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!
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