Yeah, I know, the season was played just for practice, and the results didn't count for ratings, but I'm sure the competitive juices were flowing when the Fall playoffs took place recently.
In 4.5+ doubles, Allen Teague's Old School team took the title by beating Katy 3-1. Katy won at line one, with Phong Regent and newcomer (4.5 rated) Juan Muhala beating Ben Whitsett and Neil Carpenter. Muhala may be one to watch.
The 4.0 doubles finals are scheduled for tonight. Copperfield's Shock and Awe, which features some pretty good 4.5 players in Letan and Rawls, will take on JCC in the finals. As you may know, a couple of 4.5 players are permitted to play, but must play at lines 1 and 2. (assuming my memory of HTA league rules is correct)
Katy Mason Creek won the 4.5 singles league behind Neil Carpenter, Monty Lindloff and Ky Kim. Margarito Arias will lead Sienna against Excalibur in the 4.0 singles finals.
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assuming you mean self rated when you say "newcomer"
ReplyDeleteCopperfield lost tonight to JCC in a tightly contested match. Match was 3-1. JCC was a tough team. So tough, in fact, that 5 of their players that participated this evening were bumped up to 4.5 at year end. It was a great match.
ReplyDeleteWho won for y'all Lance?
ReplyDeleteMichael Le Tan/Diego Cairampoma took line 1
ReplyDeleteDan Solis/John Bryant lost in straight sets on line 2
Joe Lewis/Robert Richter lost in a 3rd set tie breaker against two 4.5 players
John Soh/Sandy Grewal lost in straight sets to a 4.5 and a 4.0
JCC had 5 players that had been bumped up to 4.5 at year end so I felt like we held our own. I wish I could have played! However, I had surgery yesterday morning to repair a torn meniscus so was on the sidelines cheering.
Lance - not hating, but I would have sat you on the pine regardless of knee status.
ReplyDeleteDiego is your self rate 3.5, right??
ReplyDeleteDiego has a computer generated 3.5 rating. They won in a 3rd set tie-breaker
ReplyDeleteActually Lance, "Find a rating" on tennislink says "S". I'm sure he'll get bumped up soon enough, however. Unless he starts tanking...Just giving you shit, its not like your the only team to ever underate a new player.
ReplyDeleteHe won't get bumped based on the Fall results. Thanks Catherine
ReplyDeleteYup. All those people in favor of keeping the fall results off the books because of invisible tankers forget this fact. Including results always catches more people than it allows to slip through.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they ought to come up with a rating called BS, for bullshit self rate!
ReplyDeleteI dunno, just a thought.
Waaaaaaaa! LOL
ReplyDeleteCan you get cancer from inhaling asbestos?
ReplyDeleteWrong blog dude. This ain't the cancer or asbestos blog.
ReplyDeleteGoogle "mesothelioma"
ReplyDeleteFreeman and Benzon are the only cancers around here.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you win for winning the fall league?
ReplyDeleteWill there be continued tanking in the spring league?
You play for pride.
ReplyDeleteWinner get some trinket from HTA. It's worth about as much as asbestos, but doesn't cause cancer.
The trinkets don't cause cancer but they contain lead and create intellectual impairment. Read a few of these blog comments to see what I mean.
ReplyDeleteCongrats to all the winners! T-shirts are the award this season for flight winners. Subflight (division) winners and runner-ups also receive a promotional item like a hat or visor. But at the end of the day, (as in tonight in the finals) I personally will be playing for love of the game.
ReplyDeleteAnybody know anything about the Tri Level tournament? When is it?
ReplyDeleteTri-Level is January 29th/30th. You can check the schedule for all events on the HTA 2011 Calendar under www.houstontennis.org
ReplyDeleteI hope the tri level gets some interest this year. It's a good event. Sign up y'all.
ReplyDeleteI bet the men's doesn't make.
ReplyDeleteit sucks because there is no info! there was none last year either!
ReplyDeleteNeed a bit of feedback from all. Trilevel info is going out next week- 1 month notice. Wondering if a longer notice is necessary. Would help me to get feedback. Can I get a consensus for future reference?
