Friday, December 5, 2008

The Big Four

Let's face it, when a college basketball season is about to start, you check out the rosters of Duke and Carolina and then everyone else. In the baseball offseason, you look at the Red Sox and Yankees and then figure out if anyone else can contend with their rosters. In 4.5 league tennis in this section, there are really four big players: Alann Torres, Mike Davis, Rusty Branch and Red Benzon. Everyone else is a pretender until they prove otherwise.

With the latest ratings update, Torres has installed himself as the favorite to make it to Tuscon again next year. He's basically got everyone in place, as all of his 5.0 guys have managed to get bumped down to 4.5. Reid Strand has been much discussed and will be a huge obstacle for anyone to overcome, but he is far from being the only talented player on the San Antonio roster. Jorge Vasquez and Daniel Cambon will both be 4.5 next year, and former Nationals stud Chance Morgan still has a 4.5 rating and could well end up playing in the Alamo city.

Perennial contender Rusty Branch was hit fairly hard by the ratings, losing Jeremy Stone, Walt Williams, Clint Sumrow and Ron Morrison to the 5.0 ranks. Rusty will find replacements, but he'll certainly have his work cut out for him if he's gonna' compete with the San Antonio and Austin teams.

Mike Davis appears to have benefitted from the ratings almost as much as Torres. Everyone's favorite scrapper, Chad Case, is back in the 4.5 ranks two years after destroying almost everything in his path. Bo Bowman also returns after being DQ'd from the Austin team that went to nationals two years ago. Adding those two to an already strong lineup will give Davis' a fighting chance to compete with San Antonio.

Houston has fielded some of the strongest teams in the last few years, but the success has come with a price as many of the stars have moved on. Red Benzon's teams are always a serious threat to advance to Nationals, but he's been moved up to 5.0. Tim Green may pick up the slack, but the talent pool in Houston is not as deep as it has been in past years as many local stars have moved up. One notable bump-down in the area is Odion Dibua. If he rejoins his brother on the Kingwood team they will be a potent one-two punch, but the loss of Gary Armstrong, Glenn Wright and Tim Hurlbert leaves some extremely big shoes to fill. Even Odion's shoes may not be big enough.

34 comments:

  1. Branch is done in Big D. Look for Royal Oaks, Northwood or another team to represent Dallas

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  2. LOL. Rusty is twice as smart and three times as crafty as Nancy Noel and the other captains here.

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  3. We all know that Rusty's team will be the favorite in the spring if he wants to be. Until somebody beats them in the spring, he is on top in Dallas.

    Leave me out of this blog conversation until my team makes it out of the city playoffs, which will hopefully be soon.

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  4. Branch has already reloaded.

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  5. I hear Branch got some former tour players.

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  6. Dwyer, Green and Benzon are a disgrace. Ban them from league. Torres is just as bad. The TTA is a complete embarrassment.

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  7. Davis will take his guys to Nationals, book the tickets now...

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  8. Interesting comment coming from old school. We all know that davis will have a good squad as usual but you can't bank on his doubles teams. No matter who he has recruited or added from bump downs he will still have to have his players endure the long season. I still think san antonio will be the frontrunner but would like to see that match up after all is said and done. Since this is a houston blog I will say this houston teams have managed to make at least the semi finals 2 out of the last 4 years and winning the other 2 years. Its going to be a great atmosphere come summer sectionals guaranteed !!

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  9. Old School is just being nice. He is always coming up with new league players that keeps our league ultra competitive. Every year we all know, that if we are to get to Dallas we have to go through Old School to do it. That is no small feat, believe me! I gave up a long time ago trying to make AT a nemesis. He is such a stand up guy and true gentleman, that one feels guilty even trying. The Howitzers have been on the verge of breaking through for 3 years. Word is, we will have new teams out of Lakeway and Polo Club? Does anyone know any more on that? Since the last poster is from Austin, but obviously knows what is going on in San Antonio, I was just wanting to guess, are your initials NL?:) It looks like the rest of Texas is going to have some tough going to get past former tour players from Branch Dallas as well as the Torres San Antonio sattelite squad.:)
    How do you get to carnagie hall........practice, practice, practice!
    Peace out,
    Austinwild

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  10. I understand Crabtree is putting together a Lakeway 4.5 team and believes he has some good talent.

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  11. Lakeway will have a 4.5 team and as Gold says there is good talent. If everything falls into place it could be a very solid team.

    Not sure how Polo will field a 4.5 team.

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  12. There's no way they can hang with Davis' bunch.

    Austin league is much stronger than Houston's I think.

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  13. All the Austin teams are fucking terrible. Chad Case, Bo Bowman, dah, dah, dah. You'd think these guys were Open level players. Chad made a run last year, I'll give him that, but IF Chad even makes it back to Dallas next year he'll be in for a surprise. 2009 Sectionals will be quite a bit better than the 2007 version, so tell that loser he needs to find normal fucking groundstrokes without the Seles grunts if he wants to compete with the Houston teams next summer.

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  14. Torres is an idiot and always will be.... haha :-)

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  15. Guess time will tell if they will be able to hang with Davis' bunch.

    Surprises come in all kind of different sizes and packages these days.

