Florida Trip

As some of you may be aware, on Friday, March 1 we begin our annual Florida spring break trip. We’ll be there for an entire week playing matches and generally avoiding Iowa weather. As a responsible adult I have, of course, already taken care of all the small travelling details such as checking-in for my flight and printing my boarding pass- this isn’t my first rodeo. While going to Florida is great and I’m sure it will be a great experience what I’m most excited about is knocking another state off my bucket list.

Let me explain, most of you know what a bucket list is, probably from watching the movie The Bucket List which I believe is about old people trying to kick the bucket or something. I know most people think of a bucket list as something you have when you’re old, but in my 6 yr old state-of-mind being a twenty something year-old is about two steps away from the grave so a bucket list is necessary. I’m  proud to say that I have already completed quite a few items from my list.

A few items already accomplished:

Visit 6^th street in Austin, Texas

Run a Tough Mudder

Throw up on an airplane

Eat at Torchy’s Tacos in Dallas, Austin, and Houston

Win at a casino

Lose at a casino

I know you’re probably thinking that after accomplishing all the things above, “What else is there to do?” Most people would lose all drive to live after doing all these things (especially throwing up on an airplane) but lucky for you I still have some things I want to accomplish. Since I knocked out a Tough Mudder which is a 12 mile obstacle course I figure the next logical step is to run a marathon, so that makes the list. I like tennis and coach tennis, so going to all 4 grandslams makes the list. I want to learn a foreign language, but sadly I don’t have a noble reason for that one; I just want to show off how smart I am. My longest, ongoing item on the bucket list is visiting all 50 states. Last year was a good one indeed; I added 7 new states to the list of those visited: Colorado, Georgia, North Carolina, Utah, Kansas, Iowa, and Wyoming.

My current map of states visited

This year promises to be another big one with trips to Wisconsin and Michigan planned but first up is the trip to Florida.

In preparation for going to Florida I’ve been binging on Disney movies, injecting orange juice intravenously, and eating dinner at 4:30pm to blend in with the locals

And afterwards we'll go to the all night raves!

Like I said, this isn’t exactly my first go round at traveling, so I was prepared well ahead of time and started packing my bag a good hour before I needed to drop it off at the racquet center. This is obviously because I didn’t do laundry until two hours before in needed to drop my bag off.

People often look forward to different things when travelling. For our trip, so far I’ve heard a litany of answers such as going to the beach, playing outdoor tennis, staying at a nice hotel. But what I’m looking forward to most is pretty simple: just seeing the sun! You see, the last few weeks this is what I’ve been looking at all day.

Oh snow again...yay

Snow and winter is a little rough on a guy from Texas. It’s like eating Fun Dip. The first few mouthfuls of pure sugar are great but fast forward two hours and 1 case of Fun Dip later and you’re curled up in the fetal position on the floor questioning your life decisions and wishing it would all go away, “Help me baby Jesus!!”

If there is any sun to be had when we land (and with a name like the sunshine state there had better be), then I plan on soaking it all in for a solid 5 hours. Then I plan on curling up in the fetal position writhing in pain from a sunburn and once again question my life decisions and wish it would all go away. After this is accomplished then we can really begin the trip. I won’t be posting while I’m in Florida, but I’ll be back in two weeks, tan and with a full report. 

Monday "Stuff"

So it somehow is Monday again....these Monday's occur very frequently at this time of year....are we for sure that there are not three Monday's a week in the month of February?

Anyway, the Indoor portion of the Tennis Seasons are done and out of the way(hah! This is still Iowa, betting we play quite a few more indoor matches this year) The Coe College Academic Calendar says that this Friday is the beginning of Spring Break(March 1st? Are you kidding me?), so the Teams will be heading to the Orlando, Florida area for training and match play. Outdoors!

Someone twisted my arm last Fall and I committed to taking 16 Men/11 Women and playing 13 matches on 3 playing dates. I am an idiot.........however should be a fun experience. For the players at least. Can't guarantee how the Coaching Staff is going to respond!

Quick Recap
The Scorebook says that the Men's Team won twice and the Women's Team won twice. Must have been a good Saturday, right? By results, yes it was! The Women's Team got the competitive portion of Spring underway, and like starting up an engine that hasn't run in 18 weeks, they had a few sputtering steps before obtaining the correct operating energy. Edging a school Coe had not previously beaten(Wheaton) shows excellent potential for the next two months.

The Men's Team garnered two more victories to head into Break with an unblemished 9-0 mark. We did drop our first doubles match of the year against Carthage College's #1 pair, comprised of an oddity; Two LH's, each with a one-handed BH. It was good tennis, we just came out on the wrong end of the score. 

