Tennis
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brewer2125
- Posts: 52
- Joined: Mon May 18, 2015 9:33 am
Badminton is "exciting" to watch? Tennis is losing its popularity at the high school level? You apparently have spent ZERO time at the IHSA state tennis tournament or at USTA tournaments in Illinois. Tennis academies are growing in Illinois. Haven't seen a badminton academy open up yet. Badminton is for people who can't move on a tennis court and that don't have the athleticism that tennis requires. Badminton is a backyard game...leave it there.
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sealhall74
- Posts: 5777
- Joined: Fri Apr 18, 2014 1:18 pm
- Location: Wherever, Windblows
Good points, Brewer. I think we are in agreement about one thing. WIU must put some dollars into tennis to compete at the DI level. But I was not being facetious about rifle and/or badminton as alternatives to tennis. If you are the only DI school in the state offering it at a scholarship sport, you should be able to attract the best in the state. Recruiting is less of an issue. Downside is you really need the conference to jump on board to them as well.
BTW, grab a badminton racquet and go indoors against a really good player sometime and you will change your mind about it.
BTW, grab a badminton racquet and go indoors against a really good player sometime and you will change your mind about it.
Embrace the pace of the race.
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brewer2125
- Posts: 52
- Joined: Mon May 18, 2015 9:33 am
Replacing the tennis program with rifle or badminton will not increase WIU's visibility or stature in the DI sports world (and at most will generate maybe an article or two on the subject in the Macomb paper at best). Even though rifles, the NRA and gun competitions have existed for a long, long time in this country, there are only approximately 23 Division I rifle programs in the country (and, notably, 5 of those programs are offered by military schools). The fact that there are so few such programs is, in my estimation, due to the fact that - whether you like it or not - the vast majority of people in this country that are interested in college sports have zero interest in watching it. As far as badminton goes, you mentioned that badminton is growing yet tennis is dying. That is actually false. Based on studies that I have been able to find, only about 15,000 high school students - boys and girls are playing badminton, where as the number of participants in high school tennis is nearly 400,000 according to the National High School Athletics Participation Survey. So while you may find rifle or badminton interesting and fun, not many other people do (relatively speaking) and they clearly don't warrant cutting a legitimate DI program just because of WIU's poor hiring of coaches in the past who did little, if anything, to get WIU on the map of quality recruits. I give this new coach much more credit and she deserves a realistic amount of time to build a program (which I believe realistically will take at least 4 or 5 years to get going). Additional resources would only help to accelerate the development of the program.
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brewer2125
- Posts: 52
- Joined: Mon May 18, 2015 9:33 am
"BTW, grab a badminton racquet and go indoors against a really good player sometime and you will change your mind about it."
Been there, done that. Also pickle ball. Ping pong too. Racquetball as well. All great games. But not DI sports (or at least not games worth dropping the tennis program for). I've also been at a couple of Olympic sites and saw where they put the badminton courts - mostly on the side of some facility somewhere. In Montreal, they were in the corner of the swimming facility. Even the Olympics doesn't give badminton much respect in terms of needing space for an audience. Enough said. We can agree to disagree.
Been there, done that. Also pickle ball. Ping pong too. Racquetball as well. All great games. But not DI sports (or at least not games worth dropping the tennis program for). I've also been at a couple of Olympic sites and saw where they put the badminton courts - mostly on the side of some facility somewhere. In Montreal, they were in the corner of the swimming facility. Even the Olympics doesn't give badminton much respect in terms of needing space for an audience. Enough said. We can agree to disagree.
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sealhall74
- Posts: 5777
- Joined: Fri Apr 18, 2014 1:18 pm
- Location: Wherever, Windblows
I will reiterate what I said in some other thread. I admire Raquel for trying to change the culture by putting a few guaranteed wins on the schedule and wish her success down the road. But right now, if you think tennis in this country is not all screwed up compared to what it was in 70s and 80s, then you are on a double dose of Kool Aid. Currently, half of the college tennis players in this country are foreign-born because there is not enough American talent to make the cut. Yes, the last couple of years there has been an little uptick at the youth levels in this country but it will take a decade or two to fix what is broken.
Embrace the pace of the race.
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sealhall74
- Posts: 5777
- Joined: Fri Apr 18, 2014 1:18 pm
- Location: Wherever, Windblows
I guess it was one and done for Raquel Allen.
http://ncaamarket.ncaa.org/jobs/7178645 ... nnis-coach
If you like to travel overseas, being a college tennis coach would be an ideal career.
BTW, I just checked the tennis rosters at Tommy Bell's new home: 19 student-athletes. 5 from USA.
The system is still broken.
No masters required. Hell, I might apply. I spent a very enjoyable week at Van Der Meer last year and probably will do it again this year.
http://ncaamarket.ncaa.org/jobs/7178645 ... nnis-coach
If you like to travel overseas, being a college tennis coach would be an ideal career.
