Celebration Dinner at Delaney's Irish Pub & Grill

10 of 18 team mates gathered at Delaney's Irish Pub & Grill for dinner last night to celebrate our third place finish in the Dallas City Championships at the 4.0 USTA level and watch the Dallas Cowboys defeat the Chicago Bears.

In our first year of operation our team was ranked number 3 out of 30+ teams in the DFW area at the 4.0 level.  Much of the credit goes to our Captain, Brad Parrish (seated third from left) and Co-Captain, Steve Jacobson (standing in the back) for working on the merger with me, organizing practice, recruiting, working with our club leadership at The Courts at Gabe Nesbitt Park and setting the lines for matches. Here are some of the highlights of the fun gag awards.

Biggest Winner goes to Gregg Mills for 7-0 undefeated regular season and 2-1 record in the post season Dallas City Championship tournament.  One of his wins was with Greg Marsh against the eventual champion, Fretz/Noel (our only team point against Fretz) and another was a tough three set victory in singles against the number two seed team.

Sorry Gregg for the "fuzzy" nature of the picture, but you move so fast, even sitting down.

Best Scrapper goes to David Bostwick for the number of tough three set matches he encountered in both singles and doubles.  When our number one singles player got injured, Dave stepped up and inspired us all.

I for one am looking forward to playing some singles with Dave over the winter.

Most Improved goes to Kevin Vonderschmidt for breaking into the line up at third doubles line late in the regular season and winning all the way up the ranks to include a regular season win in second singles and post season win in first doubles.

Apologize again for the "fuzzy" image, but it's no surprise that two faster guys on the team are sitting next to each other.  Better bring your wheels when you play Kevin because he gets to a lot of tennis balls.

Most Tenacious goes to Richard Cheng for his ability to be patient and find a way to win in singles. He's a singles ninja and holds the record in the USTA 4.0 Dallas League for the longest match against Brookhaven this season - a 2 hour 46 minute three set victory against the most unorthodox (being kind here) player many of us have seen in a long time.

Richard was a great add to the team and could not have been possible without our very own lucky charm - his friend Jason!

The Lucky Charm Award goes to Jason Quon for number of wins by default.

That's Jason holding up a rubber horse shoe in his left hand.  Expect big things from Jason in the spring season and in the 40+ league this winter.

Finally, what would a team be without passion?  Passion comes in many forms.  Some have a quiet burning in their gut to succeed but never show emotion in their body language, e.g., Roger Federer. Others show emotion with a grimace or a mild look to the heavens after missing a shot.  And then there are those who go off the rails, come unglued, go ballistic.  They are the modern reincarnation of Ilie Nastase and Jimmy Connors in the 70s an John McEnroe in the 80s - down right explosive and a key reason why tennis of that era was so much fun to watch.

Most Explosive goes to Greg Marsh for his passion for the game and ability to motivate himself to victory with vocabulary known only to leading Psychologists and pinpoint projectile trajectories with tennis rackets only few can dream of and many fences tremble in anticipation.

Yes, that's a hand grenade in his right hand!  But he throws a nasty big left handed serve too!  John McEnroe would be proud!

Gentlemen, it's been a pleasure.  On a personal note, as you all know, I have been bumped up to 4.5 and will miss our matches together.  Looking forward to practicing though.  Have a Merry Christmas, Happy Honukkah and Wonderful New Year.

Playoffs On First Year

Many in the USTA League / Dallas Tennis Association (DTA) picked Brookhaven and Canyon Creek to win the flight and make playoffs.   However, the new kid on the block surprised them all. McKinney was built by three captains (Brad Parrish, Steve Jacobson and Cole Whitney) with the dedication of great team mates to make the playoffs, which we did with an 8-1 record in our flight during the first year of operation.  The merger between two teams was based on complementary strengths.  One team had strong doubles, the other strong singles.  We had our challenges normalizing after the merger.

Key singles players defected.  Our singles recruiting fell short.  One of our strongest singles players was injured early in the season and played only sparingly.  Our instructor left the tennis club.  Despite these challenges our doubles lines collectively had over an 85% win rate and our singles farm team looks strong.  Players pitched in to provide pointers on stroke mechanics and good beer :-).  We all bonded and became better as the fall season progressed.  No doubt the merger of core doubles with better singles propelled us to the playoffs in our first year of operation, a fantastic result and building block for the future.

Progression in the playoffs was difficult.  Cold weather and rain forced the DTA to reduce the playoff field from 8 teams to 4 teams and play indoors (The author, being of old eyes, hates indoor tennis because of the lighting). That said, many of the matches were very close, e.g., many set tie breakers and three set matches. Fretz is the the Dallas City Champion.  We came in third.  Most importantly, we had a ton of fun and know what to do to improve. Great balls of fire!  

Merger Validation

The merger seams to be validated with strong doubles carrying the day last week against Eldorado and excellent leadership from captains.  Singles has struggled with injuries and personal conflicts; however, we have more singles wins this year than last year and our singles farm team positions us well for the future.  Bench depth and flexibility has contributed to players who have stepped up to win.  Instruction needs to be improved on Tuesday; however personal conflicts and family comes first. 

Practice Starts

The merger has been completed.  We have a roster of 16 players.  We lost two or three of our best singles players during the merger; however, picked up some 4.5 players who were bumped down to 4.0 status.  Team looks like a contender for post season playoffs; however, still have to execute.

Practices started last night.   Drills start 10 September.  Team will start the best lines possible.

On a personal note, recovered from a stage 2 calf injury caused by too many singles matches at the age of 53.  Took the month of August to rest and recover.  Feel great! 

The Merger

Remember when!  The temperature was 130 on the court.  Water and bananas were passed out by the USTA.  Kidney stones were passed later.  This was Texas Sectionals for this first time "damn yankee" and it was marvelous.  USTA 4.5 ranking in Chicago transferred to a 4.0 ranking by a USTA Professional in Texas (no self ratings then).  A Texan asked, "do you know what the difference is between a yankee and a damn yankee?"  "Damn yakees are those that stay."   Stay I did and 24 years later at 53 years of age I want to taste Sectionals again.  To do that, I need a team of like minded men.  We need to make the playoffs of the Dallas area.  To do that, we need stronger singles lines and practice twice a week (once with our instructor).  Our A-team doubles lines had winning records in the Spring 2014 season, due in part to our instructor-led practice sessions.  A merger with a team with strong singles lines will be discussed 30 July at 1800.  So begins the saga of McKinney 4.0 - great balls O fire!