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Things are gonna be uneventful until our showdown versus our rivals on May 6th for the regular season title. We're supposed to travel 75 minutes on Tuesday, but our private school decided not to provide transportation for this season's road matches. Now add the fact that I have a bunch of kids absent for other reasons on Tuesday and all my juniors (3 of my 4 best players) taking the SAT during school, it seems like a legitimate reason to reschedule.
AD didn't seem to agree when I asked on Friday.
Right now, I have 6 confirmed and maybe a 7th if I lean on the best senior available to make the trek. With 6 (4 singles and a doubles match) we'd have to win all of them to get the win. Is that doable? Probably. From looking at the records so far this year, their best players are their 1st doubles team and they're likely to split them up and have them play 1/2 singles. Not because it'll be a win, just so they can avoid being shutout.
But in this scenario, we'd be giving them 3 matches from the outset. My team has been beating substandard competition all year, so I'm not actually that worried about it, but I'm not sure.
My preference is going to be to reschedule, but it's good to know that if we can't (because my AD refuses to get it moved or rescheduled...) then I have at least a minimum viable roster to go down there and try to pick up the W.
One incentive for them to come to us is their coach is notorious for complaining about schools bringing their second-tier players to come down there instead of their best players. But they play indoors on two courts, so it takes HOURS to play matches there, let alone the road trip itself.
If this was the 90s, you could make a whole trip out of it and it'd probably be fun. But it's not those days, so it's just largely a fucking hassle.
Part of me enjoys the idea that we'd go down there with a small team and beat them 5-0 with that small team (it'd be 5-3 because of the forfeits) because it'd continue to showcase our depth.
Nonetheless, I'm going to press for us not to go. I've sent an email and I only have 5 for sure, with 2 seniors who'd do it if I absolutely needed them. The whole thing is a little ridiculous. We'll see if the reschedule it, but canceling it won't matter. Also, even if we forfeited the match -- which we shouldn't have to -- beating our rivals a 2nd time ensures we win the league title anyway, because we'd have the tiebreaker over them. (There's no way we'll lose any other matches this year.)
So it's just not worth the grief, honestly.
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