garsnare

Scott is not even close to making that list, and if you ask him, I bet he would tell you the same thing. If you just go by accomplishments, Scott and Tyler getting 2nd in state is definitely one of the top 10 UIL results all-time for the area. If you go by individual talent, Scott would get crushed by any guy on that list. Scott is a very good 2A player and a solid champ 18, but all the guys on the top 10 list are superchamps.

H-F could be pretty solid if they pair Terry and Nolan together. After them and whoever Kelly puts together, I can't think of anybody that would qualify as "good". Nederland should have 2 decent teams, maybe LC-M if they pair their top 2 guys, Kelly will be able to put together a decent #2 team. I can't think of anybody else I would even consider decent. I have pretty high standards though, so don't get your feelings hurt if you didn't make the list.

I think Deaver is way out in front, but after him you have a large group of guys that are pretty close together. They will have to bring their A game to even make the semis. It should help make everybody better. They will have to play good tennis from the first match on, where in years past champ or super level players only got a decent match in the tournament finals.

This coming spring is going to be interesting. Boy's singles will be the deepest I have seen it in the last 15 years. I don't think any of the other events will have much depth. Nice job Matt Deaver. Grant Lopez lost in the finals in 16's.

Nevermind, I finally found the results. Nederland lost 1st round to Willis 10-5.

How did Nederland do in regional team tennis? Did they lose to Willis in the 1st round or Seven Lakes in the 2nd round? I know that LC-M lost to Austin McCallum 1st round.

Yeah, I've seen Lain play. He has a big game, but is very streaky. When he is on he is capable of hitting people off the court, but when he is off he beats himself. After Deaver, the next group is Sagar Desai, Bug, Grant, Lain, Scott Carnley, Kenton Boone, and Clement Wehner.

The top 4 teams in regionals will all have at least champs in all 6 spots in the boys line-up. Nederland can be competitive at the #1, and maybe the #2 spot, but from 3-6 they will get whacked. And you are right about the girls, with no champ girls you are gonna lose all 9 girls matches. Nederland is good enough to make 2nd round with the right draw, but I can't see them making it past that.

Who got 2nd in this district?

Nice job Nederland! Congrats on yet another district title. It's gonna be tough at regional team tennis. Nederland will be anywhere from the 5th to 7th best team. If they get a good draw they could make the quarterfinals. There are two 2nd place teams that will be better than Nederland (Foster and Angleton), gotta hope you don't get unlucky and draw one of them first round. Babolat2, what do you know about team tennis, you have never played it.

Ok. Sorry about the confusion. Now back to the original topic of this thread. I think Grant has a very realistic shot at winning district 4 years in a row. His only competition this year will be Legato, and he makes way too many errors to beat Grant. He should have a cakewalk the next 3 years. He is going to have to get a lot better to have a shot to get out of regionals and qualify for state, but I think he can do it by his junior and senior year. 4A region III is a weird region. 2 years ago, there were only 2 super boys. 1 in singles and 1 in doubles. Then last year, there were 7. 5 in singles and 2 in doubles. Heck, there was even a 1st round singles match with 2 supers playing each other.

I played at Warren and graduated in 92'. Didn't you play for Woodville your freshmen year?

You nailed it with the comments about the Lamar men. In the last 10 years there have been a bunch of local kids who were "on the team" that would have been lower line-up D3 guys. The local juniors see that and think, "I'm almost as good as that guy, I can play D1 tennis". It has made for some seriously delusional junior players in recent years. I feel you man, I'm 33 and so cripled I can't play competitively anymore. So all I do now is coach. The local kid who beat the Super 18 kid this weekend is Scott Carnley from Warren. He is not big time, but he will be a solid D3 player somewhere next year. Of course, I might be a little biased since he is one of mine.

You are right about the lack of competition hurting him. If he went to a Houston or Dallas school he could probably be a top 50 super. I don't think anyone in the area will beat this year either, but there are a couple of kids who have improved enough to at least compete with him. One local kid beat the #94 kid in super 18's 2 and 2 this weekend, and I bet if I gave you 10 chances you still couldn't guess which local it was. (don't cheat and look it up) If you are comparing him to Danos to make the case for him eventually being a D1 player, that's not going to convince me because Danos wasn't a D1 player. Some of my players were playing at the D3 regionals in Abiline this weekend, and there were tons of kids who were ranked 30 and up in the super 18's that were playing D3. I've had 2 top 100 super 18's in the last 3 years go play college tennis. One plays D2 and the other juco. You have got to be top 20 minimum to be a legit D1 player. On a side note. You seem to know Deaver well, any idea why he was playing in the 18's draw in Houston. Has he aged up?

