Photo: Photosport
Tennis Auckland has appointed its first safety officer, to help protect young players from abuse.
There are a growing number of coaches, both local and international, who have been found to have abused players physically, sexually and emotionally.
In 2023, New Zealand tennis coach Richard Barry was jailed for rape and sexual offences and in April this year, former trusted community member and Blenheim gymnastics coach Gregory Pask was sentenced to almost 16 years jail for hundreds of offences against young girls in his care.
The regional tennis body has appointed former professional Tracey O'Connor as its safeguarding officer.
Tennis Auckland chief executive Rohan West told Checkpoint the role is to provide reassurance to predominantly children and vulnerable adults, as well as all other participants, from any abuse or safeguarding issue.
"That could be, on the one end, extreme sexual abuse and right through to discrimination or bullying," he said.
He said all tennis coaches across New Zealand need to be police vetted and Tennis New Zealand implemented a coach register just over a year ago, which all coaches should be on.
"There's what's called a five tick process and one of those five ticks is police vetting, all of our employed coaches and contractor coaches are on that register and have got all five ticks and that's police vetting first aid certificates, safeguarding training ensured and also a coaches code of ethics."
While coaches should not be falling through the gaps, police vetting was down to the body employing them, West said.
"Tennis New Zealand has done a great job of creating this centralised coach register so when a club employs a coach either on a contracted basis or an employment basis, then that coach goes through a nationalised police vetting process and it's all automated, he said.
The organisation had liaised with police to put the system in place, he said.
If any tennis participant had concerns, the safeguarding officer would be the first port of call.
"Tracey is not an employee, she is a volunteer and completely independent of both the governance and management structure of Tennis Auckland," West said.
O'Connor was a well known figure and respected figure within the tennis community, he said.
"She played for New Zealand and Billie Jean King Cup, Fed Cup as it was back in the day, in 2001, 2002 she was a professional on the WTA tour, 90 F world tour for a number of years and within the Auckland Tennis community is well known, well respected, and well loved," he said.
Prior to having this role, tennis participants would approach someone at their club at the first instance with their concerns.
No complaints so far have been passed through to Tennis Auckland, West said, as they had been dealt with in each club network.
"If someone has gone through a process with the club and have got a concern through that process, then they would come to us. But at the moment there are no outstanding issues that I'm aware of," he said.
"Tracey has had a couple of emails so far, but at the moment, nothing has raised itself to my level yet."
Where to get help:
Victim Support 0800 842 846
Rape Crisis 0800 88 33 00
HELP Call 24/7 (Auckland): 09 623 1700, (Wellington): 04 801 6655 - push 0 at the menu
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) 022 344 0496