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering what the best way is for the HTA to publicize Tri-level and Combo. They're both fun events, and don't take up too much valuable time, but they seem to fly under the radar.
ReplyDeleteTri-level is difficult because 3.5's and 4.5's don't generally play or even hang out together. If you want to have a good team, your 4.0's probably don't play with 3.5's either, since they're probably at the top of the 4.0 pool.
It is a fun event and the challenge is getting the top players across levels together.
ReplyDeleteIt normally takes coordination amongst captains to bring top players from each level together.
I think for starters the even struggles from lack of publicity - here is screen shot of HTA page this AM, not one thing about tri level.
http://i51.tinypic.com/21euu6d.png
Does anyone know if any of the companies listed as sponsors on the HTA home page are actually still sponsoring anything? I know Gallery has not sent a check for at least 2 years. Mission hates HTA, and Hurd's indiscretions killed HP's sponsorship.
ReplyDeleteCB: Less junk on the HTA website; so you can find anything. Targeted eNewsLetter to league or tournament or junior interest. A forum like CATA where folks can ask questions and exchange info.
Good suggestions. Marketing could be a lot better. Truth is that this blog gets out more and better info than anything else, at least for me.
ReplyDeleteAll great ideas. Some ideas I must pass upward. I believe the website will become more functional soon...
ReplyDeleteTrilevel publicity- best thought I have heard- thank u freddy s.- is to have pros put together teams since they know men from various levels. Maybe we could offer some monetary incentive?? Then, there's always beer and food. That surely would increase participation. haha. Flier will go out next week to clubs and captains. Or if a volunteer wants to create it earlier for HTA, I wouldn't argue. Volunteers are a good thing!
breaking news...new rules are on website under hot news. Yearly revisions are expected. Preparing for commentary...
ReplyDeleteHTA website about to get more traffic than it's had in its history. Hope we can find the info.
ReplyDeleteCatherine: I thought this was just a "facelift" to the rules. At 33 pages, it seems much more than that. Is this a draft or the final version? Some folks might not want to spend a week with this. What are the primary changes? A lot of stuff has been copied (with appropriate copywrite permissions, I am sure) from the USTA. What is the rule when these 2 sets of rules conflict?
ReplyDeleteLOL. I looked over the rules. There is little that's new.
ReplyDeleteThere's a "Freeman" rule that allows someone to captain only one team at a given NTRP level. Guess that will really stop Freeman from running three or four 4.5 teams. LOL
Other than that, there is a hilarious entry under "Captain's Responsibilities" ---
"Learning strategies to help your team win"
Perhaps the HTA can offer a clinic on recruiting ringers and tanking to help everyone out there.
Oh yeah, and one more thing.
ReplyDelete33 pages of rules and no mention of which league results count for what year's NTRP. The single most important piece of information that HTA can provide and nothing, nada, naught about it.
FAIL
The Freeman one team rule is easily circumventable.
ReplyDeleteJust put someone else's name as captain. Duh. Too much effort applied in the wrong places.
I'm really looking forward to the summer when there are three 4.5 team by the names:
ReplyDelete"Hurricanes I"
"Not The Hurricanes II"
"Really Not The Hurricanes, I Jason Freeman Swear III"
Give the guy props for stepping up to be captain. It ain't easy.
ReplyDeleteToo much of a chance for controversy with the round robin playoffs. People should only captain one tema per level.
ReplyDeleteWhat I don't understand is wasn't Catherine Blevines hired specifically to concentrate on growing the game in Houston and awareness. I don't see that anything has changed or improved since Diana stepped down, then 2 PTers, and now a dedicated employee to drive leagues in Houston.
ReplyDeleteWell, at least she's active on the blog. I'm sure we don't know all the ways she is trying to grow the league.
ReplyDeleteMust have been Jim Blevins, her husband's post above
ReplyDeleteWhat is there to know about Combo and Tri-Level other than the date? In general: If Freeman has a team, he wins. If Hollis has a team, she wins. The rest of us just sit back, pay our money, and hope there's a wild card.
