Keeping A Sharp Eye In Austin

FEATURED OFFICIAL OF THE WEEK

Rick Gabel

(featured in his Ohio State regalia)

An exciting week was had by all in the ITA world as we heard of numerous great matches! Congratulations to everyone and keep up the good work. Here are some of the week's events:

A SHARP EYE IN AUSTIN

Our featured match this past week was between the University of Texas and the Tulsa University men. Our sharp-eyed official Rick Gabel (featured above) was on the court in the #3 doubles match and had four overrules on the Tulsa players. Rick gave two of the overrules and one by side-linesman, Glen Whitaker, and the other by the infamous official from College Station on the other sideline. Way to go--keep those eyes sharp...

ADMONITION FOR FAIR PLAY

During a singles match between SMU and Columbia, the SMU coach complained to the official that the Columbia players were harassing his player through the fence. The official then said to the players, "You boys need to root for both sides. We need to go by the rules."

Enough said about that one...

MISSED TOUCH ON MATCH POINT

During the TCU vs Tulsa deciding men's doubles match, on match point the TCU player hit a winning overhead--but also hit the net on his follow through. No official (there were three on the court) saw it and the only players who knew about it were the one who did it and the two Tulsa players but they said nothing.

Definitely enough said about that one...

NO MORE SCORE CARDS

Seems that one of our more experienced and definitely most popular officials (who will remain unnamed in this post), has progressed to the point that they do not use the score card in their matches any longer. The official only uses the scoring device so I tend to wonder what happens when that goes on the blink or when the coach asks how many doubles faults his player has had.

Oh well, to the victor goes the spoils...

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU GET RAINED OUT

Seems that the UT-Tulsa men's match yesterday was full of surprises. Following the doubles point which was won by UT, the men began their singles matches--but after a short beginning the rains began to fall. With the prospect of continued rain throughout the afternoon and Tulsa having to catch a flight, the match was suspended for the day.

Then the officials were scurrying to find out the proper ruling on a match like this.

What would you have ruled???

BOYS NOT TO BE OUTDONE BY THE GIRLS

Everyone has grown accustomed to the women ITA players changing their shirts on the court--but now the boys are getting into the act. In the UTA-Sacramento State men's match, the Sacramento State player finished his 3 minute warm-up and when time was called he calmly walked to the bench, took off his shorts, toweled off, put on another pair of shorts, and then went out on the court. Thank goodness he had on some dark and extensive underwear...

PERHAPS THERE IS A NEED FOR MORE TRAINING

Just when we think our experienced ITA officials have arrived and do not need to attend a school every year we discover that this isn't always true...

During the TCU-Tulsa men's match, Referee Myron Krueger instructed two of his officials to go to the deciding doubles match and do the near and far sideline. He also instructed them to do the center service line. Little did he know that neither of them knew what he was talking about or how to do it...

It was a great tennis spectacle to watch Myron on the sideline trying to get his two officials in the right place at the right time...

These officials will remain unnamed so noone will tease them and sign them up for additional training.