Joshua Howard-Tripp is one of SA’s bright and shining tennis youth players. At the age of 16 he has a deep understanding that to get to the top in life, hard work is a key ingredient. How many people miss this essential ingredient, and try quick fixes and short cuts! Hence I get greatly excited when I see a youth like Josh who is so determined, so hard working and so conscious of what it takes to be great, in all realms: physical, mental and spiritually. This is the type of fertile soil that greatness and success in life favours when it seeks a special taker! Josh has proudly represented his great nation – SA, at the Junior Davis Cup in Spain this year (2015). He receives brilliant coaching from Coach Jason Stoltenkamp and follows the presigious Cambridge University School curriculum.
Athlete: Bio / Stats |
|
| Name & Surname | Josh Howard-Tripp |
| Nick Name | Josh |
| Date of birth | 24/06/1999 |
| Place of birth | Benoni |
| Current City | Boksburg |
| Height | 1.80 |
| Weight | 75 kg |
| Shoe Size | 10 |
| Club | Jeppe Quondom |
| Coach’s Name | Jason Stoltenkamp |
| Out of Country events/ meets | African Junior Cup Qualifier (Botswana), African Junior Cup (Tunisia),World Cup Qualifier(Egypt),World Cup (Spain) |
| Secondary Sport/ sports | Golf |
| Favorite City | Umglhanga (Natal) |
| Favorite Song/ type of music | Sail by Awolnation |
| Favorite Movie | Pacific Rim |
| School & Grade | Cambridge AS level |
| Sponsors | Head Tennis |
| Twitter and Instagram names, facebook name | No Twitter, Instagram(joshhtripp),facebook Josh Howard-Tripp |
| Web site | None |
| Community projects involved in | Junior Davis Cup Team involved with Wheelchair Tennis |
| Parents Names, siblings | Trevor Howard-Tripp and Merle Howard-Tripp |
INTERVIEW:
Q: You are passionate and doing so well in your Tennis tell me a little bit about how you started in Tennis and your journey in the Tennis arena up to now?
I started playing tennis at nine years of age, One morning I woke up, it was a Saturday morning, my parents were still busy sleeping I remember walking into our garage and seeing my, dads old tennis racquets, not knowing what they were I asked my dad what sport these racquets were for and he replied ‘tennis’ I immediately asked if we could go play that afternoon and never looked back after that. My journey so far has not been easy there have been many, upsets with many great accomplishments, starting from the bottom in under 12 and eventually working my way up to the SA team in under 16.
Q: Who are you? (Describe yourself as a person)
Hard working, passionate, competitive and always give my best. The qualities I would like to see in myself are: to be calmer on the tennis court, not stressing so much when a big point presents itself.
Q: What is the highest accolade that you have achieved in Tennis and what is your greatest personal accomplishment?
The highest accolade would have to be playing the Junior Davis Cup my greatest personal accomplishment would have to be playing for and representing my great country.
Q: You are just back from an International event – Junior Davis Cup in Spain, proudly part of Team SA – Congrats! How did you experience that? General observations? Lessons learned?
It was a great experience I loved every second of it, the players overseas are able to play at a higher level than us in SA, this is because they are more exposed to high levels of tennis living in Europe and America. I learnt that the players aren’t much better than us, we are very close to them, and we just need higher level exposure.
Q: In your opinion, what is the value of Education for our youth?
I think that it is very important, in case of an injury and are unable to play sport again, it is a great backup plan. Education is a great path to life even without sport.
Q: Would you like to share a little bit more about your faith journey and how it has affected your life / sports?
I love God and love my country, I try to show that by always giving my best, my faith helps me not only through the hard times but in the good times. In fact to work hard and have a strong belief in yourself and ‘Master’ gets me up every morning to train hard and in so doing creates more good times than bad. Tennis has shown and taught me many lessons, life lessons. The greatest of this is that ‘nothing comes easy’
Q: What do you do to relax?
I listen to music, try to get out and watch a movie with my mates and play a little golf with my Dad.
Q: What is your personal favourite motivational quote?
‘A winner is born by the processes of his own mind’ (My Dad)
Q: What is your favourite Bible / Scripture quote?
John 3:16 ‘For God so Loved me, that he gave me His only Son…………….
Q: What is your biggest challenge, and what do you do to manage this challenge?
I am my biggest challenge, mentally I try to get out of the way of myself. I continually have to remind myself of the saying ‘If there is no enemy within, then the enemy outside can do no harm’
Q: In your opinion, how do you define success in life / how do you define a successful person?
By meeting your goals, by continually trying to better them, by giving 100% when training and competing.
Q: What’s your WHY? Why do you do what you do?
I love my tennis I guess that is what makes it so easy to put in that extra. I would love to inspire more youth to play tennis. I would love to become the no 1 tennis player in the world and by so doing promote tennis and inspire the youth behind me. My parents are a great support and spend, and have spent huge amounts of time supporting me – for that I am most grateful.
Q: What is your message of encouragement to South African/ African youth and our nation?
Work hard, always give your best and most of all love what you do.
Thank you so much for taking this interview. We would like to wish you all the best for your journey ahead. We look forward to following you as you go from strength to strength. Blessings!
Brilliant Photos Credits:
Terrey Scweitzer (Girls South African coach)
Alan Karam(Boys South African coach)
