Tariq Simons enjoyed his first assignment as a national coach when he took charge of Bermuda’s under-14 team at the ITF World Junior Competition in El Salvador.

On his return to the country where he made his Junior Davis Cup debut in 2017, Simons guided Bermuda to thirteenth place out of 17 teams at the pre-qualifying event for the North, Central American and Caribbean region. The team was made up of Dexter Snaith, Jaden Jones and Chase McCrimmon.

Bermuda found the going tough, with losses to Guatemala and Puerto Rico eliminating them from the main draw, but they went on to overcome the Dominican Republic and Suriname in the play-off stages.

Simons, 23, had been working with the players at Manders Tennis Management before Snaith left for the US and was grateful for the experience.

“It was really good for the overall outlook of my career,’’ Simons said.

“Doing something like coaching the under-14s national team with the boys that I coach is a privilege because I have a relationship with the boys already.

“A lot of coaches from other nations might be coaching children they see a few times a year. These players that I took were my boys, they’re at MTM several days a week and we’re more like family.

“In terms of energy, it’s seamless and we have this vibe that we carry as a team. When we travel and when we play on court, it’s just a pleasant experience.”

Simons gave an honest assessment of the players and also shared his thoughts on Guatemala and Puerto Rico, the two teams they faced in group B.

“The boys that I took were on the middle side of competitors,’’ Simons said.

“They were good enough and they were solid enough players to compete with everybody and we could have beaten half the teams if we played them.

“Guatemala and Puerto Rico were just strong teams and they really played well. My boys competed really well and we were able to compete but not enough to win those matches.

“When we went into the back draw for the teams to know their final placement, we won all of our matches and it was good to win those. We were looking for a win throughout the week and we got it on the third day that we played.

“We were confident going into those matches. The real challenge was the teams we played in the first stage but after that we were pretty comfortable with teams because we knew all of them.

“We knew who the best in the competition were. We saw the teams that we were getting after, and the boys went in confident that we were going to win and we did it.”