BTW, I just checked the tennis rosters at Tommy Bell's new home: 19 student-athletes. 5 from USA.
The system is still broken.
No masters required. Hell, I might apply. I spent a very enjoyable week at Van Der Meer last year and probably will do it again this year.
Embrace the pace of the race.
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brewer2125
- Posts: 52
- Joined: Mon May 18, 2015 9:33 am
You are wrong, wrong, wrong - again.
At the pro level, the US has more ranked players than any other country. US women have about 10,000 more ranking points than the #2 country, and nearly double the number of ranking points that the #3 country has.
At the collegiate level, less than half of womens' players are foreign (although some believe that is still too high a percentage and some advocate that the NCAA should limit scholarships to foreign players to something like 2 or 3 per school (I doubt that will ever happen).
At the junior level, I already showed you that participation is very high in the US. Overall, at all age groups, including men and women, there are more people playing tennis in the US now than nearly the entire population of Canada, and more than the entire population of Australia. USTA membership is at an all-time high.
We've peeled the onion on this. In my opinion, what you are really all about is just bashing WIU womens tennis (and seizing on the fact that the school has given the proram no real support or resources which lead to ------ a losing record!) to advance your agenda to try to replace tennis with some lame hobby like badminton or rifle. Just because the Olympics has badminton, or that it can be a good workout for you (still trying to figure out how badminton is a workout) doesn't mean anyone cares about it or that it should be an NCAA sport. Around 1900, I'm sure there were some people that thought tug of war was pretty cool, and a good workout, and it even was an Olympic sport there for a while. That doesn't make it a good cadidate for being an NCAA sanctioned sport. Same with badminton, which is nothing more than something that should be left to picnics or gym class, where it belongs.
At the pro level, the US has more ranked players than any other country. US women have about 10,000 more ranking points than the #2 country, and nearly double the number of ranking points that the #3 country has.
At the collegiate level, less than half of womens' players are foreign (although some believe that is still too high a percentage and some advocate that the NCAA should limit scholarships to foreign players to something like 2 or 3 per school (I doubt that will ever happen).
At the junior level, I already showed you that participation is very high in the US. Overall, at all age groups, including men and women, there are more people playing tennis in the US now than nearly the entire population of Canada, and more than the entire population of Australia. USTA membership is at an all-time high.
We've peeled the onion on this. In my opinion, what you are really all about is just bashing WIU womens tennis (and seizing on the fact that the school has given the proram no real support or resources which lead to ------ a losing record!) to advance your agenda to try to replace tennis with some lame hobby like badminton or rifle. Just because the Olympics has badminton, or that it can be a good workout for you (still trying to figure out how badminton is a workout) doesn't mean anyone cares about it or that it should be an NCAA sport. Around 1900, I'm sure there were some people that thought tug of war was pretty cool, and a good workout, and it even was an Olympic sport there for a while. That doesn't make it a good cadidate for being an NCAA sanctioned sport. Same with badminton, which is nothing more than something that should be left to picnics or gym class, where it belongs.
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leatherface
- Posts: 423
- Joined: Sun Apr 20, 2014 4:42 pm
brewer- As a ranked badmitton player, I resent your remarks!:) I am ranked #1 in our family, and considered a professional since I receive compensation-beer- after playing.
Just kidding. I actually haven't played badmitton in many years.You make some good points. It's refreshing to see someone stand up and be passionate about something.
Just kidding. I actually haven't played badmitton in many years.You make some good points. It's refreshing to see someone stand up and be passionate about something.
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brewer2125
- Posts: 52
- Joined: Mon May 18, 2015 9:33 am
You didn't mention the beer part in your earlier e-mails....I may have to reconsider my position on badminton.
I was just scrolling through some of the WIU athletics pages. Seems to be a bit of a revolving door there in recent years. Bell the AD - two years and out. Raquel Allen - one year and out. The volleyball coach April Hall - two and out. There are probably some others. Not sure of the circumstances of each. You can't build any program with the head coach (or the AD) changing every year or two. When I was there, it seemed that most of the coaches were there a long time. Maybe it's the location... Macomb isn't the most exciting place to live, or maybe it's what WIU pays, or maybe both.
I was just scrolling through some of the WIU athletics pages. Seems to be a bit of a revolving door there in recent years. Bell the AD - two years and out. Raquel Allen - one year and out. The volleyball coach April Hall - two and out. There are probably some others. Not sure of the circumstances of each. You can't build any program with the head coach (or the AD) changing every year or two. When I was there, it seemed that most of the coaches were there a long time. Maybe it's the location... Macomb isn't the most exciting place to live, or maybe it's what WIU pays, or maybe both.