Name a better boys public school team than Science Hill

[BillVol]

BTW...to dawgs, playa or whomever.......

 

What has happend to American tennis? Why is US college tennis dominated by foriegn players? We are a nation of 300 million people. We are the richest nation in the world! Why are there no male American players contending for major titles anymore? Who is our best pro player these days? Andy Roddick? Please. What are we doing wrong???

[dawgs2]

BTW...to dawgs, playa or whomever.......

 

What has happend to American tennis? Why is US college tennis dominated by foriegn players? We are a nation of 300 million people. We are the richest nation in the world! Why are there no male American players contending for major titles anymore? Who is our best pro player these days? Andy Roddick? Please. What are we doing wrong???

 

 

 

Really quite an easy answer BillVol, its not the cool sport to be in now. At an early age kids start playing the sports they see on tv and America views as the most popular. These are football, basketball and baseball. The best of the kids see they are good at this and stick to it, never giving tennis try. How many of Americas best young athletes just play tennis when they are at then ages of 5-8, almost none. For example, Rhyne Williams from Knoxville, could be a great player in any sport he chose. He picked tennis(Depalmers grandchild) and concentrated on it totally and is now one of the top juniors in us if not the top. These kids are few and far between in the US

 

Im 37, tennis was cool to be involved in when i was younger. Connors, Mac, Borg.....tennis was at its height and people flocked to play it and brougt their kids along to learn the game. This was especially true in the Knoxville area and the Knoxville Raquet Club. They put out outstanding juniors with Woodruff being the prized pupil. This happened throughout the US and gave us Sampras and Agassi along with other great players

 

I also believe that Tiger Woods popularity has really driven the "country club kids" to the golf course instead of the tennis courts. While these normally arent the best athletes they are the ones that can afford top notch instruction from a young age and make some pretty good tennis players as they grow up..Now when given a choice by mom as to which lessons u want to in the Summer, alot of them pick golf because of Tiger and now tennis is only played for fun and never taken seriously by the kid

 

Tennis is now dying in the US, Im a coach at high school level in an affluent area of Knoxville. Over 2000 kids, and we had 7 girls tryout for the team(now one of them did win a state championship which was very exciting) That is an amazingly low number for a school this size and sums up what im talking about

[tennisplaya]

playa, what do you mean by third set rule?

 

 

When Webb played Science Hill this year, instead of playing out the 3rd set they played 3rd set tiebreaks.

[Tallon]

USJ is not a top tennis power despite their state title(s). Sorry, but they're not. I'm talking about the top private schools (that is, McCallie, Baylor, MBA, MUS, Webb).

 

 

 

Sorry, did not know this was a closed thread and you were only talking about certain schools.

Back to back state titles do not count??----ask the ones in DI A-AA how much they enjoy playing USJ.

 

 

Not very much......

[BillVol]

Really quite an easy answer BillVol, its not the cool sport to be in now. At an early age kids start playing the sports they see on tv and America views as the most popular. These are football, basketball and baseball. The best of the kids see they are good at this and stick to it, never giving tennis try. How many of Americas best young athletes just play tennis when they are at then ages of 5-8, almost none. For example, Rhyne Williams from Knoxville, could be a great player in any sport he chose. He picked tennis(Depalmers grandchild) and concentrated on it totally and is now one of the top juniors in us if not the top. These kids are few and far between in the US

 

Im 37, tennis was cool to be involved in when i was younger. Connors, Mac, Borg.....tennis was at its height and people flocked to play it and brougt their kids along to learn the game. This was especially true in the Knoxville area and the Knoxville Raquet Club. They put out outstanding juniors with Woodruff being the prized pupil. This happened throughout the US and gave us Sampras and Agassi along with other great players

 

I also believe that Tiger Woods popularity has really driven the "country club kids" to the golf course instead of the tennis courts. While these normally arent the best athletes they are the ones that can afford top notch instruction from a young age and make some pretty good tennis players as they grow up..Now when given a choice by mom as to which lessons u want to in the Summer, alot of them pick golf because of Tiger and now tennis is only played for fun and never taken seriously by the kid

 

Tennis is now dying in the US, Im a coach at high school level in an affluent area of Knoxville. Over 2000 kids, and we had 7 girls tryout for the team(now one of them did win a state championship which was very exciting) That is an amazingly low number for a school this size and sums up what im talking about

 

 

 

Enjoyed the comments. I wonder -- is tennis a country club sport in Spain, Argentina, Switzerland, Russia, etc.? I don't know if it is or isn't. I get the feeling that it is not and they are getting tough, hungry middle class kids who have a fire in them -- something our kids don't have. Just a hunch. Am I right?

