Children's Tennis and Sports Management Inc.

Children’s Tennis Workshop (CTW) was founded by former Philippine tennis junior champion Giovanni Bernard Soliman Mamawal in 1987 and was registered with the DTI in 1989 as a single proprietorship business.

 

With a tennis-playing and sports patron father in the person of Eufracio B. Mamawal, it was but natural for the younger Mamawal to get hooked to the racket sport. So at age 9 in the early 1970s, Coach Jovy, as he is nowadays more popularly known in the local and international tennis community, has not stopped hitting the yellow balls.

 

In the years to come, Lady Luck pooled together enthusiastic tennis-loving people who eventually formed the pioneer coaches of the CTW Group – Victoriano “Bobot” Nalus, Merlo “Eloi” Pornobe and Rene “Direk” Selmar. They are still together with Coach Jovy to this day.

 

Coach Bobot has been an influential mentor to the CTW Group – he was Coach Jovy’s high school tennis teacher. He is currently one of the most sought-after coaches in the country’s high profile tennis events for the rich and famous.

 

Coach Eloi has been the do-it-all go-to-guy eversince resigning from his government job in 1988. He shuttles to Malaysia a few months each year for the CTW Group’s Malaysia-Philippines tennis circuit programs.

 

Direk Rene was an International Tennis Federation (ITF) White Badge Referee. He is the  Webster dictionary in the technical department of the CTW Group.

 

Next generation instructors included Allan Lao, who still teaches tennis but has concentrated in deep sea diving where the sweet-talking serve-and-volley expert has earned a Masters Diver certificate; while 2-time NCAA MVP Cris Cuarto of San Beda College has been the Philippine Tennis Association’s head tennis coach since 2010.

 

Pioneers Joe Pacquia, Romeo del Mundo and Boy Leonora had passed away.

 

Even during his high school days in Tarlac Town when most of his friends and classmates were engrossed with parties and night-outs, Coach Jovy was busy recruiting other youngsters and organizing club and provincial level tennis tournaments – for the kids his age. 

 

Now on its fourth decade of service to the Filipino youth thru tennis with some 1,000 local and international tennis activities, events and tournaments, the CTW Group has expanded the Philippine core group with the addition of former San Beda ace netter Davis Alano, Ogie Venzon, Peaches Cunanan, Wendell Gojoco, Mario Craiz, Macoy Basanal, Karl Zoleta and Ogie Tumangan – as senior coaches.

 

The CTW Group has also cooperation activities with the Department of Education’s regional sports aficionados thru David Vicente, Jonathan Pinon, Levi Orca and Joel Alegre. The most recent was the highly successful organization of the 6th ASEAN School Tennis in Marikina City where the Philippines won 4 bronze medals in the tough international tournament participated by Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and host Philippines.

 

Foreign-based CTW-certified coaches include Emerson Ocampo (New Zealand-based); Nic Fernandez (Malaysia-based); Neil Fernandez (Cayman Islands-based); Rick Filipinas (Saudi Arabia-based); Dado Malabad (Qatar-based); and Josephine Paguyo, Arjay Canoza and Richard Martinez (all Oman-based) – mostly former San Beda NCAA tennis players.

 

And in a move to firmly stamp its class in the next decades in servicing the Filipino Youth thru sports, Coach Jovy’s family had started to contribute in the major operations of the CTW Group – now upgraded as an SEC registered corporation in the name of Children’s Tennis and Sports Management Inc. (CTSM).

 

Gerber, who recently came back after a 4-year stint in Malaysia, is an ITF-certified coach in the School Tennis Initiative and Play and Stay programs.

 

Jopy, who is currently based in Saudi Arabia as sports development officer in Rakah under the supervision of the Tamimi-Armaco Recreational Department, had switched places with elder brother Gerber as the CTSM international affairs coach. 

 

Chynna Alyssa and Kevin Fraz are current members of the RP Soft Tennis team. Chynna Alyssa, who graduated with a Degree on Entrepreneurship, completed college with an NCAA Women’s Soft Tennis trophy together with an MVP Award; while Kevin Fraz, who holds a Degree on Psychology, was a 2-time member of the NCAA Tennis high school champion team.

 

Coach Jovy together with Gerber and Jopy, both Marketing degree holders, Chynna Alyssa and Kevin Fraz all graduated at the prestigious San Beda College.

Mother Marie Luz Mamawal has been in the broadcasting industry for almost 30 years and is still part of the ABS-CBN. Among the many sports programs she created was "Sports Kids" a magazine sports television show for kids that aired in Studio 23. However, News and Public Affairs was her forte where she created the award-winning program Magandang Gabi Bayan. She's currently the Associate Dean of the Journalism Academy of the ABS-CBN University and teaches television production in De La Salle University- Taft under the Communication Department.

 

But what she's most proud of is being the wife of a champion tennis coach and a mom to 4 tennis/soft tennis champions.

 

With such an elite core of dedicated sports personalities, the CTSM will surely organize another 1,000 tennis activities, events and tournaments around the Philippines -- and for the international tennis community -- in the next decades to come.