I know Deaver is a very good player for our area, but I saw him lose 2 and 1 to a Super 18 kid who is ranked in the 100's a couple of weekends ago in Houston. Last time I checked (summer) he was ranked around 160 in the Super 16's. He will be a champ 18 when he ages up, he is not even close to the top 1/3. I don't know him personally, but eveything I have heard points to him being a really good kid. I'm not talking bad about him, just trying to give a better picture of how weak Southeast Texas is in junior tennis. Currently, he and Sagar are the only 2 boy's Supers in the area, which is actually more than we have historically had. If he is playing that close with Lamar's players, I think it is more a statement of how weak Lamar is at the bottom of the lineup because Deaver is not even close to being a Division 1 college player.

I'll make that wager with you any time you want for any amount of money you want. You have either never seen Brandon Sims play, or you are Brandon Sims.

UT #1 - The 07 waren team was much better than the 06 team. Tyler was on both teams, and he improved quite a bit in that year. Scott would beat Brandon Sims 6-0, 6-0 every time. Tyler & Scott worked very hard for a year and became much better at positioning and execution. If they played the 06 team it would not even be close. SLandry- Does Kirbyville play team tennis in the fall, or only the spring team tennis tournament?

Our area is absolutely non-competitive at the 4A and 5A level. Westbrook never makes regionals in team tennis, and rarely gets anyone there in the spring. Nederland is the best 4A program in the area, but they usually lose 1st round in regional team tennis and only win matches at spring regionals when they play inner-city houston 1st round. The reason they can't compete with the Houston area schools is lack of depth. Westbrook has 1 Superchamp guy (Sagar) and 1 Superchamp girl (Sarah Pfister), but nobody else even plays ZATS. Same with Nederland. Grant is a Champ 16, and nobody else plays. In 4A, Foster, Friendswood, and Seven Lakes all have at least 10 champs and supers. Montgomery, which has won regionals in team tennis the last 2 years, has 4 supers on the boys side, and 3 on the girls. You can't compete with only one champ guy. We are actually pretty strong in 3A and 2A compared to the rest of the state. Warren and East Chambers in 2A, and Silsbee and Kirbyville in 3A all had people at state this year, and came away with two silver medals and a bronze. One good player can really stand out. There is no team tennis, so your depth doesn't get exploited.

I think it is a lack of talent period. The only school that has at least 2 champ caliber players is Kelly, and they have 3 champs. No other school has more than 1. Any team with Zat level players or worse realistically has not shot at getting out of regionals. I can't think of too many really good doubles teams to come out of southeast texas in the last 10 years or so. I can think of 5 state qualifiers since 2000. Warren last year, Deaver bros & Warren in 06, Wiggins and Reed of H-J 02 or 03?, and East Chambers in 01. The Boyntons were OK, but they didn't make state in 4A. The Warren team in 06 wasn't very good, but got lucky with a very weak region.

The champ major zone was the same weekend in Clear Lake, so that is where all those kids were.

Congratulations to both. Is Minick playing college tennis?

I think Catchings moved to Hardin his senior year. I didn't remember him winnig state, but I saw it in the program at state this year and his school is litsted as Hardin.

Kinda off topic, but fits the tennis history topic. As far back as I can remember there have only been 2 UIL state champions from this area. If anybody can add to my list, please do. Glen Turrow Hardin-Jefferson 3A singles 88?? maybe 89 Jason Catchings Hardin 2A singles 92 State finalist Salina Aranda Kirbyville 3A girls singles 07 Tyler Word & Scott Carnley Warren 2A doubles 07

I'm not talking bad about any coaches. I am a teaching pro myself. The numbers don't lie though. 2 years ago, I had more champs and supers that took lessons from me than the entire Golden Triangle had, and all my kids went to the same 4A school (Foster). At least now, the Beaumont area is catching up. I'm sure any of the coaches on the list above could produce some good junior players, but 1 every 5 years is not exactly my definition of a top notch junior coach. I've never even watched any of the area coaches give a lesson, so I don't know who really knows their stuff, but until they start producing multiple good junior players they can't be considered the best junior coach.

Let's do a list of all the champs and supes in the area. Help me if I missed anybody. Boys Matt Deaver- S18 Sagar Desai- S18 Lain Herr - S14 Matt Minick- C18 Brad Legato- C18 Kenton Boone- C18 Clement Wehner- C18 Scott Carnley- C18 Cody Luttrell- C16 Grant Lopez- C16 Patrick Lemasters- C12 Girls Salina Aranda- S18 Sarah Pfister- S14 Jessica Phelps- C18 Regan Hollier-C16 Emily Pfister- C12 I don't know who coaches several of these, but here are the ones I know Tony- Bug, Kenton, Clement, Patrick, Sarah, Regan, Emily are full-time Lain, Grant, Brad, Scott and Jessica are all part-timers at the groups. Russell- Sagar??? and Brad Jorge- Grant and Jessica Jerry- Matt Minick Jeff- Lain David- ??? Ron- ??? I would assume Salina's dad coaches her, and I have no idea who coaches Matt Deaver.