Deanne Alter, our Head Coach, offers lessons at all levels. Our professional coaches are happy to assist anyone requiring coaching. For all coaching enquiries please contact Deanne Alter - 021 032 7175.
Deanne Alter – Our Head Coach
Deanne has an unmatched passion for tennis and a phenomenal dedication to Northcote Tennis Club.
Deanne has been Head Coach at Northcote for close to 30 years. During that time, she has been the face of the club, coached thousands of players, and has continually encouraged people to participate in tennis and to join the club.
One of Deanne’s genuine passions is our junior players. She has taken many players from five years old and pushed them to improve their tennis, participate in interclub, and keep playing the game until their late teens and beyond.
As a player, Deanne has a record unmatched in the club’s history, having won 34 Club Championship titles - 12 Ladies Singles, 16 Ladies Doubles, and 6 Mixed Doubles. For many years, Deanne also successfully represented the club in the Chelsea Cup competition and premier-grade Mixed Doubles.
She has also won several national titles and successfully represented New Zealand internationally in various age group competitions. Her desire to win has never left her and even today she remains highly competitive in top grade tennis.
After almost 30 years as our Head Coach, Deanne Alter will step back from her Head Coach role at Northcote Tennis Club. Our search for a replacement has eventually led to a revised coaching structure to be put in place at Northcote Tennis Club.
We are delighted to announce that from 1 July 2026, Elliot le Petit will come on board as the new Head Coach at the club, on a potentially long-term contract. All coaching will be run through his coaching entity Tennis Global Limited. Enquiries are welcome and more details regarding the coaching structure that Tennis Global will provide are available through the Tennis Global website - www.tennisglobal.co.nz.
Elliot was raised in Auckland and attended University in the US on a tennis scholarship, which is where his coaching journey began. On returning to Auckland, he became the head coach for Browns Bay with a team of 8 coaches, serving there for 4 years. During that time, Elliot was awarded Tennis Northern Coach of the Year. He is well known to several of our premier players having played Chelsea Cup and participated in events at our club. In recent years Elliot has been coaching in Dubai and the UK.
He is now back home and is excited about his new position at the club and developing a coaching program that will run year-round.
Going forward, our Beginners program will move to Hot Shots Tennis coaching, which is the recommended Tennis NZ junior development system. Hot Shots Tennis is a fun way for children between the ages of 4 and 10+ to play and learn tennis. It allows players to move through a four-stage process that slowly builds their skills to the point they are ready to start playing competitively.
In another exciting development, Elliot will be introducing a greater selection of tennis equipment in an expanded club shop; offering a range of racquet brands, tennis shoes and a stringing service.
From a club perspective this change significantly reduces the load on club administrators and volunteers, with Elliot dealing with all coaches and liaising directly with players taking part in the Hot Shots and Juniors coaching programs.
Elliot will be formally introduced at the club's AGM (Sunday 21 June at 3.00pm in the clubrooms). We hope everyone will have the chance to welcome him to the club over the coming months as he steps into his new role.
Rob Gwyther
Club President
16 May 2026