Boys Meeting Recap

It was good to see everyone tonight. A lot of familiar faces and several new ones. I am super excited to get into boys season. We have the ability on our boys team to win Region 3-AAAA this year. I hope I have motivated you all to get to work preparing over the holiday break.

I provided my cell phone number & email address. I want all players to have my number. If an emergency comes up, I want them to contact me as soon as possible if it affects their attendance of tennis stuff.

I also introduced Betsy Creech to the boys. Betsy played #3 for the girls team and is looking to work more year round on her game. She will be helping out with scorekeeping stuff for me during practice and matches and also will be participating in drills and practice matches to improve her game this spring.

Eligibility: This is a 3 part process. 1) Grades, 2) Physical, 3) Birth Certificate. See your guidance counselor if you have any doubts about your academic eligibility. The physical form was available at the meeting tonight, but can be accessed at northwesterntrojans.org under the "files" section. If you haven't turned a physical form in to the Northwestern Athletic Office since May 2009, a new one is required. A copy of a birth certificate is required to be on file. If you have played a sport at Northwestern, we have it. If this is your first season, turn in a copy along with the physical. If a physical or birth certificate copy is not received in the athletic office by February 1, you will not be able to participate this season.

Try Outs: This will be a 5-day process starting Monday February 1, 2010. We will try out Mon-Thur only, so if weather cooperates we should have our initial varsity team decided by Monday February 8. These sessions will be 3 hours long from 4:00pm-7:00pm.

To try out, you will need to be at all 5 days to compete in a continuous round robin. A varsity team of 9-10 players will be selected at the end of these 5 days. Players not on varsity will continue to play daily round robins all season. If a player is able to stay at the top of the round robin groups for several consecutive days, he will probably get a chance to challenge for a spot on the varsity team. Once a player is on varsity, they will stay on varsity. I am hoping to have 12-13 varsity players by the end of the season.

Practice: Once the try out process is decided, practice will be from 4pm-6pm Mon-Thu. Practice is mandatory for all players and very few exceptions will be made. I am looking for a commitment from the boys for 8 hours per week in the preseason and some more time once matches start. If you cannot commit to this, the season will probably not be successful for you or the team.

If a varsity player misses practice, they will forfeit any challenge match they were involved in and sit out the next match. If a second practice is missed, the player will sit out the next two matches. Additional misses will likely result in dismissal from the team. Being late to practice will be treated as a missed practice, but if a player is late they can still defend their position in a challenge match, but match penalty will still happen.

If a non-varsity player misses practice, they will forfeit all challenge opportunities that day. After 3 misses, that player will likely be dismissed from the team. I really hope that these scenarios do not take place. I do take attendance very seriously and believe that hard work at practice makes the difference in how good we perform in matches.

Matches: We will play approxiamately 14 regular season matches plus 1 or 2 pre-season scrimmages. We are also co-hosting a tournament on March 19 & 20 with South Pointe HS that will involve 8 schools from all over the state. I will likely have our varsity match schedule complete in January, if not sooner. Matches are typically on Tuesday & Thursdays at 5:00, but some will fall on a Monday or Wednesday. The season runs from early March until early May.

Rules: I will be having players & parents sign and agree to rules at try outs. Most of them will be simple - show up on time, work hard, and have a good attitude. However, some of them will be different than other sports. One, we will be wearing practice tee-shirts and look like a team at practice this year as all the quality teams at school do. Second, all players must wear tennis court specific shoes any time they are at practice or in a match. Third, varsity players must wear ALL BLACK shorts for matches. Shorts will be available for purchase when we do a team order the first week of February.

Shoes / Uniforms: Prices for shoes have been quoted previously and I posted them again tonight. Nike Air Ballistic 1.3's are $85, Nike Air Ballistic 1.2's are $60, and Nike Air Court del Mar's are $52. The Ballistic's are very durable and will hold up for an entire season. The del Mar's are a good shoe, but less durable and may wear out near the end of season. If a player needs shoes and wants to take advantage of our 35% discount on Nike, they will need to take a check or cash to the athletic office and give it to Rose Baker, the athletic secretary. I will be placing the order Friday afternoon so they will hopefully arrive before school lets out. There will only be one order placed so if you need shoes and like Nike, take advantage of this.

Varsity uniforms will be the same as last year and varsity players will get 1 purple and 1 white jersey. I have ordered more smalls of each since they ran a little big last year.

We will also do a clothing order the first week of February to order sweats, tee-shirts, long sleeve t-shirts and shorts. I will require the players to order 3 t-shirts to wear at practice for $30. All other items will be optional, but tend to be popular for players and parents. I generally only do one order for the group so make sure you get everything that you want.

Questions: The only group question that was asked was more to point out the Tennis Center is putting together weekly clinics for the winter and spring. In the past, I have done conditioning in January before practice starts. I am not doing that this year. My expectation is that players will show up to day 1 of try outs in the best shape and at the top of their tennis ability. I would like the boys to be practicing tennis all December & January on their own. They will need to be ready to play 3 hours of tennis for 5 straight days at the highest level to which they are capable.

Call or email if you have questions.

Go Trojans!