ReplyDeleteCheck the margins and line spacing, 33 pages is more like 15, actually a few pages shorter than the 6 or so separate documents that made up the 2010 version. And anything beats "here are a few basic rules and we'll make up the rest as we go along".
ReplyDeleteCatherine has been responsive to me as a team captain so that's at least an improvement.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, the fact that there is still no publicly available information on how HTA league results are factored into NTRPs is an embarrassment to the HTA. Despite multiple warnings/questions on this blog (and in private), Catherine and the HTA still screwed up the fall.
So, Catherine, if you read this blog, I want to hear it straight from you. How are spring/fall HTA results going to be factored into NTRPs? When is HTA going to post some information on its website about this issue?
If you think issues like this are trivial, here is an example of a question that I'd like to know the answer to: Can spring results cause a dynamic DQ?
Also Hacker, you are on the board. How about raising this issue?
It doesn't matter what the HTA does, the same assholes will continue to complain.
ReplyDeleteI'm fairly certain that Spring results can result in a dynamic DQ. See Alejandro Baiz from last year.
ReplyDeleteThe HTA should not provide rating info at all. Everything that needs to Ve known can be found on various websites. The only reason you'd want to know which league counts is so you can tank. This info won't be released.
ReplyDeleteAt this point I would say it's fair to say that the 2010 Fall season which was supposed to be used for this year will roll into our ratings for 2011. It's better to follow the same Nov-Oct calendar year that the USTA does anyways because as it was only 1/2 of the Fall season was being used because the computer only picked up results up to Oct 31.
ReplyDeleteSo that would mean only the second half of the 2010 Fall League will be used towards 2011 if I'm not mistaken. No matter what because of how the USTA cuts off the date for computer ratings the Fall will be split in half.
ReplyDeleteThat is definitely something I would like Catherine to clear up. I understand an error was made, and am cool with that. But I'm curious about what, if anything, will happen with those matches that were supposed to count. Will they count for 2011, yes or no? (or "some" I guess)
ReplyDeleteCheryl did not want the Fall results to count according to folks at the league meeting. They told her to do it anyway. She said she would. She didn't. It doesn't matter; just like the new rules don't matter. Cheryl and the HTA staff will do what they want; then lie to cover it up.
ReplyDeleteI personally think the fall league results should not count, but feel that it should be a uniform decision section-wide. The tanking in fall leagues state-wide has, at times, been blatant. Those cities have a big advantage at Sectionals. One only has to look at the Lubbock 4.0 team to see the benefits derived from fall league tankjobs. I didn't notice any of that in Houston's fall league, by the way.
ReplyDeleteFall Results: Any matches played afer Nov 1 will count toward 2011 yr end ratings. Matches played between 9/7-10/31 will not count at all.
ReplyDeleteNTRP: From here on out all HTA leagues (with Section and league committee approval, of course) will count toward NTRP. Combo does not count.
Still loving the game, still working hard for you all, and I remain ALWAYS SMILING:).
Wishing each of you a wonderful New Year!
Lance: If none of the results counted; then no one would ever have to tank!
ReplyDeleteSeriously, a section-wide rule about leagues that contribute to NTPR and league schedules would keep things much cleaner.
here are my thoughts and sent my comments to HTA. Unfortunetly, after a month, I have not received a reply.
ReplyDeleteRandy Ortwein
Danny Stephens
Joanne Hresko
Cindy Benzon
Catherine Blevins
Cheryl,
Thanks, that explains a few things. In fact, I am actually glad it turned out this way. I realize now, the down side of ranking the spring and fall leagues and seriously hope we can fix the problem. What problem?, you ask. TANKING!!! I have never seen so much tanking going on in a season and you know I have been playing HTA for nearly 20 years. Two things need to change for these leagues. First, we need to eliminate "out of rank" playing. I don't care that Tennis Link is supposed to be able to compensate - there is no way that it does not bastardize the ranking system. If you are 4.0, you MUST play in a 4.0 league. There is no need to allow mixed ranking league play. And secondly, the winners of each rank in each league, gets to go to sectionals. That is the only way the Tanking will stop. At this time we have the carrot but no stick. Unscrupulous players will continue to use this to manipulate their personal rankings. If this is not addressed, HTA's reputation for running a fair league will degrade.
