I know that some of the Dallas purist will complain about a Ft Worth post on the Dallas tennis blog,A little disclosure here, I am a member of the Flower Mound 4.0 team and this spring has started my first swim through USTA Ft Worth leagues.
It has been great having practices and home matches just down the street from my house, but that as been balanced out by the ass beating that is driving to South and West Ft. Worth.
But it has been a nice change of pace to play some new teams and visit some new facilities.
Some general observations. FTW, of course does not have the same participation levels that Dallas does. The overall strength level seems lower than the Dallas leagues.
There are some quality teams and players of course,
But, on the whole I would say that Dallas leagues are set up to be stronger.
What that means, I'm not sure. I have seen several 4.0 players that looked like they would be a better fit on a 3.5 team.
So that brings in to question the whole NTPR system and where you decide to rate your self at. (I don't want to get started on ratings talk right now)
3.5 Division
In the 3.5 Division we have 2 flights RED and BLUE
3.5 Red flight
The ATC Spoilers have jumped out to a 4 - 0 start and should finish the season 8 - 0.
They are anchored by 3.5 veterans Ty W. Sewell, Pedro Montalvo, and Gil Flores. They seem to be mixing up their line-ups and not relying on a core group of players which will help them in the play-offs.
This is my pick to represent FTW in the 3.5 Sectionals.
3.5 Blue flight
Southlake Edwards is in control of this flight, they are anchored by 3.5 tournament fixture Ron Whitson and two single players who look like they may be a better fit on a 4.0 team in Fernando Aguirre and Michael Cerny.
They don't have the depth of ATC but in a one match play-off situation they may be able to take them out.
4.0
One Flight - 12 teams - and an Incredible 11 matches!
Are you Dallas guys jealous?
The two teams on top here are both from the same facility Mcleland Tennis Center. (The Location - Shitty, the courts terrible, but they do have 2 public indoor courts Nice!)
The McL Old Gang Seems to have the edge on the McL Hammers.
I don't see either one of these teams being able to challenge a Bob Somebutt team however.
There are about 6 teams in the middle of the pack who seem to be able to beat each other depending on what line ups they run out,
and 4 cellar dwellers.
4.5
One Division - 5 teams - 8 matches - No Play-offs.
In this flight everybody plays each other twice, so basically it's Double elimination.
There is only one undefeated team - Southlake.
Southlake made it to the Sections last year as a wild card.
They are my pick for the FTW sectional representative this year.
That's all I have for this month,I'm no Ft Worth expert yet.
So if I missed something let me know.
All you Ft Worthers and Bi-Leaguers let me hear from ya.
What courts do you use out in Flower Mound?
ReplyDeleteMostly Wellington, It's a Sub-Division off 2499 and 3040
ReplyDeleteand sometimes Leonard John's Park since both 3.5 and 4.0 play on Saturdays.
Yep good to hear about FW leagues since when I played for the Denton team for one season that was the closest home match I have driven to in 4 years. I miss those guys, good luck Team Goldfield/Denton.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your predictions Marc, the 3.5 team from SLake is much of the same roster we played in 2007 at sectionals with some good additions. They might have a shot at making some noise in August.
4.0 does look like MCL has a stranglehold but unsure like you mentioned that they can stack up with the sectional teams in the summer.
It is crazy the way the 4.5 league looks like Southlake and then everyone else. Maybe we need a Flower Mound FW 4.5 team because OC/Branch and OC/Feldman getting to sectionals in Dallas is quite a tall feat.
Hmmm. FW 4.5 in 2010????
I don't know why so many of us FW people decided to make sectionals more difficult to get to by switching to Dallas league.
ReplyDeleteI am wondering the same thing, isn't there a solid team to create.
ReplyDeleteKern
Lejia
Viktorin
Madis
Wescoup
not a bad start, instead they are split up between a few dallas teams and some will spend $300 in gas or more just to make the QT tourney at best.
Hey all right, a FW post! I know nothing about 3.5 so I'll assume you are correct on that one.
ReplyDeleteAs far as 4.0, I think you called that race correctly. Old Gang should take the city and make it to Sectionals; however, I wouldn't say they can't compete with Somabut. The core is as the name suggests a bunch of old farts, so heat and number of matches becomes a factor at times. However, if they met in a morning Sectional match I wouldn't be surprised at all if they took down Bob. The trick with them is which guys they get out on a certain day since they have a relatively large roster but their top eight is a very competitive Sectionals team. By the way TCU is really the only true choice for playing in Ft. Worth, 5 indoor public courts as well if your into that.
As far as 4.5 in Fort Worth, a big whole was left when Burke decided not to have a team this year out of TCU. With that team spread out from Dallas to Austin to other FW teams there really seems to be just Southlake left. I do agree that it would be easier to make Sectionals out of FW if that is your ultimate goal. Speaking for myself, I want to have a chance playing Sunday at Sectionals and Dallas was the closest place I thought I had that chance. Granted there are no guarantees since Dallas is much more competitive but I wanted to give myself what I perceived to be the best chance. Now if all the FWers want to get together and form one so-called super team then I think their is certainly enough talent to make a run. However, as we all know it is hard to get everyone to agree to play on one team and someone would have to run it. Since no one was willing to do that, we obviously choose to go to the next best options. Here is my initial thoughts on a FW team.
Vik
Robert Barrie
Huffman and Wescoup
Henock and Cocanougher
JD Hurt and Ed
Not too shabby a line up in my opinion and that's with a ton of talent on the bench and off the top of my head.
Calling Gil Flores an anchor is a total joke. I was the captain of the Fort Worth TCU Tornadoes. Yes the one you blasted last year. In the Tornadoes match in the Fort Worth playoffs against Southlake, Gil won the first set against Ron Whitson and then said he could not continue because of heat exhaustion. Gil left the Fort Worth playoffs supposedly suffering from heat exhaustion and went to Plano to play mixed doubles. We ended up winning against Southlake 3-2 but not because of Gil. An anchor does not leave a team that he is suppose to be committed to, to go and play mixed doubles, especially in the city playoffs. Gil does not deserve the respect that you are giving him. He does not deserve the respect for two reasons. First he left his team that was depending on him. Second he lied about why he was leaving. He was more concerned about playing mixed doubles then supporting his team. I would not classify Gil as an anchor. He is more like the Titanic.
ReplyDeleteWelcome Jeff and yep that sounds pretty shady from Gil but in his defense he doesn't appear from the surface to be in great shape.
ReplyDeleteAlways happy to hear from feisty FWians, I wasn't sure if there was any other than Kern
Are you kidding me? You are defending Gil because he is out of shape. He lied to his teammates, not just once but several times. He did not have heat exhaustion. If he was suffering from heat exhaustion he would not have had the energy to play mixed doubles in Plano. His actions are inexcusable.
ReplyDeleteOh don't get me wrong Jeff I am not defending I am just saying he is two big macs from a quarter ton so maybe he really did have heat exhaustion but if I were you I wouldn't have him on my roster.
ReplyDeleteWith that said I have never met the guy so I can't call him a dog...yet.