Boys tennis: Top teams in trouble for CIF playoffs?
May 12th, 2009, 11:29 am · · posted by Chris Tobolski, OCVarsity.com
University, the No. 1 overall seed in Division I, losing in the second round Saturday?
Unlikely, but with the USTA Nationals being played in Lakewood, it’s a scenario worth exploring.
The Trojans aren’t the only county team that is going to be affected by this weekend’s tournament. University coach John Kessler said county coaches asked CIF to change Saturday’s second round to another date. According to Kessler, there isn’t anything CIF can do this season, but will look into moving it next year.
The Trojans, along with No. 3 seeded Santa Barbara, are among the hardest hit schools. University, which faces the winner of Dos Pueblos-Calabasas on Saturday, will be playing without John Huang, Matt Siow, Michael Tang, Kona Luu and David Blakeley.
Mater Dei is another school in danger. The Monarchs face the winner of Northwood-Irvine on Saturday, and will play that match without Chris Freeman, Charlie Alvarado and Justin Agbayani. Northwood will be without its top singles players Junya Yoshida and Julian Ruffin.
A sample of some other schools who will be without players if they advance to Saturday’s second round:
Corona del Mar (Ryan Peyton)
Woodbridge (Andre Halabi)
Dana Hills (Warren Hardie)
More from the boys tennis blog:
- Boys tennis: New CIF rankings (May 11)
- Boys tennis: Athlete of the Week
- Boys tennis: CIF playoffs Division V wild card matches
- Boys tennis: CIF playoffs Division V brackets
- Boys tennis: CIF playoffs Division IV brackets
- Boys tennis: CIF playoffs Division III brackets
- Boys tennis: CIF playoffs Division II brackets
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Yup, this is going to be a challenge. From what I understand, if both schools agree, the Saturday match can be moved to Monday. I’m assuming Uni knows this and will pursue it. Of course, some could still be playing in the tournament on Monday but it won’t be everyone. Bummer for the schools involved. However, sometimes players need to make a choice between tournament tennis and high school tennis and it looks like this weekend is one of those times. Perhaps the players should have checked the schedule. Just a thought.
I also think schools are looking to move the matches to Friday.
We’ll have to see what happens.
Another thing:
I’ve been trying to track down all the players and schools that could be affected.
If anyone has any further info, please leave a comment or email me at
ctobolski@ocregister.com
Thank you.
Friday would be really tough as the coin flip for match location doesn’t even occur until Friday morning. Not to mention, some schools might not be so willing to be helpful. It certainly adds some interest to the playoffs that’s for sure!
Peninsula would be affected as they have three players playing in the 16s (Shibahara, Porutiu, and Dalton.
Santa Margarita would be without Gavin Krogius.
Ya, this is ridiculous. If the CIF wants to have a fair tournament, they’d play the matches on a date when there isn’t a big national tournament.
I imagine Thousand Oaks could be in BIIGG trouble, they don’t have anyone else but their top 3.
The CIFSS tennis administration has a history of penalizing
excellent players and programs over the past 15 years.
1. They eliminated the 5 division championship matches at neutral
sites played in the afternoon.
Now all 5 championship matches are played at the Clarmount
all day on a weekday. This eliminate most of those loyal fans,
classmates and parents that have been following the teams
throughout the year.(9 out of the 10 teams that have reached
the CIF semifinals for the past 10 years voted no to Claremount.
2. It took 2 years of coaches polling (not CIF) to get them to move
the girls team championship match forward one day, so that 10
girls could compete in the National Indoor Championships.
3. The present conflict with players having to make choices to
play for their team or a national designated tournament can
easily be solved with the options that have been presented
to the CIF. No action taken over the past 10 years.
4. The strongest leagues in the CIFSS have requested that their
3rd place players be put in to fill the byes–no action taken each
year that it is requested. Kaes Van’t Hof HS All-America, Carsten
Ball HS were 3rd in their leagues–they both would have swept
through their opponents to at least the CIF quarter finals.
5. The coaches voted to have doubles count more in singles in
team scoring because 6 kids played doubles and only 3
played singles. Coaches had to really play a chess match to come
up with a winning line-up. The coaches who understood tennis
strategy loved this format. It was canceled by the CIFSS and the
principals because they wanted to use a system that the Santa
Maria HS grls tennis team proposed.
6. One parting example is the CIFSS seeding system. If done fairly,
there should be no problems. Over the passed 4 years one coach
on the seeding committee has seeded his team ahead of better
teams. This hurts every team that earned a better CIFSS play-off
draw that they worked all year to attain.
Finally, this comes down to administrators that are unqualified to make important decisions that affect the strongest tennis programs in the nation. Leagues are required to submit proposals with a second from a team in another league. This has been done, but
voted down by principals and CIFSS officials who don’t have
a clue when it comes to tennis administration. They should show appreciation to these programs and help the best get what they deserve.
If you need more examples and solutions, please let me know.
Thanks,
Tim