I didn’t make it out for any of the playoffs this
weekend. Ran out of time and after I found
out about half the people I know weren’t playing after all I just lost
interest. But it does leave me in a less
informed position about what really happened.
I followed some of the back and forth on the blog and several people did
a very nice job of summarizing the key issues.
I didn’t see anything that might have been a DTA explanation of their
decision making process and am curious whether any of the playoff captains got
an explanation while they were on site.
In 5.0 I don’t know who the winner was because all matches
were evidently cancelled.
Of the results that are posted, in 4.5 it only shows that
two matches were played. Rossouw Red
beat JCC and JCC beat Rossouw Blue.
Congrats to Marc for a very dominant fall season and a convincing 4-1
win over JCC. You go through flight play
and the playoffs with an undefeated season and a 40-5 line record and I don’t
think there’s any arguing with this winner.
Just can’t see the second place teams changing the outcome any here.
For 4.0, it looked like Corey’s boys ran roughshod over the
fall playoffs. And they were the second
place team in their flight until a last week GTC loss when GTC emptied their
bench. With a 9-1 record heading into
the last match, Corey’s squad closed it out with a 3-2 win that was closer to
being a sweep than being a loss.
Congrats to Corey for what he claims is his first city
championship. In this case, I think the
second place teams could have made an impact.
I suppose I would think that since I picked GTC to win it all.
In 3.5, Canyon Creek/Gable won. I don’t really know if the second place teams
would have impacted this level or not.
This level only ended up with two teams and one match.
So congrats to the winners.
I’m not really sure what to say about the rest of the weekend. Last year there were weather issues as
well. A winter storm blew in on Friday. A few matches were played Friday night but it
was all resolved by completing the ladies playoffs on the scheduled weekend and
then moving the men’s playoffs back three weeks. All matches were played, winners were
crowned, everyone got their turn on the court.
Not really sure why that wouldn’t have worked this year but maybe one of
our contributors will have more insight into this.
Any more insights from someone that was there?
Corey, I think you will be surprised how many women would be behind you. 4.5 women didn't play this weekend with the same numbers as men's 5.0. 4.0 went from 8 teams to 4. Our original match times didn't see a drop of rain. The DTA is constantly changing the "rules" midstream, as well as, ruling differently with different players on the same issue. The league play email said "2nd place teams are EXPECTED to field a team". Well, we would all like to thank the DTA for giving us one day notice that they screwed over our whole Thanksgiving break to stay in town for what we were EXPECTED to do. Well, I guess the DTA is not subject to upholding the same respect and expectations! Sunday was a mess with the delay to play outside with a ton of courts open indoors. Lifetime's indoors were a ghost town all weekend.
ReplyDeleteCorey - I think someone wants to jump your bones. :)
ReplyDeleteI have personally been told by DTA staffers that the DTA will cater to the women's leagues because they are afraid they will lose league fees to TCD and Metro because the women have other places to play. That isn't to argue about whether the men or women get screwed over by the DTA. Just to say that the DTA doesn't care about anything other than their league membership levels. They won't worry about any of this unless there is another alternate league that is actually causing their numbers to go down. Until it actually happens, expect nothing different from the DTA.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Corey is talking about doing in the fall and would support it myself. I do think it would be more of a threat to the DTA and the point across more if it has more credibility behind it. So I think adding a men's league to TCD would be the best idea. It already has an infrastructure in place, name recognition, and the DTA is already worried about it.
DeleteIf you do have a different fall league can we get more than two weeks to put a team together. Trying to decide about doing a 40s team but I don't even know who can play on it yet. What's the big hurry? We probably won't have a playoff anyway.
ReplyDeleteDallas men's 40s is severely handicapped. They have done fairly well considering the DTA has done everything to cause them to fail.
DeleteI will have a fall league in some capacity. Either in conjunction with someone else or alone. Will do my best to make it as organized, efficient, and player-friendly as possible.
ReplyDeleteBut the thing is -- no matter what version of a league you have -- it won't have the tie-in to the USTA spring postseason. And no matter what, everyone knows y'all all will be playing USTA in the spring because you get your rocks off advancing to sectionals and hopefully nationals. Has anyone ever thought of having a sit-down with the DTA as a way to air grievances? I know for a fact they've invited all us captains to meetings and have a committee of captains representing all levels. So before you make a half-cocked decision about leaving, you might want to try some mediation.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, the fall has no tie in to the spring league anyway so that's not an issue. People probably will stay play in the fall if they are motivated by the playoffs, but not everyone is. If you think this is solved by a sit down you either work for the DTA or have never tried talking to them. It's a wasted effort and you can almost never get them to meet with you or give you an answer anyway. The only way you can get their attention is to cut into their league fees so a competing fall league is the single best way to get them to treat their customers like customers.
Deletewhen it comes time to put up or shut up, i do not see enough guys deciding to forego USTA leagues to play in TCD or some other variation.
ReplyDeleteMany players I've talked to in favor of an alternative will not play USTA next fall. They will have their matches and It will be competitive. Won't have to drive to Mckinney to win a match 1-1, and if we can have 2 flights at each level, will have playoffs....rain, snow, ice.
ReplyDeleteLooks like Kelley couldn't even finish white rock marathon in under 4 hours. Took him 4:06. Not too good for someone who had been preparing for a whole year... Lol
ReplyDelete