Au Revoir Athens
One of the things I enjoy most about traveling to college tournaments is the chance I get to meet the local newspaper reporters who are assigned to cover them. In Athens, I had the pleasure of getting to know Chip Towers of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and to talk with him about both issues and players in the college game.
Because he writes for the Atlanta daily paper (registration required), his focus is primarily on the University of Georgia's tennis team and players, and this story which came out before the tournament started, looks at the UGA facility, and the decision to rotate the NCAA championships to counteract the unfair advantage Georgia was thought to have when they hosted.
This story of Tower's is an examination of the liberal transfer rules in college tennis, and it focuses on an unusual rupture of the college coaches' fraternity. Manny Diaz of Georgia and Michael Center of Texas no longer speak after Center's No. 1 player, Travis Helgeson, transferred to Georgia after the 2005-06 season.
Tower's story on the final is about only the men's contest (he was complaining about how little space he gets for tennis coverage, even in a huge tennis city like Atlanta), but the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel hired a stringer to do a final's story on their local star, Audra Cohen.
5 comments:
colette.. it is my understanding for a player to transfer and play immediatley he or she needs the
coaches permission.. if the coach doesn't give it then the student can appeal but it is not a given.
French Open
All 9 American Men out in 1st Round.
What is going on?
Well there must be reasons for people to leave Texas that remain beind closed doors. In the past 4yrs they have lost Antonio Ruiz and Travis Helgeson to UGA. Drew Hoskins and Garrett Synder transferred to USC. Plus Michael Venus to LSU/pros.
players just about always win the appeals and they can turn into a pretty ugly affair and so coaches try to avoid the hassle of it and just give them the release...
coaches have to grant you a release and they can specifically state certain schools they wont release you to if they choose. all the more reason that coach centers beef with coach diaz is jealousy and not the self righteous goodness he tries to portray. like coach diaz stated he needs to look in the mirror and realize he can control 100 per cent of what happens at his school. 1)whether those players are being coached to the point where they can develop their games for the next level.2)are they being treated as well when they get to school as they were when they were recruited. 3) why are so many kids unhappy once they get to texas. Coaches in every other sport are held responsible for who they recruit and why they become unhappy. there is definetly more to coach center than people are aware of but for some reason nobody wants to print it or discuss it.
Post a Comment