National team coach Braen Aneiros helps young students at Don Bosco School get to grips with tennis balls during their inaugural Schools Tennis Initiative session yesterday. Photograph: Sreng Meng Srun/Phnom Penh Post

Don Bosco School joined the Schools Tennis Initiative yesterday, giving a big boost to the Tennis Federation of Cambodia’s “Catch Them Young” programme.

“We liked the idea from the beginning. It is good for the kids and the school,” Don Bosco spokeswoman Ljudmila Anzic told the Tennis Federation of Cambodia, accepting its offer to institute tennis lessons for close to 200 children on school premises.

Boys and girls from two second and two third grade classes will learn and play twice a week, on Thursdays and Fridays. A recreational area inside the school compound will be turned into mini tennis courts

The federation has deputed Pro Pov and Doeun Sochea Phearun to run the programme as coaches. Technical director and national team coach Braen Aneiros will make periodic visits to assess the progress.

“We are excited to have a new school joining three others already in the network, and the school is happy to include tennis as part of [its] physical education curriculum,” Aneiros told the Post.

The federation’s secretary general, Tep Rithivit, meanwhile, said the federation was “delighted to have a school of the stature of Don Bosco jumping on board.”

“Our express wish is to cover at least eight schools and six orphanages under the [Schools Tennis Initiative], and we are getting close to that goal,” he added.

“Don Bosco joining us is all the more sweeter coming as it does three days before the Children’s Festival at the Beeline Arena on March 3, marking the inaugural World Tennis Day, the theme of which is grassroots development.”