Indiana High School Tennis
Coaches Association
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President’s Letter
Spring 2007
As a mid-February blizzard swirls around my
home, it seems like a perfect time to take a few minutes to reflect on the
recent 2007 Indiana Tennis Convention and dream of the sunny days ahead for the
upcoming girls' and boys' tennis seasons.
I want to thank all who took the time and effort to attend the 2007 Convention
at the Adam's Mark Hotel in Indianapolis. About 350 members of the IHSTeCA
and USPTA Midwest Division attended the conference, and the evaluations were
overwhelmingly positive. Visit this site for a full
2007 convention recap.
Our plans are intact for the next few years. The 2008 Indiana Tennis Convention will be
Feb. 7-8-9, 2008 at the Indianapolis Racquet Club.
This was the site of our highly popular 2006 Convention, and we expect great,
great things in our continued relationship with the IRC, the primary sponsor of
the IHSTeCA. The 2009 and 2010 conventions also will be at the IRC.
In 2011, we plan to again combine forces with the USPTA Midwest Division, and
the large turnout will again put us in a hotel instead of a racquet club.
I have a variety of items to share with you:
1. Please welcome our newest IHSTeCA officers, Mark Reilly of Jeffersonville and
Gabe Muterspaugh of Mount Vernon (Fortville). Mark will serve as 5th Vice
President, and Gabe will handle responsibilities of Girls' Communication
Director.
2. The board has approved two items, effective immediately:
A. Nominees for All-District Doubles must meet the 50% rule
to be eligible. (This means each player must compete in at least 50% of
the team's regular-season varsity match opportunities at varsity doubles, either
#1 or #2).
B. Any player who reaches the singles or doubles individual
state finals and is not nominated for All-District or All-State
due to coach's oversight will be added to the
All-District teams and will be offered for consideration for All-State.
This wild-card system will enable the board to honor clearly deserving players
who are omitted from the pool of nominees by oversight.
3. President Tim Cleland and 2nd Vice President Sharon Rosenburgh have presented
Tennis Rules Proposals to the State Athletic Directors and to the IHSAA this
winter. Results of the proposals will be announced by the IHSAA in late
April. Here are the three tennis proposals up for consideration:
NOTE: None of these
proposals have yet been accepted or rejected by the IHSAA. The State
Athletic Directors serves as an advisroy board only.
A. In all tennis invitationals that require three rounds of play in
one day, matches must use third-set match tiebreakers or another form of
shortened play such as no-ad scoring or pro sets. (This proposal passed
the AD's by a 27-0 vote.)
B. At all levels of the postseason tournament when two rounds are
played on the same day, any player who starts the first round but does not
complete his/her match for any reason will not be eligible to compete in the
second round. (This proposal passed the AD's by a 26-1 vote).
C. The State Finals for boys' tennis and girls' tennis should be
expanded from 4 teams to 8 teams. Quarterfinal matches would be played on
Friday afternoon/evening, with semifinals and finals on Saturday. (This
proposal failed to pass the AD's by a 10-17 vote).
4. And finally, the new USTA Points Per
Round system for Junior Tennis Rankings has resulted in large turnouts for
sanctioned tournaments. This is good for advanced players, but in some
cases beginning and intermediate level players have found it difficult to gain
admittance into the tournaments. Former IHSTeCA president Ed Yarbrough of
Jasper has suggested that perhaps the IHSTeCA could help sponsor a series of
non-sanctioned tournaments throughout the state. These non-sanctioned
tournaments would be a great place for lesser experienced players to gain match
experience. The tournaments could be listed and promoted on the IHSTeCA
website. If you have feedback on this idea, drop me a line at
Keep the ball out of the net!
Tim Cleland
(Delta High School)
IHSTeCA president