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Thursday, February 28, 2013

USTA's Junior Competition Committee Makes Changes, but Doesn't Reveal Them; Women's Division III Team Indoor Starts Friday; Pacific Coast Doubles Underway

I received an email from USTA Director of Junior Competition Lew Brewer this afternoon with a link to this statement:

The Junior Competition & Sportsmanship Committee of the USTA had a positive and productive meeting in Dallas from February 26 to February 28 regarding the 2014 National Junior Competitive Structure.

During this meeting the committee reviewed feedback received at the Listening Sessions and the Letusknow.com e-mail address. This included comments from key stakeholders including parents, coaches and players, tournament directors, teaching professionals, college coaches, USTA sections and other tennis constituents.

The proposed changes developed during this meeting were unanimously approved by the committee and will be presented to USTA National and Section Leadership on or about March 6, 2013.

These proposed changes will be vetted by USTA Leadership at the USTA Annual Meeting, March 16-18, 2013, and then presented to the USTA Board shortly thereafter.


Other than the obvious message that the committee will not be starting over, which is the result many of us had hoped for when the USTA first "paused" the 2013 changes, there's not much more to be said about this until the exact "changes" are revealed. Unfortunately, that doesn't appear to be before they are given the stamp of approval by the sections and the board, so any objections will be, once again, after the fact. That method didn't work out very well last year, but I suspect changing the governing method of the USTA was a bridge too far in this particular battle.

Keep an eye on the Parenting Aces blog and on the Stop the USTA 2014 Tennis Changes Facebook page for possible additional updates.

The ITA Women's Division III Team Indoor begins Friday in DePauw, Ind., with, as was the case in the men's tournament last weekend, a field without all of the top teams.  Here are the participants, by seeding, with their preseason national rankings in parentheses.

1. Chicago (3)
2. Carnegie Mellon (5)
3. Washington and Lee (7)
4. De Pauw (10)
5. Johns Hopkins (11)
6. Trinity (15)
7. Skidmore (16)
8. Wisconsin-Whitewater

The draw, preview and live scoring can be found at the ITA tournament website.

USC coach Peter Smith and Furman coach Kelly Jones are seeded fifth at the Pacific Coast Men's Doubles Tournament this weekend.  

The 124th annual Pacific Coast Men's Doubles tournament began this afternoon in La Jolla, California, with its usual wide array of college teams taking the weekend off from dual match play to compete in the prestigious event.  Here's a list of schools whose players, and often coaches, are in the draw:

Boston College

Claremont McKenna-Mudd-Scripps College (CMS)

Fresno State University (FSU)

Furman University

Oklahoma State University

Pepperdine University

Rice University

San Diego State University (SDSU)

Stanford University

University of California, Davis (UC Davis)

University of California, Berkeley (CAL)

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

University of California, San Diego (UCSD)

University of Central Florida

University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV)

University of San Diego (USD)

University of Southern California (USC)

University of Toledo

Villanova University

In the 128-team draw, there are two of each seed. The No. 1 seeds, are Cal's Campbell Johnson and Christoffer Konigsfeldt, the No. 1 college seeds, and Stanford's 2004 NCAA champion KC Corkery and his partner Blake Muller, the No. 1 independent seeds.

USC coach Peter Smith and Furman coach Kelly Jones are playing together and are one of the No. 5 seeds.

Ken Thomas will be again be providing coverage Sunday at radiotennis.com.  Results will be updated at the TennisLink site.



9 comments:

Bob Woodward said...

Colette....please hand me those Official USTA "Mud Glasses" so I can read through Lew's Reponse.... :))

Dan - GA said...

Actually think the name of the committee

USTA Junior Competition and Sportsmanship Committee update

is pretty funny, considering that no one at the USTA PD group cares about sportsmanship.

Robert from Texasi said...

So disgusted with the USTA.

Everything is not revealed to the public until they make it official.

And sometimes, even the wild cards are not even shown. Still waiting to find that list for Xmas Nationals this year. It was not posted anywhere. What a surprise.

Colette Lewis said...

The committee is no longer associated with Player Development. It is part of Community Tennis now.

Brent said...

Disappointing results for Michigan this year. Was hoping that they could really break into the elite group these last couple years and it just hasn't happened. King is still a one man band. Just lost at home to Tulsa, who is no slouch, but a match you have to win at home. Vlad Stefan really appears to be struggling after a strong fall. Hope King can go on a run in NCAA individuals to finish out a strong career.

Ryan - GA said...

Howdy Dan - GA

That is a fairly large statement/accusations to say without giving any examples which makes your cowardly comment not worthy of thought or taken seriously.

Talking about sportsmanship - you can same the same for McEnroe, Connors, Federer, Safin, Roddick, Rios, etc etc etc growing up in the juniors.

Furthermore, this committee is not even part of the Player Development so not sure where your comments even comes from.

I can easily say the same thing about your kids/students/friends or tournaments you run without any justification.

Midwest Tennis said...

Brent

I agree that Michigan is really underachieving. Not sure if it is bad luck, coaching or leadership. They seem to have a great squad and coaching staff on paper but something is telling me there is no one leading this team. It is similar to why UVA has lost so many times in the semi's and finals of NCAAs with having the best team on paper every time. The first time could be luck, maybe the second but not time-after-time-after-time-after-time.

Doubles Tournament said...

Couldn't be more impressed with the DOUBLES tournament in La Jolla - especially with coaches playing. You are never too big to play if Kelly Jones and Peter Smith are competing. ALL other coaches should take note and find a place in your schedule for this.

Sometimes the best coaching is when you do not say anything at all. Show leadership!!!

This is DEFINITELY a page out of Wayne Bryan's philosophy.

This should happen nationwide.

Gomer said...

"Surprise,Surprise,Surprise...."