[Young Drachma]

Resounding win today, 8-0 in matches, 96-7 in game score. Complete domination without needing our two best players, albeit against the worst team in the league, but for context last year we played them twice and we gave up more games despite them forfeiting spots.

Also, the system that reports matches statewide has been extremely helpful for advanced scouting because now I can see lineups in advance and even if teams switch it up slightly. You know the returning kids and even if they've improved, it's good for benchmarking. The real wildcards are when there are 9th graders on these teams that you don't know and assessing how good they might be.

We have the depth to win every night out, but because the kids are overcommitted they will sometimes miss games and so you just need to make sure they're not missing games we need them so that matches that shouldn't be remotely close don't end up that way.

Next week, we've got back to back road matches. Adding complexity is that the kids have Monday/Tuesday off school, so we'll be coming into a road game having not practiced since Friday. It'll add a degree of difficulty to the proceedings, but I'm actually kind of glad about the "adversity" that it adds to the schedule a bit, because as they overcome these milestones, it'll give them more confidence in themselves.

Also in text-sim fashion, I've been promising them things. So far, I'm the hook for Starbucks if they win a future (against a specific team, not just anyone) match in 2 hours or less and a pizza party if they beat our rivals 8-0. LOL. Whatever it takes to add a bit of bonus motivation.

For context, last year we only had like 3 players who were year-round tennis players. This year, I have 4. In addition, we're way more athletic as a ballclub. Like one of my doubles players is ALSO RUNNING TRACK this season, so she's playing both sports and we're basically sharing her with that team. Two of my doubles players play club sports (soccer/volleyball) and also aren't full-time tennis players, but it just means that the caliber of athlete we trot onto the court with our full roster is dramatic. Also, some of them have taken huge leaps to their game over the winter. One of my 4th doubles girls last year has legit leveled up enough to probably play 3rd singles if we were a "regular" tennis team and not a 6A team stuck in 4A.

Having beaten that 6A school and with a 5A school in our sights next week, just looking at the matches teams have played so far and knowing the composition of those leagues/teams/players...we'd be good enough to win all but one of the 6A leagues if we weren't marooned in 4A. It might somehow be easier for us to win the 5A title if we were in that classification, because there's no dominant team this year and no dominant player and we're just so deep from 1-12 when our full lineup is out there.

All of this stuff I don't tell the girls -- it won't mean anything to them, really -- but it just makes me hellbent on ensuring this team puts a banner up in that gym when this is all said and done, because this team is way too good and after the COVID years stole 2 likely state titles from this class, I just want the seniors to go out on top.