Yes, I feel the same way you do.
Fall league is upon us, at least the requirement to have eight on your roster is upon us. It's hard to get excited about the fall right now. It's 102, people are out on vacation, only a few teams in town are still hard at it, and, well, it's the fall.
So I did some research out of curiosity. Looks like fall participation will be down this year and could be down a fair amount, won't know for sure until Thursday when I can look over the rosters that didn't make. As it stands now, let's compare last years levels to team numbers at least requested this years.
5.0 had 8 teams last year and they had 11 numbers requested this year. Four of those teams have no one signed up yet.
4.5 had 28 teams last year and they had 29 numbers for this year. Nine of those teams have one or no players on them but I do expect two of those to make.
4.0 had 37 teams last year and they had 34 numbers requested. Nine of those teams have two or fewer players but, again, I expect 2-4 of them to make.
3.5 had 18 teams last year and they had 19 numbers requested. Six of those teams have two or fewer players but two will likely make.
3.0 had 5 teams last year and 5 numbers requested this year. Only one team is in danger here.
All in all, 4.5, 4.0 and 3.5 all look to be down at least 20%, while only 5.0 and 3.0 are holding serve against last year. I tried to do some research into the Dallas Doubles League participation but didn't find it on a search of tennislink for Dallas fall leagues.
Anyone giving the DDL a try?
Found this old post from 2013 on Houston Tennis Blog.. kind of funny -
ReplyDeleteLink;http://houstontennis.blogspot.com/2013/02/tri-level-rehash.html#comment-form
Monday, February 18, 2013
Tri-Level Rehash
I went out to Kingwood on Saturday morning to check out some of the Tri-Level stuff. The quality of play was quite high this year. I've always said that tri-level is a great event and really wish there was more participation locally.
I really don't know more than what's been reported by the commenters. My understanding is that the Houston team went into the last match in a practically hopeless situation. Austin had won their first two matches and Fort Worth needed Houston to beat Austin in order to have any chance at advancing, and in fact pleaded with the Houston team to give their best effort, as it would be most fair for everyone.
While Fort Worth was worrying about Austin, they apparently didn't realize that by sweeping, Houston would put themselves in a position to win as well. After watching the Houston team in the morning match, this seemed EXTREMELY unlikely. I believe Tony Le was essentially captaining both the Fort Worth and Wild Dallas teams (could be wrong about this) and could have chosen to have his players retire in order to assure a 3-0 victory for Fort Worth, but instead allowed them to play it out. Well, witnesses reported that the line one match between Benjamin/Huynh and Luedtke/McClinton was won by Wild Dallas in the super tiebreaker. Apparently, when Le found out what happened in the Houston/Austin match, he realized his error and told his players to report the match as a 6-1, 6-1 win for Fort Worth.
It took them something like an hour to sort things out, and shamelessly no player who was on the court admitted the truth. Some Houston players witnessed the match but as biased observers their evidence was discounted.
It's hard to put a stop to someone captaining two teams...we've seen it locally quite a bit. Quite often, the person listed as the captain is just a figurehead for someone else controlling the team. I've probably been listed as captain myself a couple of times when I was doing very little actual captaining. There's a lot of shadiness in League Tennis, but the backroom dealing and/or match fixing is the worst of it. Not really sure how it can be prevented. I hear whispers every year about someone possibly laying down for someone else to allow their friends' teams to qualify for city playoffs. When there is so much smoke, there must be some fire behind those rumors.
Or you could take the Houston approach and just write down scores for matches that were never actually played
DeleteKind of old...if you have something to say just say it.
DeletePosting scores for matches that didn't play? You mean the Steve Nolan approach.
Deletewho won trilevel that 2013 year anyway? didnt Tony end up winning it all?
DeleteSay it ain't so? Steve Nolen could never get away with posting fake scores. Canyon Crook or Hookhaven would NEVER do anything like that. And if they did they would be met w swift punishment. His wife works at the DTA and she would see to it that "justice will be served"!. Yeah right, what a freakin joke!
Deleteyou went back to 2013? get a life
DeleteIs any of this true? If it is, Tony would be kicked out of the USTA. I tend to think it is just sour grapes. If it is true, it might explain why he has been hit with so many DQs. Sounds like there is just a vendetta against him.
DeleteI think its true. Tony and Kelley went on to win nationals that year but in my book its tainted because of the bogus scores.
DeleteTony's team lost in sectionals finals to Dallas and Kelly. Tony was captaining a Fort Worth team and the Dallas wild card team. Pickett captained the Dallas team and they went on to win tri-level nationals that year. Kelly was on Pickett's team.
DeleteYes, I'm trying to get a few friends to play in the Doubles League format. I'm tired of playing tankers in the fall.
ReplyDeleteput the tankers in one league and those that didnt make any type of playoffs in the other. that way everyone plays and is happy!
DeleteWe all know the DTA reads this blog so would a representative please comment why nothing was done about the bogus scores posted by CC and Nolan (the husband of DTA worker )and why nothing was done about it please?
ReplyDeleteCrickets chirping
Nolan was the guy who advised the DTA to not tell anyone if there were wild cards when they put that policy in place a few years ago because he felt like it would negatively effect the integrity of the game. And posting fake scores for matches that never happened is ok? What a hypocrite.
Deleteno doubt!
DeleteStating if Dallas has a wild card or not does not effect the integrity of the game. Showing which wild cards are in each flight can do that, but just letting Dallas know if they have one should not be an issue.
ReplyDeleteWhy can't everyone just shut up and play. Don't whine when you get beat. Don't complain about the DTA. They do the best they can at a thankless job. Just show up, shut up, play your match, and say nice match when it's over.
ReplyDeleteStop complaining about the teams that always win. They win because they don't have a members only rule. That's why a lot of the "big" clubs don't win. You have to have all members. It's hard to compete against a team that can bring in players from all over Dallas and ft worth when you can only pick from the members you have.
That's my opinion. For what it's wroth.
As of tonight there are 8 teams signed up for the DDL.
ReplyDelete3.5 has 2 teams
4.0 has 2 teams
4.5 has 1 team
5.0 has 3 teams
Deadline for minimun rosters is August 19th.