 

PS: Agree that we will likely never see any truly great prep tennis players anymore. Like you said, if they are really good anymore, they are not playing HS. I guess the frosh at Brentwood High is good, but if you are really truly great, you are blitzing people as a frosh on the way to the state title. That didn't happen. Rhyne Williams, Bo Seal -- these guys don't play HS. Maybe Seal did a year at Baylor.

[big red big blue]

I also believe that Tiger Woods popularity has really driven the "country club kids" to the golf course instead of the tennis courts. While these normally arent the best athletes they are the ones that can afford top notch instruction from a young age and make some pretty good tennis players as they grow up..Now when given a choice by mom as to which lessons u want to in the Summer, alot of them pick golf because of Tiger and now tennis is only played for fun and never taken seriously by the kid

 

Tennis is now dying in the US, Im a coach at high school level in an affluent area of Knoxville. Over 2000 kids, and we had 7 girls tryout for the team(now one of them did win a state championship which was very exciting) That is an amazingly low number for a school this size and sums up what im talking about

 

 

I have to agree with you here...what strikes me is that young adults (20+, either in college or just out) who are inclined to take up a "recreational"/"country club" type sport today probably 99% of the time choose golf, especially among men. Tennis is sort of a sideshow. So when these young adults grow up, get married, and have kids, they start teaching their kids about golf....Then they ultimately start playing golf with them. 20-25 years ago, when tennis was at the peak of its popularity, young adults were chosing tennis in droves, and then getting their kids involved. I'm a product of such a family. My parents were both high school athletes from rural TN who had never played tennis or golf. Went to college, settled in Nashville, and took up tennis. So, at first they just dragged my brothers and me to the courts while they were playing. Then they started playing with us. So we all became tennis players. In the year 2009, almost certainly they (or at least my dad) would choose golf.

 

What I see now at my club (in the northeast) is that plenty of parents will mindlessly drop their kids off at a tennis clinic on the way to the golf course, but aren't treating tennis as the true #1. The pros are well aware that very few parents are practicing or playing with their kids outside the clinics so the clinics devolve into basic summer camp. They are already competing with the summer team sports (mainly baseball but now even basketball) but now they face competition from the other country club sport (golf).

 

Here's a question for anyone reading...I grew up in Nashville playing winter tennis at the old Westside tennis center. I think that place is long gone. Is something like that around anymore? I.e., a non-country club indoor facility?

[silverpie]

There are four indoor courts along with 15 outdoor ones at Centennial Sportsplex.

[BillVol]

I think the new rackets have hurt tennis. No shotmaking anymore. Few good rallies. I think fans pick up on this. If we went back to wood rackets or at least rackets with smaller heads, I think this would help the game.

[PTAS]

In my opinion the Bearden 89 Team was better than the 90 Team. They beat Germantown in the semifinals of State with Edwards upsetting Robert Sterns of Germantown with a 5-4 win. Bearden lost to Baylor in the finals of State. That team went 1. Chris Woodruff. ( Top 30 in the World ) 2. Devin Cundall. ( played at Tennessee) 3. Anthony Edwards ( played at Arizona State ) 4. John Wilbanks ( top 10 in Tennessee ) 5. Thomas Mozur ( played at Tennessee, Team captain for the Vols and head coach at uncg. 6. Brian Morrow ( top 10 in Tennessee and played college Tennis) I don't think a public School in Tennessee will ever have a Tennis Team with the caliber of players this Team had.

[PTAS]

Also, the 89 Bearden Tennis Team beat Webb, MBA, and I believe MUS. Several other private schools that year too. If memory serves me right, the only time they lost that whole year was in the finals of state against Baylor.