3:06pm makes a great point. Historically (10+ years ago), spring and fall leagues didn't count into NTRPs. As a result, there was no incentive to tank in these leagues.
ReplyDeleteAt some point, HTA sneakily allowed spring ratings to be included in NTRPs without letting the HTA membership know or explaining why this changed.
So, anyone associated with the HTA want to explain why spring and fall leagues (that have no possibility of advancement to Sectionals) count towards our NTRP?
The main effect as I can see it is that it allows folks to manipulate their ratings without cost. Given that I and most of the HTA membership are not obsessed with Sectionals, let's just only count the summer results towards NTRPs.
Freeman, Red and other can just start captaining teams in Amarillo if they want to go to Nationals.
Let me simplify the previous two suggestions:
ReplyDeleteOnly leagues that allow for the possibility of advancement to Sectionals should count towards NTRPs. If spring and fall results count in NTRPs, the league winners should be allowed in city playoffs in some form. Otherwise, only summer results should count into NTRPs.
In dallas you can advance from the fall, that would make sense here as well
ReplyDeleteis there tri level for 5.0?
ReplyDeleteThe spring leagues started to count towards NTRP in 2003. Not saying that it was announced at that time, just that it started then. Reading between the lines, I would say that it was because of the way Dallas handles their leagues but have not got that confirmed. I was on the HTA board in 03 and didn't know, I remember being told that it did NOT count.
ReplyDeleteEvery league has the Jason/Red types. Not a bad thing IMO. If you don't use everything with in your power to choose and keep the very best team, you won't make it to dallas, much less to the next level. As a captain, I have never taking the time to seek out great players at houston tournements as Jason and others have done, but that isn't against the rules.
ReplyDeleteWhat I can't acept it manipulating the league play to accomplish. Throwing a match on purpose, degrades the play. The present situation encourages the practice and I hope they figure out a solution.
Ok, I'm in agreement with 7pm's suggestion.
ReplyDeleteAnyone from HTA want to make the case why we're counting spring and fall results towards NTRPs?
I can see no positives and only negatives.
Ok, I'll try. Simple statistics thinking: more data equals better results. Unfortunately, in this case, some of the data is bad.
ReplyDeleteLOL. You destroyed your own argument.
ReplyDeleteGiving the tankers an easy way to input some bad data while degrading spring/fall league play for the average member is NOT an argument in favor of counting those results for NTRPs. It's an argument against.
WARNING: Before you renew your USTA membership check when your current membership expires. I just received an email from the USTA to renew with some promos attached (hat, shirt, coffee mug). I couldn't remember when my current membership expires so I logged in and discovered my membership is good through 2017!!! I wonder how many times I've renewed my USTA membership and didn't even have to.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't my argument. I was just guessing about what their original thinking might have been.
ReplyDeleteOk, I'll give my theory as to why HTA is doing this. In 2003, someone at HTA got the bright idea to secretly count spring results into NTRPs to "catch" all of the under-rated players who try to manipulate summer match results to stay at level.
ReplyDeleteThis worked for a while, but at some point the cat got out of the bag about spring/fall results counting and now it's tanker's paradise.
I agree with Hacker on 12/27 that any policy on which seasons to count for ratings purposes, or any other anti-tanking policies, simply must be coordinated with the other leagues around the state, if not the nation. Unfortunately leagues like Dallas and Lubbock where off-USTA-season tanking is rampant (Lubbock maybe not rampant, but at least one very influential season), have polluted the pond for all of us. We can choose the moral high ground and count USTA league only, in which case we simply wish the other cities luck at Nationals every year, or stoop to their level and hope the masses or the powerful will eventually cry “enough” and a fix will be agreed or imposed. Sometimes there has to be a train wreck before people will admit there’s a problem.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, let me get this straight.
