Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - Sweat Socks: RL HS Coaching Tennis Dynasty

Young Drachma · 04-28-2021, 11:41 AM

We won yesterday. My last minute lineup changes I think were the key, because those doubles teams played tricky matches that would've gone different I think with my other combinations.

We had to win 5 of the 6 matches. Their No. 1 singles player (The one I was most worried about) actually ended up coming late because she had a scholarship interview (technically against the rules, but what could I really say about it) but it kind of worked out in our favor because it meant that 4 other matches went on before that one did.

Because we immediately went up 2-0 (so tying the match at 2-2) it gave my girls a lot of confidence. After 4 matches, we were up 4-2, so we only had to split the last two.

No. 1 singles was indeed pretty good. My player was little hurt to start, but they had a lot of good rallies. Still, she's probably our 5-7th best player depending on the day, so it was gonna be a tall task. In the end, she lost 6-2, 6-1 (the girl absolutely cheated her out of a game in the 2nd set, because they lost track of the score...but we'd already had the match in hand that point, so we were just like...let's just get it over with and go home.)

Second singles was the same player I used in that spot last week and she delivered. Waaayyyyy too many rallies against a pusher given how much of a bigger hitter my player is, but she figured it out and won 6-4, 6-4.

Third singles should have been easier than it was, but my player there was having a mild panic attack during the match. This school plays at their county fairgrounds, there are only two courts and they're inside of this barn-like building. The lines are both for tennis AND pickleball and the courts are extremely narrow and annoying to play on. Anyway, it also means we sit on bleachers and watch both matches, but the 'SINGLES' court (only has singles lines lol what) sits directly behind the opposing team so it's kind of stressful for players.

Anyway, she regained her composure and won 6-3, 6-4.

4th singles was the final match we won and it was a senior who I knew needed a lot of margin for error but it was a cakewalk, as I'd noticed earlier in the day -- for some odd reason -- they moved a 4th doubles player into that spot. I don't know if he just doesn't have any other players or if it's an effort to turn this girl into a tennis player by giving her experience. Either way, our senior captain (and 4th doubles player now herself) won 6-0, 6-0 to clinch it.

The doubles matches could've been hairy. First doubles they took their 2nd singles player and a 1st doubles girl and paired them up. Both had HUGE serves, but that's about it and the serves were super inefficient, so it was a lot of double faults. My team were a pair of sophomores who flat out asked me in practice Monday if they could play 1st doubles because 'they would win if I put them there.'

I debated it because they're inexperienced, but after thinking about it and looking at the lineups before, it made a little sense to me so I with it and kept my fingers crossed. But they handled it well and won 6-4, 6-4. Once we won the first two matches, I was already feeling a lot less stressed and realizing we were probably gonna escape this one.

2nd doubles faced another team of volleyball players who serve REALLY hard, but when you switch it up, things get a little strange and it did in this match for sure. They didn't really have any problems and my kids play good with a lead, so I don't stress too much after we've won the first set in matches. This team was comprised of two seniors, one who usually plays 1st doubles with her bestie and another one who is tall and a lefty and has worked on her game a lot. She showed a lot of flashes of brilliance in this one, which surprised all of us, because she really did seem like the liability on that team, but she wasn't.

They won 6-2, 6-4.

So despite forfeiting two spots, we won 5-3, by winning 5 of the six matches on the day. Needless to say, this doesn't happen very often because it's kind of difficult to do and I'd never want to do it again.

We're now 5-0 on the year. We're playing the same team we beat a few weeks ago because they didn't have enough players. Seems they have 8 players now, so it'll be a good chance for some of my players to get some experience in weird spots like singles when they normally play doubles.

The real test comes next Thursday. At the rivals. We win, we're league champs. (Like I said earlier, even if we lost our last 2 games, we'd have the same number of losses as our rival, but with the tiebreaker over them, but we're not losing those matches unless we somehow forfeited them)

As it stands right now, we should have almost our entire roster at that match. I'm pretty relieved to get through the mini-gauntlet of the season though unscathed by and large.

Best part is getting these underclassmen battle tested through a season where the stakes were pretty low, but by artificially creating a bit of stress by the need to maintain the unbeaten season, etc., because next year when the matches actually count. We're going to lose some of our senior depth which won't be great, but I think culturally the team will be more in sync next year just because these sophomores really have brought a supportive climate to the situation and we'll still be bringing back 4 of our top 5 players.

