Friday, August 7, 2015

Who Will Be the Difference Makers this Year at 4.5 Sectionals?


 

My pick to dominate line 1 singles this year at 4.5 sectionals. 

Yes, with the wooden racquet.


So I’m a little afraid to make any bold 4.5 predictions this year after I completely whiffed on it last year.  Did anyone see Amarillo and Logan Powell coming?  I clearly didn’t.  Powell went 13-0 on the year, including 6-0 at nationals, and dropped four 6-1 sets on the competition on Sunday at Nationals.  Amarillo finished third after a tight 3-2 loss to Southern in the semis but rebounded to beat Caribbean 4-1 in the 3 v 4 match.  Yes, Amarillo had strong doubles but when you can roll out one guy in singles and know that you start the match up 1-0 you have a difference maker that can turn the tide.  Omar Naguib went 2-0 at sectionals (1-2 at Nats) but the other two guys went 1-3 and that one win was against Corpus who finished sectionals 0-3 and won only two lines.

Two points and one is obvious: first, Amarillo goes nowhere without Powell; second, Powell and Naguib were diaper dandies compared to what Dallas has been rolling out the past few years.   Typically our 18s teams have been the same as our 40s teams for the most part.  Not bad for doubles but definitely can leave something lacking in singles by Sunday at Sectionals.  Yet Reiman’s squad last year only fell to Amarillo in the Sectionals semis 3-2, pretty respectable considering Amarillo’s third place nationals finish.  How does Dallas bridge that gap?

I like Feldman, Mabe and Sumrow (his cities singles lineup) but there’s no Logan Powell in that lineup.  Maybe it’s Tristan Stitt.  Yes, I saw the insufferably long post about Stitt going to play college tennis.  No, that actually doesn’t mean he can’t legitimately play USTA 4.5.  

Powell was just named a JUCO All American playing for Tyler Junior College.  And before you scoff, they and Collin College routinely win the JUCO national title and it’s often played at our very own Collin College’s home courts if you want to see how the kids bang it.  Anyway, elite 4.5 is dominated by college and ex-college players.  You can get yours or you can get rolled. 
Frankly I’m always surprised that Austin doesn’t win 4.5 18s every year.  You could put together a national contender every year in Austin made exclusively of guys who decided not to play college tennis but could have.  A friend of mine’s kid won a 5A state title in doubles and is wandering around UT’s campus right now, playing for no one (call me if you’re interested).  For that matter, so could Dallas (SMU), Fort Worth (TCU), Waco (Baylor) and College Station (isn’t there some school down there?).  In case you didn’t notice it earlier this year, OU made the national finals, Baylor & TCU made the semis and A&M made the quarters.  Congrats to Reiman for getting his kid.  Too bad he didn’t get three or four.

Nothing wrong with old guys, hell, I’ll be one someday.  But if you’re gonna make your mark at 4.5 sectionals singles there’s a pretty good chance you are under 30.  Kids aren’t the antidote for everything but when you’re 20, run like a deer and never take a shot off to rest, it’s a whole different game.


35 comments:

  1. Except that it is my understanding Tristan can't play for the 4.5 team in sectionals because he played on the 5.0 FW team that's has advanced to sectionals.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think the question still stands. Who will be the player no one saw coming that gets his team over the hump?

      Delete
    2. Did Stitt play cities with a 5.0 team?

      Delete
  2. So then you are justifying self rate liars and yes that is what Stitt and Powell are, the lied on self rates of very least should have stopped playing once signed as that is the rule, sorry can justify cheating the system to win.

    ReplyDelete
  3. nope just calling out cheaters, just because that is what it takes does not make it right. This lays at the USTA anyways, worst rule change they did was allowing High School brats into the Adult leagues, in particular 17 y.o. version

    ReplyDelete
  4. Murray is 100% correct on the rule. First you said they lied on their self rate which was not true. Then you said at the very least the player should have stopped playing 4.5 once they signed with a college. Also not the way the rule works. The problem with the babies on this blog is they make up their won rules and their own morality. You followed the rules but you SHOULD have done what I think. If these guys are following the rules and you don't like it you should take up a different sport or start your own sport. Then you can make up the rules as you go along depending on what you like and what you don't like. And now you've also defined 'cheater' as anyone following the rules who does something you personally don't like. What a jerk.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sectionals update: Semi-final #1 is Houston versus San Antonio; semi-final #2 is Dallas versus Wild Houston. While I missed on Dallas as a flight winner we still have a possibility at a predicted Houston versus Wild Houston final.
    And Bender's 3.0 team has one match left but looks to have already wrapped the round robin sectionals championship.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Please suggest a good stringer in north dallas. I have been using Randy at Rackets and more but the last three jobs were just horrific. thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I string rackets out of my apartment. $15 per racket. One day turnaround and will meet if convenient for delivery and pickup. Email me

      Coredawg5.0@gmail.com

      Delete
    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    3. If there is an issue with my work, please call or come in so we can get it corrected. This is the first I am hearing about a problem. At least give us a chance to fix the issue before calling my work horrific.

      Delete
  7. Its called an 18 and over league. You must turn 18 in the calendar year in which the league is played. What's wrong? Another perfectly clear rule that people follow and you don't like? Why don't you just go play super seniors grandpa?

