Tennis Victoria has awarded local tennis coach and founder of Bionic Tennis Coaching, Nicole Bauer, the August 2022 Community Champion of the Month.
Based at Stratford, Seaspray and Longford tennis clubs, Bauer was given the award for her dedication on and off the court.
Bauer goes above and beyond for her students, whom she calls her Bionic family, organising trips to Melbourne to play glow-in-the-dark tennis and to the Australian Open. She also dedicates her time to helping others, such as her efforts raising much-needed money for Very Special Kids.
“Very Special Kids is a hospice for really sick kids in Melbourne,” she said.
“A couple of my clients, my bionic family, utilise this facility, and it is only available for families with severely injured or sick kids.
“When I started my business (Bionic Tennis Coaching) and learnt that a couple of my clients utilised this facility, it was something I wanted my kids to think about, how lucky they were and how fortunate they are, and I thought it would be really nice if we could at least try and give back to someone else.
“So I came up with the idea of Superhero Week.”
For the past four years at Bionic Tennis Club, Bauer has made the last week of May ‘Superhero Week’.
“In the last week of May every year, we dress up as our favourite superheroes, whether that be a dentist, a doctor, a teacher, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, whoever.
“The kids will even create their own characters sometimes.
“They come dressed up; they donate a gold coin at all coaching sessions for the whole week, adults, kids, everyone.
“We have a lot of fun and just try and raise awareness for Very Special Kids.
“I generally donate a lot of stuff to do a raffle as well, just to try and get a little bit of extra money. So some of the prizes given away are rackets, pro bags, things like that and this year, a couple of businesses assisted by giving away vouchers, which was quite lovely of them.”
Bauer was determined to make up for previous years, having missed out on Superhero Week due to COVID, planning a special tennis movie event for Superhero Week 2022.
“There was a movie about Serena and Venus Williams called King Richard that was released late last year, and I thought it would be an amazing opportunity to try and capture a different experience for everyone for Superhero Week,” she said.
“So I got in touch with the RAAF base in Sale and asked if they would be keen on supporting this idea, this venture, of a movie night for the Bionic Coaching family and the extended tennis community.
“They jumped at it; they were very keen to support us.
“We exclusively booked out the cinema; they sought the movie for us, and because of security on the base, I needed to secure buses and coaches to get all the guests on, so I arranged a bunch of volunteers, and we had a number of busses running on and off the base, and we had our big movie night.
“It was our last hoorah to end Superhero Week, and through that, it somehow got to Tennis Victoria.”
Before being awarded Tennis Victoria’s Community Champion of the Month for August, Bauer was unaware the award existed.
“This award, I knew nothing about; it was a complete shock when a client contacted me yesterday (August 18) to congratulate me about it. It is quite humbling,” she said.
“I was shaking when I found out; I just sat there looking at it for ages, not knowing what it was like, it just couldn’t compute.
“It’s just such a great thing because now there is a bit more awareness for Very Special Kids because as far as I’m aware, it’s $11,000 a day for a child to stay in this facility, and there is no government support; it is entirely self-funded, so they rely on donations.”
After a triumphant Superhero Week ending with a movie night was thoroughly enjoyed by all, Bauer is already making plans for next year’s Superhero Week, with a return invitation to use the East Sale RAAF base cinema.
You can find information about Bionic Tennis Coaching via Bionic Tennis Coaching’s Facebook page.