On the next match.

04-28-2021, 11:41 AM	#17
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	We won yesterday. My last minute lineup changes I think were the key, because those doubles teams played tricky matches that would've gone different I think with my other combinations. We had to win 5 of the 6 matches. Their No. 1 singles player (The one I was most worried about) actually ended up coming late because she had a scholarship interview (technically against the rules, but what could I really say about it) but it kind of worked out in our favor because it meant that 4 other matches went on before that one did. Because we immediately went up 2-0 (so tying the match at 2-2) it gave my girls a lot of confidence. After 4 matches, we were up 4-2, so we only had to split the last two. No. 1 singles was indeed pretty good. My player was little hurt to start, but they had a lot of good rallies. Still, she's probably our 5-7th best player depending on the day, so it was gonna be a tall task. In the end, she lost 6-2, 6-1 (the girl absolutely cheated her out of a game in the 2nd set, because they lost track of the score...but we'd already had the match in hand that point, so we were just like...let's just get it over with and go home.) Second singles was the same player I used in that spot last week and she delivered. Waaayyyyy too many rallies against a pusher given how much of a bigger hitter my player is, but she figured it out and won 6-4, 6-4. Third singles should have been easier than it was, but my player there was having a mild panic attack during the match. This school plays at their county fairgrounds, there are only two courts and they're inside of this barn-like building. The lines are both for tennis AND pickleball and the courts are extremely narrow and annoying to play on. Anyway, it also means we sit on bleachers and watch both matches, but the 'SINGLES' court (only has singles lines lol what) sits directly behind the opposing team so it's kind of stressful for players. Anyway, she regained her composure and won 6-3, 6-4. 4th singles was the final match we won and it was a senior who I knew needed a lot of margin for error but it was a cakewalk, as I'd noticed earlier in the day -- for some odd reason -- they moved a 4th doubles player into that spot. I don't know if he just doesn't have any other players or if it's an effort to turn this girl into a tennis player by giving her experience. Either way, our senior captain (and 4th doubles player now herself) won 6-0, 6-0 to clinch it. The doubles matches could've been hairy. First doubles they took their 2nd singles player and a 1st doubles girl and paired them up. Both had HUGE serves, but that's about it and the serves were super inefficient, so it was a lot of double faults. My team were a pair of sophomores who flat out asked me in practice Monday if they could play 1st doubles because 'they would win if I put them there.' I debated it because they're inexperienced, but after thinking about it and looking at the lineups before, it made a little sense to me so I with it and kept my fingers crossed. But they handled it well and won 6-4, 6-4. Once we won the first two matches, I was already feeling a lot less stressed and realizing we were probably gonna escape this one. 2nd doubles faced another team of volleyball players who serve REALLY hard, but when you switch it up, things get a little strange and it did in this match for sure. They didn't really have any problems and my kids play good with a lead, so I don't stress too much after we've won the first set in matches. This team was comprised of two seniors, one who usually plays 1st doubles with her bestie and another one who is tall and a lefty and has worked on her game a lot. She showed a lot of flashes of brilliance in this one, which surprised all of us, because she really did seem like the liability on that team, but she wasn't. They won 6-2, 6-4. So despite forfeiting two spots, we won 5-3, by winning 5 of the six matches on the day. Needless to say, this doesn't happen very often because it's kind of difficult to do and I'd never want to do it again. We're now 5-0 on the year. We're playing the same team we beat a few weeks ago because they didn't have enough players. Seems they have 8 players now, so it'll be a good chance for some of my players to get some experience in weird spots like singles when they normally play doubles. The real test comes next Thursday. At the rivals. We win, we're league champs. (Like I said earlier, even if we lost our last 2 games, we'd have the same number of losses as our rival, but with the tiebreaker over them, but we're not losing those matches unless we somehow forfeited them) As it stands right now, we should have almost our entire roster at that match. I'm pretty relieved to get through the mini-gauntlet of the season though unscathed by and large. Best part is getting these underclassmen battle tested through a season where the stakes were pretty low, but by artificially creating a bit of stress by the need to maintain the unbeaten season, etc., because next year when the matches actually count. We're going to lose some of our senior depth which won't be great, but I think culturally the team will be more in sync next year just because these sophomores really have brought a supportive climate to the situation and we'll still be bringing back 4 of our top 5 players. On the next match.