    ReplyDelete
  8. the dumbassery on this blog is crazy sometimes. Look back and prior to about 5 yrs or ago you could not play adult league until the year you turn 19, now it is 18 so you now get 17 y.o. playing in spring of Jr year in HS, many of these Super Champ kids more than likely will play college, but won;t sign for 6-12 months after starting play. So get a computer rating and safe to play even if they sign a NLI. Not hard to figure out there is a problem, but yeah f**k it let's just let everyone play 4.5. As for Powell playing at a Top 3 JUCO should be grounds to be DQ'ed and maybe USTA will grow a pair and end this garbage.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Corey I think your mistaken with Tristan. He played league matches 5.0. There is no post season for ft worth team. Why wouldn't he be able to play 4.5 sectionals. I think he chooses which team to play with? Anybody have clarification on this? Has anybody looked at the Houston roster yet

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't know for sure but why else would he have skipped Dallas playoffs unless it was to play with his dad in FW?

      Delete
    2. Yes...you can choose either one. If you play 4.5 at cities, you must play 4.5 at sectionals and vice versa

      Delete
  10. Houston sucks at 4.0 and 4.5

    ReplyDelete
  11. Houson wins at 3.5

    ReplyDelete
  12. Some of this will be second hand but I am going to try and keep people updated on sectionals this weekend and next as we go along, as you saw from my saturday updates above. Bender did wrap up his 3.0 sectionals win as expected and Freeman also wrapped up his 3.5 sectionals win as expected, evidently without two of his top 8 playing. Houston won the first three lines pretty handily but Dallas gutted out two close third set TBs to save a little respectability.
    Good luck next week to all our Dallas teams!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Can't speak for 4.0. but our 4.5 team takes him down. Enough of the Houston crap.

      Delete
  13. Not so fast 3:36. Why do you think Jean Nguyen is playing for them instead of us? If that's not enough, check out the history of some of his players. Seems like we would have learned by now not to ever underestimate a Houston team, especially if captained by Freeman.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Freeman is hiding some new guys. Look for the guys who went 1-1, 2-1 or 1-2. At least one of them will explode at sectionals.

      Delete
  14. I'm sure they had a high school, class of 2016, 4-star recruit in mind when they wrote they guidelines for an 18+ adult league, 4.5 player. http://www.tennisrecruiting.net/player.asp?id=673687

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Don't hate the player, hate the game. If they are following the rules and you're too lazy to go recruit, so be it.

      Delete
    2. Nobody is hating the player they're hating the rule and the loser captains that put together squads of high schoolers and don't even play on the team. It's called an adult league.. High schoolers are not adults.

      Delete
  15. To 7:05, I'd like to make 3 points in response to your post. I actually agree mostly with what you say.
    1) my intent was not to hate on the player, captain, or team. I agree. My goal was to point out the goofiness of the rule. If I could be king of the usta for a day I'd make a change so you wouldn't have to ever play a junior in high school in an adult league. In my mind adult should be post-high school or maybe older. Maybe old enough to drink or something like that.
    2) this is the point where I disagree with you. It wasn't a laziness thing on finding a high school junior to play on a team it was more that I felt I had better things to do in life than hanging out at junior tournaments looking for the next king of 4.5.
    3) well played Houston. Well played.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fair points by all but from what I've seen the last few years these kids tend to get referred more than recruited. Somebody knows somebody who's kid plays, etc...etc... I know several people who have good kids on their teams and none of them were just strangers who were recruited. All of them had some pre-exising connection to a player on the team. More luck of the draw than creeping around junior tournaments.

      Delete
  16. Looking back at the results....at the 3.5 finals, i was a little surprised to see Jeff Yarb and Wei losing i would have put them at line 2 dubs. I thought they were the best dubs team clark had this year...and Mo should have played singles. At least clarks high school kid wins.
    I think the usta would make mens 18...you cant be in HS. Just saying

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. change the rule back to what it was, play adult the year you turn 19, that way kids are already done with college recruiting and it does not allow the loophole to play and get a computer rating and then go off and play college tennis.

      Delete
    2. I played on the Dallas team. Jeffrey had heatstroke on Friday and WeiBen was out of the country for two weeks before sectionals. And Mo had an ankle sprain on Friday and had to get out of singles. I wouldn't matter anyway. Freeman probably wins his 4.0 flight next weekend with this 3.5 team. Lots of self rates and appeals kept the doubles scores closer than they really were.

      Delete
    3. The two doubles lines Houston took could have each been 6-1, 6-1 if they had wanted to play hard. Houston won the first three matches easily and dropped the last two lines after it was over.

      Delete
    4. Why doesn't someone ask Wiley? He is on that team and guess the traitor isn't good enough to make the sectionals lineup. It serves him right.

      Delete
    5. Greg is in Europe. He told me he has pretty much given up tennis. He is finishing the year's team obligations and then focusing on family and work.

      Delete
  17. Was Wei trying to recruit for Le or oakcreek? lol

    That sucks about jeff and mo health stuff. Jeff's a good guy.

    There is no way that Stewart White kid is 3.5, saw his video, HEY USTA and DTA, can you fix this stuff and at least keep the 4.0 in 3.5, lol.

    Walter White

    ReplyDelete
  18. Great post! Though I didn't know Budapest was a country...

    ReplyDelete