4.0 Sectionals Preview

I want to start this out that I would never plagiarize anything from the Houston Blog or from anyone else for that matter.

Flight 1
Corpus
San Angelo
Valley
Wild Ft. Worth
Houston

There are two dangerous teams in this flight. Houston and Wild Ft Worth. You can't discount Wild Ft Worth, as Ft Worth City winner (non wild) might just find themselves in Nationals this year.

Houston - This is a Freeman team who always has solid squads. They are led by their 2 stud singles players Ellingsen and Knutson. Both are top 4.0s in the state. As a doubles team they beat Somabut/Palacioz 6-1 6-1. Doubles are strong but the core of the team is those 2 singles players.

The Houstonians should waltz through this group. I couldn't believe the amount of players that they have and with a roster so deep that they could play all their matches and never have the same guy play twice.

Winner - Houston

Flight 2
Wild Austin
San Antonio
Fort Worth
Waco
Abilene

Wild Austin used Vlad Chub at 1 singles and Chris Lewis at 2 in the finals of their playoffs.

San Antonio's Blossom Smash waltzed through their playoffs, dropping only one line. Rodrigo Sabag was really tough playing singles, with a win over Carl Bain on his resume. Isai Martinez looks to be even tougher. This team looks really tough. In the Spring season, they won most of their WHOPPING SEVENTEEN (17) Spring matches 4-1 and 5-0.

Fort Worth's team is the team to beat in this flight... Jay Bigam is a flat hitter with old school grips, but has had success at the 4.5 level in the past. Chris Whipple has also been dominant in singles. Their doubles look solid. Their name "Old Gang" is very deceptive as many of these kids are stupid young. As long as they don't get Young Kid's chokeitis, I think that they win most of their matches in their flight with a 4-1 and 5-0 spanking.

Waco and Abilene don't have much data to draw from. Waco's Erich Schwarze is a 4.5 drop down who was dominant the last time he went to 4.0 Sectionals.

Flight 2 winner - The Ft Worth Young Children lay a solid whooping on San Antonio with a 4-1 crushing blow leaving San Antonio wondering and other teams shaking.


Before we start with Flights 3 & 4, I need to note that the big clear advantage for BOTH Dallas teams is that they have already played at LBH, the courts that somehow are able to maximize both heat and Mosquito potential in Dallas. Mosquitoes there are not to be taken lightly as I can't remember which I use more of, OFF or Sunblock while at LBH. It should also be noted, as all of Dallas knows already, the outdoor gun range next to LBH can be a little disturbing when Johnny Yeehaw decides to take his Uzi to the gun range on Saturday.

Flight 3
Austin
Wild Dallas
NETX
NOHO
Midland


Austin had its "ringer", John Dwyer, DQ'd after their city playoffs, which will really hurt its strength. Interesting that the match that got Dwyer DQ'd was a 7-6 6-3 win in the playoffs, further proving that NO ONE REALLY KNOWS WHAT THE FORMULA IS TO GET DQ'd. Of course, maybe he just got DQ'd because Sisk or Arcaria had dirt on him and turned him in. We will never know. Nevertheless, without their ringer in singles, they never would of made it through the city playoffs, as many of their wins were 3-2 wins. Of course, Austin notoriously has good teams in Sectionals, so this team should still NOT be overlooked.

NoHO - The core of this team also went to Sectionals last year. Their 2 top singles players got SPANKED last year in Sectionals with 6-1 6-2 losses, so I don't know if they crack under the pressure again, but can anyone every forget a 6-1 6-2 beat down? Never mind, I am sure that they have forgotten that by now and whom am I to remind them? There doubles are very strong, however, and the doubles will need to carry NoHo if they want to get far.

Dallas - Scouting report. Many of the players are former Davis Cup champions and should not be playing at 4.0. I hope this doesn't get out.

Midland - notoriously a middle of the pack team in sectionals, but it is always fun to go to Sectionals. Enjoy yourself gentlemen. There are no bad teams in Sectionals, and when a captain overlooks a team is when a captain makes mistakes.

NETX - Tierney & Wynn look to be a really good doubles team. Dallas is also going to have to watch out for Aaron Smith. If I were the captain of Wild Dallas, I would definitely have all barrells blazing against this team. Fortunately for NETX, the Dallas captain is lazy and generally doesn't scout other teams. This is a clear advantage for NETX.

It's going to be a dogfight of NETX v Wild Dallas in the last match, but I just can't pick against the previous Davis Cup players.

Flight 4
Dallas
Amarillo
Lubbock
Wild Houston
SETX

I wrote this completely myself, but I must state I am very disappointed that July 22, 2010 1:23 PM (aka Shawn Arcaria) was able to plagiarize my hard work and research before I even wrote it. All I can see is as far as 4.0 goes here is what I know.

Lubbock - This team returns almost all of the key players from the team that went to nationals less than 2 years ago. How they are back at 4.0 is beyond me and is a complete joke. They have 2 very good singles players. Lance Coleman is a former 4.5 who did very well at that level, beating some very good players and going 3 sets with Huffman (Oc Branch). He was not even part of that national team and makes them that much better. Shaunaman was part of that national team and is their other singles player. Most of their doubles players were all the national team. That national team did beat the Dallas 4.0 team from Springpark, which included Charles Rasor, Eugene Davis, Jim Walters, Greg Odell, etc. All of which are still at 4.5. This team will be strong.

Wild Houston - they lost to the Houston Freeman team 3-2 in the final. Another team with strong singles with Wooten and Larrazolo. Wooten has a win over our John Kraemer and Mark Anderson locally in singles and did not lose in league this year. They look to be very strong.

Amarillo - Another team that made it to Sectionals, only to have their star player Jason Wait DQ'd just before sectionals. This is yet another obvious DQ mistake by the captain, as Jason Wait crushed his opponent in his final match with an eye catching 6-3 6-4 win. I believe Dallas is playing Amarillo in morning, but Amarillo would not be on my mind.

Dallas - Many of Shawn's self rates are future Davis Cup Champions as soon as they become old enough to play Davis Cup that is. It should be noted that Stephen Bennett is a former Sumo wrestling super champ. Sisk tried to get him DQ'd under super champ status, however, the appeal was denied.

Flight Winner - I really want to pick Dallas, but I have to give the nod to Lubbock this year.

4.0 Wrap up done. My biggest disappointment is that I had to bump down the great Fantastic with his exceptional Star Wars based summary. That was post of the decade Fantastic - IMO.