High school tennis is a vital part of the overall tennis picture, even for developing college players. The competitive and social aspects make it a fun and important piece of the junior experience. For most players high school tennis is the pinnacle of their playing careers. The problem with high school tennis is the format. The teams are too big. High school tennis should be played in the sa...me format as college: 6 players playing doubles forst, then singles. Bring back the prestige of making the top varsity squad of only 6 players and stop diluting the play by having 9 to 11 players on the starting squad. Many high school varsity players aren't at a competitive tournament level. Imagine going to a varsity basketball game and some of the kids can't play. The counter argument here is to increase participation you have to increase the team size, but I disagree. Have a varsity 1, V2, JV1, 2 and 3 and a few frosh/soph squads. Let everyone make a team even if you have to play off-campus. Have parents volunteer coach and push the level of quality up to the top, whereas the top varsity is highly prestigiuos because it is difficult to achieve. This will help high school tennis turn into a top junior achievement instead of something the better kids do as a pastime.
I think the quality of the tennis in high school is largely dependent on the area you live in. In Indianapolis area you have teams stacked with high ranking (USTA) players, while some of the more rural areas had baseball players pretending to play tennis. For the sport of tennis I like the idea of having lots of kids play simply for the fact that playing tennis can be so expensive this is the only chance alot of kids will ever have to play the sport. It's a great sport you can take with you for the rest of your life, so the more the merrier.
ReplyDeleteI think high school tennis could improve if more kids could afford to train in the off season. For many it's not a matter of not wanting to get better, just the inability due to finances and opportunity.