ReplyDeleteYou are advocating a tanker-friendly policy which you readily admit has screwed up other city leagues so a select set of people (i.e; Freeman's guys) can be competitive at Sectionals?
Wow.
Or you could read it that I'm advocating that the league corrdinators actually get together and coordinate with each other. Your choice.
ReplyDeleteCome on, don't be fools, guys. All of the other cities help out the cheaters so we better help the cheaters here or we'll never win Sectionals again.
ReplyDeleteI say the spring and fall shouldn't count. If people want to tank that bad let them play (and pay) tourneys instead of leagues. That way the leagues are more competitive and the tankers get what they want. They should have to pay for tanking.
ReplyDeleteLeague fees ain't exactly cheap, yo.
ReplyDelete$15 for 4 months is cheaper than $28 for 1 weekend.
ReplyDeleteTri-Level event information has just been posted on the blog.
ReplyDeleteWhy did they start counting the HTA spring league in 2003. Not sure but believe it was because of the way Dallas does it. Why are we counting the HTA fall league, unfortunately, I believe I am the reason for that. I fought to get that implemented. My reasoning was to increase the competition of the HTA leagues so everybody would play with in their NTRP ranking. If you have been playing HTA leagues for as long as I have, you realize that the non-USTA leagues are weak. Allowing mixed NTRP rating play has further degraded the play in my opinion. My hope was for the HTA leagues to be as competitive as the summer leagues which might lead to an increase in membership.
ReplyDeleteCall me stupid, but I didn’t realize the tanking effect. It never occurred to me, that w/o the incentive of sectionals, that there was no down side to tanking. So while I agree that eliminating the NTRP rankings for non-usta play would solve the tanking problem, I am still seeking a solution for the less competitive HTA leagues.
I would rather see the non-usta leagues be turned into USTA leagues that count for a trip to Dallas.
Tin Man, I give you props for admitting that perhaps your thinking was faulty.
ReplyDeleteNow, the better question is HTA going to admit that they screwed up.
This rule is interesting. Not only after Freeman, but the way it is written you can't captain a singles and a doubles team.
ReplyDelete1.03(b) A captain may only captain one team at a given NTRP league level.
Idiots don't think about what they write.
I wonder about senior, 5.0, and USTA leagues with this rule:
ReplyDelete1.03(o) Team matches:
(1) Will consist of four individual matches.
Idiots...
If you can't win on the court, use the HTA to create a new rule. The only thing this rule accomplishes is ensuring that there won't be any transparency with teams and who is captaining them.
ReplyDeleteActually it says "league level". Singles 4.5 and Doubles 4.5 would be different league levels.
ReplyDeleteIdiot.
2:33 If that was the intention, why did they not use the commonly accepted language "flight" like is used on Tennis Link?
ReplyDelete1:31, it seems to say on Page 10 that these rules govern only the HTA leagues (i.e. Fall and Spring), and not the USTA leagues. Otherwise we might also have a problem with 1.03(h) that says only two courts need be provided. I'm only on page 13 but I'm hoping somewhere in here or in a yet-to-come document there will be local rules that address the USTA season where USTA League Rules are silent (e.g. start times for matches).
ReplyDeleteAnd 3:39, I think "flight" means for example where the 4.0 Mens is broken up into four flights. Ya gotta love all these terms.
NumbersGuy: Tennis Link calls Flight Mens 4.5 doubles and subflight the division into 5 to 10 teams to play against each other in the season.
ReplyDeleteHow funny, the USTA League Rules make no mention of the term "subflight". A little internal consistency issue I guess.
ReplyDeleteA bunch of lawyers all up in here.
ReplyDeleteDoes anybody know if these new rules are going to be used for the Spring Season?
ReplyDelete6:19 Isn't Freeman a lawyer? I suspect that explains some of the discussion.
ReplyDeleteNumbersGuy: Would you think that means that USTA rules won't apply to the HTA League (Fall & Spring) season? I wonder how anybody finds out.