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  16. is this still the Houston league tennis blog??

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  17. Yes its still the Houston Tennis Blog. We let our Capital Tennis/Cowboys/Riverwalk players speak there mind for Now. Come summer league they won't know what Hit them because Houston will have an Elite Team ready to bring out the sweepers!!

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  18. Davis will have a few new surprises and tricks up his sleeve. Come summertime, it will be all Austin, believe me!

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  19. I'm sure Davis will have some tricks up his sleeve but what experienced Team Captain in Summer League doesn't have some surprises.

    San Antonio/Torres vs Austin Wild/Davis
    Dallas/Branch vs Houston/Green

    CAN'T WAIT !! If Austin does plan on making it to Nationals they do have to fly out of Houston to get to that Destination...

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  20. Wow, this is awesome stuff! I am glad there is a place for this discourse that players from all cities can participate in. Kudos to the blogger. Thanks to Houstonions for letting all of us play on your blog. I do have to laugh though, because no one really has their lineups together and some posters already have us playing on Super Sunday in Dallas. I'll take that any day, if I could anyway. We have a couple of new teams that plan on wreaking havoc on Austinwild and Old Schools Sectional aspirations. Our matches against Old School have gone to tiebreakers the last several years, so I am not ready to book any reservations in Dallas. Whoever comes out of the Capitol City will be damn tough.
    I do agree with the recent poster that this will be a bigger and better year than ever in the 4.5 and 4.0 level of competitions. I can only recruit and hope and pray that we can really be in Dallas representing Austin, playing on Sunday against the, Branch tour team, the Houston all star team, as well as the San Antonio satellite squad.
    It will be fun, and as the previous poster said, I can't wait either.
    -Davis

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  21. Ok, I have learned my lesson here. I have posted twice on this blog and both times I have single handedly killed the thread. This will be my last post then.
    How about we get things started again? So.....here's
    "two shoes on your head Houston" size 10's!:)
    -Davis

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  22. I think people are forgetting about Tim Green. He will surpass Kilshaw in the Houston hierarchy this year. Just not sure there's enough talent in the city to compete with Torres and Davis who seem to monopolise the talent in their cities.

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  23. I am predicting that a "sleeper" team will emerge in Houston this year and make it to Dallas. Copperfield and Westside both came close last year. Maybe one of these teams makes a deeper run this year or maybe it will be somebody new. Either way, one non traditional power will make it from Houston along with Kingwood or one of the others. And when they do, maybe they will actually GO to Dallas rather than wasting the 2nd Houston spot as Mob Squad did.

    Just one more meaningless HTA league to go with nothing on the line (sorry Rothe). Then the fun begins again.

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  24. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  25. Two shoes to your head as well Austin!

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  26. Hey Mike Davis, according to the Austin Tennis Blog there is a guy who played for your 5.0 team that just appealed down to 4.5 who played for a D1 school a few yeras ago, is he on your roster for this spring ??

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  27. I always hear so much about Torres bein scummy capt. being a jerk , being such a bad guy. I dont know him well but for what I do know he seems to be ok ... he is a VERY competitive and alot of people seem to like him. YES there are some who dont care for him but if you get to know him he seems to be a sincer person. I think those you dont like him are those who have not had successe against him in league. All the guys he play with him are to my surprise intensly LOYAL and unlike Bezon in Houston who seems to take advantage of people more than protect them. Torres seems to have a LOYAL following of both good & not so good tennis friends. I cant comment on Davis in Austin nor Branch in Dallas all thou out of the BIG 4 ... I put my money on Alan's Torres Team !!!!!

    San Antonio Hacker

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  28. Torres, Benzon, Branch & Davis
    ARE ALL FREAKING CRAP .... I dont care how COOL Alan is or how Branch stays @ 4.5 forever or even how BENZON cheats the system or how Davis with USTA in his BACK POCKET let him get away with the SILLY under the table teams.
    I just want to play against other player my level

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  29. Gay & Happy in Austin Texas

    I just love this stuff. Alan Red Mike & Rusty have gotten so popular because you silly people just keep talking about them !!!

    Just stop for a minute this has been going on for ever since league began. I have talked to people here in Austin about how former UT played played 4.5 league when it was called Volvo Leagues & they won also so all those guys do is what others have done ... THAT IS WIN & WINN & WINN

    Gay & Happy in Austin Texas

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  30. Do you play for the Howitzers, Mr. Gay? How is your team shaping up for the upcoming season?

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  31. I hear half of The Austin team is made up of former tour players, is that true?

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  32. If that punk ass chump chad case is the best Austin can do, they may not make it out of their flight!

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  33. If you have one opportunity to seize everything you've ever wanted - something like TENNIS - would you go for it? Guess what? You better try because one shot may be all you get! The Spring 2009 season is now underway! Players are now competing for citywide championship at their level!

    Flex-E Sports / Flextennis is now open for registration for the Summer 2009 League. I am sure you don't want to miss the fun and excitement. This is the kind of league that works for someone as busy like you! You get to play on your neighborhood, you don't have to go too far. It's so easy to join. Just visit the website www.flextennis.com and see what's waiting for you.

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