State of Affairs In Texas Tennis

Now that the summer season is officially over, we can look back at the past three months and learn a lot of things.  We can see ways to improve tournaments, officiating, and the overall experience of a tennis tournament--or we can ignore what we see and continue in mediocrity in some areas.  Here are a few things observed over this summer (and especially in the sectional adult tournaments):

The infamous helicopter Mom.

Sadly, parents in Texas seem to be less under control than ever before.  We regularly hear of parents getting into physical altercations as well as verbal abuse of their children, officials, and anyone who dares cross their paths.  More stringent controls and penalties are much-needed, and sooner than later if you want to continue to see quality families participate in our sport.

Grade: C

The dreaded Texas summer heat seemed to be more overbearing than usual.  At one adult tournament site, they had 5 ambulance calls in one day!  Players need to be more educated about heat and its effects--and then actually take precautions.  One suggestion we received was to start play earlier, take off during the middle of the day, and then resume in the evening.  Great idea but not sure our tournament directors would like the suggestion.

Grade:  B-

Mis-rated players everywhere!

Texas seems to have an acute preponderance of mis-rated players--and its getting worse.  A mis-rated player who is one who plays in a division to which they do not belong--and it happens more often than not.  This travesty occurs at all levels and the USTA desperately needs to come up with a viable solution instead of giving lip service to the problem and then blaming everything on a computer. Nothing is more frustrating than entering a 4.0 tournament and end up playing a 5.5 player...  Add back in some evaluators who actually check out the players (and do it in a league match where it is actually competitive) and then increase the penalties.

Grade:  D

Tennis officials.

No discussion of Texas tournaments would be complete without a discussion of officials.  As usual, there are a ton of good ones who care about the sport and do a great job--and then there are a few that are a disgrace to the profession.  We regularly hear horror stories about officials' actions so we need to clean up our house!  Bad officials come to surface rather quickly and its time for the leadership in Texas to step up and do something about it.  Our pay is now at a good level so there should be no problem in expecting a job well done for a day's pay.

Grade:  C-

Junior Tennis

Everyone has encountered the screaming little brat that seems to enter every tournament and wreak havoc everywhere they go--but hopefully the tide is turning.  The kids seem to be behaving better and steps are being taken to reign in the terrors.  There is still much work to do but congratulations to our kids for doing so much better!

Grade:  D