All that talk about lawyers and cancer makes me want to ask if there are any attorneys in the league tennis circle. Preferably personal injury lawyers if possible. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Jon Wagner from Westside is an attorney. I don'think that he does personal injury though.
ReplyDeleteDec. 30, page 10 says "The HTA leagues will follow USTA league rules in cases the HTA rules do not specifically address..."
ReplyDeleteSo does that mean they are going to do 2 sets of rules? One for Spring/Fall and another for Summer?
ReplyDeleteJust go read the rules. It's not hard, all the information is there.
ReplyDeleteIs there even a spring 5.0 league?
ReplyDeleteThere is a 4.5+ Doubles and Singles for Ladies and Men for Spring. Up to 5.5 can play.
ReplyDeleteI happened onto this blog and found some very strong feelings expressed back in 2008 about a tennis player by the name of Alann Torres. Anyone interested in good gossip????????
ReplyDeleteSure, why not spill the beans.
ReplyDeleteok so the greivance commitee got wind and PROOF that Alann falsified scores in the spring league season 2010 and punishment was only 11 months of no captaining. Now that is a slap on the wrist which tells me that if you cheat as a captain this is not allowed BUT nowing how he dictates and controls if george or danny are captain he sill still be running the team
ReplyDeleteI knew when he cheated at nationals in 2006 he was bad news
how did he cheat at nationals? red benzon was on that team. what a surprise.
ReplyDeleteisn't torreses father a big wig in san antonio tennis. his father should be ashamed, unless he is as corrupt as alan.
well at nationals orlando galvan played as another player. orlando was not on the team but someone else was and that person was not there. Roy is not his biological father so i guess he is considered a part time father
ReplyDeletethat's insane. how can they take any pride in winning if they cheat like that?
ReplyDeletewhy hasn't he been banned for life?
is roy a stand up guy? the apple must have fell far from the tree.
alann thrives on living on the edge. I agree I think they had a chance to ban him from playing and they didnt. From San antonio it should be an embarrassment to know that they hold a title that was won by cheating. your right roy knows about alanns cheating ways and supports him obviously. Roy was at the greivance so i am sure he persuaded the committee. Alann feels invinsable so he will never stop cheating.
ReplyDeleteRed was on the san antonio team when they went to nationals why??????
Red likes to gravy train his way to Nationals since he is just an average 4.5 player.
ReplyDeleteWhy he played for san antonio is beyond me because he did not even go to nationals with the team
ReplyDeleteBenzon went but was not in the line up. I heard he got into a fight with Torres over a gambling debt Allen cheated him out of so he left before the end of the tournament.
ReplyDeleteyea anyone that cheats alann out of anything gets his rath but he feels like he can cheat everyone else with no care about who is hurting
ReplyDeleteonce a cheater always a cheater. Not only oes alann cheat on the court but he cheats in his personnal life. Feel sorry for all the suckers who are in or associated in his life. If you ever were a friend of alann's and are not any more consider it a blessing
ReplyDeletesign your name dude. seems like you have an axe to grind.
ReplyDeleteno axe to grind just getting the facts out on a person that needs to be kicked out of the tennis industry
ReplyDeleteDude sounds like there is a tennis fan
ReplyDeleteThe USTA does not care about one or two cheaters as long as 100's of fair players pay there fees for a chance to play on a team against them. Cha-Ching
ReplyDeleteF### politics & money hungry pieces of sh@#!
ReplyDeleteAre you saying" F##k the USTA" because that sounds about right to me. Money from sheep who are sent to the slaughter is keeps the USTA wallets fat. They sure are not spending money on player development so where is it going beside BS salaries for those who work in the organization.
ReplyDeleteGreat, we have the low life assholes from the old tournament blog giving some wonderfully insightful nothingness once again.
ReplyDeleteAre you saying Mr. Torres is back after his slap on the wrist from TTA?
ReplyDeleteWho cares about Alann? All this ranting and raving is irrelevant to the Houston blog. Can we please move on!!!
ReplyDelete