Adewale Isa-Sponsored US Training: Setting The Records Straight
For the past two years, the Adewale Isa Foundation has resorted to giving training scholarships to the U-12 winners of their flagship tournament, the AIF Junior Tennis Championship.
The competition which annually holds in Lagos, Nigeria, features youngsters in the 12, 14 and 16 & Unders categories, with the winners getting mouthwatering gift items from the organizers.
Aside the prizes for the U-12 boys and girls winners, the Adewale Isa Foundation facilitates a complimentary two-month training tour for the youngsters to the McKinney Tennis Centre in Texas, USA.
The first player whose training tour to the US was facilitated by the Foundation was Joel Michael, winner of the 2022 edition of the competition. He spent two months at the training centre in the United States alongside his father, Godwin Michael.
Upon return to Nigeria, however, Nigeria Tennis Live gathered that Mr. Michael was of the impression that his son had secured an academic scholarship to be back in the United States after prior discussions with Nurudeen Isa, Coach Ubale Mohammed and Mr. Matt Hanlin, the proprietor of the training centre.
Nigeria Tennis Live reached out to Mr. Michael to find out what went down in the United States during the visit, and to confirm if such promises were truly made by the parties quoted to have held the discussion.
The discussions held with the tennis training centre and the ensuing issues have necessitated this article to set the records straight and explain to every tennis follower what the McKinney Tennis Centre offers through the Adewale Isa Foundation Junior Tennis Championship, and what transpired between both parties.
READ ALSO: Incredible Rose Nana Listed Among Best U-12s In Quebec Canada
Nurudeen Isa, one of the Directors at the Adewale Isa Foundation, revealed in a conversation with Nigeria Tennis Live, that the competition only gives out the complimentary training session to the players and nothing more.
According to him, it is already a lot of money to get good trainers for the player(s) as well as the use of the facilities at the Centre, let alone adding academic scholarship to the package.
He told our correspondent that “I want to reiterate that the complimentary training we give these kids was an initiative that I came up with alongside my boss after sitting down to think about how to help Nigerian players, and we explained it to everybody in the letter that Dawn (GM of McKinney Tennis Centre) wrote.
“We indicated in the letter that it was an eight-week training tour. But in his own (Mr. Michael’s) case, because he is closer to me, I said you guys can come here for as long as you want; six months, one year – you know, we’ll make it open for you guys so that you guys can benefit from it”.
On how the issue of academic scholarship came to being, the Mr. Isa explained that he had started planning it before Joel even won the Adewale Isa Foundation Junior Tennis Championship as a way of helping the youngster get exposed to a better learning environment and develop his talent.
READ ALSO: Great Potentials, Solid Technique – What American Coaches Said About Joel Michael
According to him: “Even before his son won the (Adewale Isa Junior) tournament, I had pursued the exchange student programme. I went to the school where my kids train and spoke with their coach. He gave me some companies to reach out to and I reached out to them, and they said to me that they had a pool of students from every continent and that Nigeria was not one of them and I said I was looking at helping Nigerian kids come over here and that had been in the pipeline.
“So when they came, I said, you know what, let’s go to the coach that I have been talking to. We didn’t really get a response from where he had asked me to check and when I got back to him, he asked me to just go to the school and register Joel.
“I showed the message to Michael and told him that what it means is that I either adopt him or be his guardian because he’s here on a visa and he cannot use his visa to go to school. You have to be resident in this country. So, he saw all that text message and felt we didn’t want his child to come back.
“The thing is, the coach asking me to just register Joel didn’t understand the fact that he and his dad were only in the United States on a visa and not as residents. And from my understanding, we have to do something official to make me his guardian or I adopt him.
“I explained all of these things to him, and told him that it’s a process but he wouldn’t listen to me because he thought the meeting we had with Ubale and Matt meant that he (Matt) had offered his (Mr. Michael’s) son a scholarship.
“Meaning he’s going to be here forever, Matt’ll sponsor him through College and all of that, and that was what he said”.
READ ALSO: Winners Of National Junior Tennis Championship To Get Free Us Training Tour
Matt, in a response to the impression being reportedly formed by Mr. Michael following their initial discussion, stated that “I didn’t say anything like that but he’s always welcome for free training.
“The free tennis training and the use of facilities is already a form of scholarship, what else do you mean by scholarship?”
Speaking further, Mr. Isa noted that “I told him that his child got $6,000 worth of tennis training and coaching, if not more. The school thing was a personal thing between us, and not something really in the open.
“The new person (Chukwudubem Amasiani) who’s coming here soon, I told the Mum that we have the challenge of accommodation and she said she’ll take care of it. And I told her that if it’s feeding, I’ll do everything possible to ensure they get properly fed.
“So, I’m doing this because it is important that everyone knows what transpired between us and for future reference, for parents who will be bringing their kids here on the complimentary training our foundation is offering”.
