One match ends, another begins.
In fact, we're coming to the end of a very fine period.
No, I'm not sad, I'm proud.
The LTA has achieved an incredible result, despite the fact that 'we' haven't had a helping hand for a very long time.
The LTA faithful will understand that I very rarely speak in the first person.
However, I am proud to have helped so many players discover and develop in this fabulous sport and to have progressed with them and for them.
I know that many people will remember me and I'm pleased that I'm not creating indifference.
The LTA trademark came from the heart: always giving the best like nowhere else.
Many students, families, coaches and members of the team, as well as a number of officials from the local authority, have understood this too.
I've always wanted to give the players what they deserve, knowing that there's nothing more important than the education and progress of your children.
I've always tried to find the best solutions and I'd like to thank everyone who has helped me in this way. My aim was to help you all. When people asked me how many children I had, I always said the number of children in the school. (before the birth of my first)
For me, the last generation of coaches was the most accomplished, because they had experienced the blossoming of the LTA from the inside and were in line with our philosophy of helping all the players. I'd like to thank them for all those extraordinary moments.
All of them will recognise themselves, all of those who were involved in the project.
Many have now become close friends.
Proud to have left an indelible mark and not to have been attacked for my work, but only personally, and that was the easiest thing.
I live for my passion and for my work, I love it. I've lived like that from the start. I'm in my game.
I'd like to thank all of you, because I've learnt so much. Thank you to those who took the trouble to encourage me, who supported me, those who understood and even the more critical ones, because they often helped me to progress.
I've been through some very difficult times, which I could never have imagined when I agreed to come to Lambermont, which was far from being the sexiest club at the time, and I'd been warned, but I was still a bit carefree. Despite that, sport taught me to hang in there.
I wish my successor good luck and a lot of courage in the knot that is this 'club' and I'm very happy to be leaving for an open project where I know that everyone will be in a better world and in better (incomparable) conditions. We all deserve that, especially your children.
Thank you all for everything, you're always welcome and the game will go on!
It's thanks to you that I've been able to keep going for so long.
I'd particularly like to thank the ATA, the sports centre and TC Les Églantiers for welcoming me and allowing me to continue to make a living from my passion and to be part of this wonderful project!
To contact me at my new address: didier@acetennis.be and my mobile: 0475 85 99 93
Acetennis.be
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See you soon,
Didier Maes
