.”
Additionally, she said, because she has always got players involved in assisting with coaching, Bosses has produced quite a number of coaches.
“They go and do the courses and become certified. So this is another way in which the tennis world has benefitted from Bosses Tennis Academy.”
She said one of her biggest aspirations is for the academy to have its own indoor facility, so that rain or shine, she can continue coaching students and her private clinic for adults.
“Including pickleball, which is a big thing in Trinidad right now.”
But given all she has accomplished as the head coach of Bosses, Solomon-Mohammed admitted there was a time she was not as confident about her coaching abilities. Although she was certified, at the time she felt she was not experienced enough to coach her daughter.
“So she was with another coach, but I found he wasn’t pushing her to the next level. Then I found out he was not certified,” she said with a loud laugh.
“And that was when I took her away from him, opened up my own business and I started coaching her at a court in Valsayn North. For the first three months Calista was my only student. She was about 11 then.”
Solomon-Mohammed said she was also involved in a programme with the Tennis Association and the International Tennis Federation (ITF), but that programme was more of a voluntary nature and did not fall under the Bosses umbrella.
“The ITF co-ordinator in Trinidad and Tobago at the time was Anthony Jeremiah. He couldn’t do it by himself, so he got coaches involved and he asked us to go to the schools to coach the children. He introduced us to schools in our area. I’m from St. Joseph, so I went St Joseph Boys RC, St Joseph Girls RC, and TML.”
Eventually, she said, under Bosses, she started doing private and semi-private, sessions with children who did n’ot do the school programme but who were interested in learning to play tennis. She continued to use the court in Valsayn until an unpleasant situation developed and she started renting the courts in Tacarigua, then managed by the Ministry of Sports.
“Then in 2009, I started working at The UWI, St Augustine Campus tennis courts as facility attendant and I used to coach. They wanted me to do an outreach programme with the UWI primary school, but they didn’t want me to charge them. So I said, ‘Okay, if you want me to do that for free, then can you give me some hours to use the court to coach my (Bosses) students,’” to avoid having to rush between St Augustine and Tacarigua.
An agreement was reached and Bosses became part of the UWI culture, until the COVID-19 pandemic caused the nationwide shutdown of sporting facilities, including the UWI courts. After the ban was lifted, UWI courts remained closed, and the Bosses head coach had to find a court to carry on with her business. She was able to secure the use of Chetwynd Tennis Club in Tunapuna.
“In addition to the students, I also coach a lot of adults, some of whom represent Bosses in novice tournaments. So I have to make sure they train. But the clientele dropped drastically because a lot of people were still afraid of getting Covid.”
Fortunately, she still had some people who were interested in exercising and were willing to come out.
“I just accepted the financial fallout of the pandemic and moved on.”
But although things picked up a bit, the area in which the court was situated began to pose a problem, as it was high risk and people were concerned.
“I mean, when people came back out, obviously bandits came out too. So I lost clientele that way. They said they were willing to come back if I could find somewhere else.”
She decided to return to the National Racquet Centre in Tacarigua, which now requires that bookings be made online.
“A booking site; an email booking site that never worked. So it was almost impossible to book the courts in Tacarigua. I have tried getting the Tennis Association to assist in getting coaches to get access to the courts. We are willing to pay, obviously, because we are using the courts for monetary gain. But it was just consistent blocking of getting to use the courts.”
A tenacious Solomon-Mohammed, though, refuses to allow stumbling blocks and red tape to get in the way of her bread and butter.
“Eventually, I was able to rent the courts there,” she said.
And she also has the authority to use the St Augustine Girls High School (SAGHS) courts to coach an academy programme.
“I coach SAGHS students as the coach, but that is not under Bosses. Under Bosses, however, I got permission to use the court for a primary school programme. At the moment we have students from two schools that participate in that programme.”
Solomon-Mohammed has since retired from her job at UWI, and contracts some of her former students to assist her with the Bosses coaching, allowing her the time to go to the US to visit her daughter and grandson.
“And it will continue to be like this until Cali doesn’t need me to help out as much.”