Rankings
This week's rankings are posted below. Of course, there is not yet enough data for them to be accurate just yet. Before you (again) think I am an idiot, I know Kenyon College just won the NCAA D3 Indoor Title. So why are they #2 in the Central Region? Because Case Western picked up 3 top five Central Region wins and earned themselves a "ton" of ranking points. The rankings will "settle" down over the next few weeks as more matches are played.

Accurate Top 5
This is my best subjective guess as to how the top five in the Central Region look right now. National Rankings are due out on Thursday of this week.

1 Kenyon
2 Case Western
3 WashU
4 Gustavus
5 Whitewater

Rankings 2/25/13

1	Case	UAA	307.2
2	Kenyon	NCAC	217.6
3	WashU	UAA	134.4
4	Chicago	UAA	115.98
5	Earlham	HCAC	84.575
6	Whitewater	Ind	79.93333333
7	Coe	IIAC	37.73203125
8	Wartburg	IIAC	29.88333333
9	Augustana	Ind	29.2128125
10	Carleton	MIAC	25.175
11	Grinnell	Midwest	13.31015625
12	Depauw	NCAC	11.2
13	Univ of WI, La Crosse	Ind	9.780113636
14	GAC	MIAC	9.358333333
15	Elmhurst	Ind	9.325
16	Carroll	Midwest	8.755625
17	St Thomas	MIAC	8.021875
18	Oberlin College	NCAC	7.753125
19	Eau Claire	Ind	6.855729167
20	Carthage	Ind	5.81875
21	Zoo	MIAA	5.6
22	Luther	IIAC	5.3625
23	Lawrence Univ	Midwest	4.623125
24	Denison	NCAC	4.4
25	St. John's Univ (MN)	MIAC	4
26	MSOE	NAC	3.967447917
27	Wabash	NCAC	3.040972222
28	Wheaton	Ind	3.00703125
29	Univ of WI, Oshkosh	Ind	2.518303571
30	St Scholastic	Ind	2.50234375
31	Saint Mary's Univ of Minn	MIAC	2.396875
32	Principia	Ind	2.35
33	Buena Vista	IIAC	2.32703125
34	Lake Forest	Midwest	2.233333333
35	St Norbert College	Midwest	2
36	Westminster	Ind	1.833333333
37	Macalester College	MIAC	1.617708333
38	Monmouth	Midwest	1.52
39	St. Olaf College	MIAC	1.45
40	Baldwin-Wallace College	OAC	1.4
41	Knox College	Midwest	1.347767857
42	Concordia College (Moorhead)	MIAC	1.00703125
43	Ripon	Midwest	0.954752604
44	Rose-Hulman	HCAC	0.825
45	Northwestern College	Ind	0.7875
46	Franklin	HCAC	0.7375
47	Cornell	Midwest	0.577148438
48	Edgewood College	NAC	0.567578125
49	Dubuque	IIAC	0.560384115
50	Webster	Ind	0.5034375
51	Aurora Univ	NAC	0.45
52	Alma College	MIAA	0.4
53	College of Wooster	NCAC	0.34375
54	Otterbein College	OAC	0.2875
55	Loras	IIAC	0.219189453
56	Hamline Univ	MIAC	0.170572917
57	Bethel	MIAC	0.13203125
58	Wisconsin Lutheran College	NAC	0.096875
59	Simpson	IIAC	0.096484375
60	Concordia WI	NAC	0.090625
61	Adrian College	MIAA	0.0625
62	Bethany Lutheran	Ind	0.057421875
63	Illinois College	Midwest	0.05625
64	Central	IIAC	0.0328125
65	Ohio Wesleyan Univ	NCAC	0.0328125
66	North Central College	Ind	0.028125
67	Heidelberg College	OAC	0.018302409
68	Capital Univ	OAC	0.0109375
69	John Carroll Univ	OAC	0.00703125
70	North Central Univ	Ind	0.005273438
71	Dominican Univ (IL)	NAC	0.0046875

Live Scoring!

An abundance of action for you today.

The men are home and start with Carthage at 9 AM; they host Buena Vista later in the day (4 or 5 PM).    Line-ups below.  Live video streaming for both of those matches here (Coe is red on the scorecards):
http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/coe.portal#
Click on watch in the right hand column.  To supplement, Coach Rodgers will be tweeting scores (viewable in the right hand column of this very blog).

The women are on the road; they face Calvin College at 10:30 AM and Wheaton College at 3:30 PM.  Live scoring and line-ups for those matches will also be posted below.  29 fans in attendance for these two AWAY matches!  12 of them here to support Jordan!

Women v Wheaton
6-3

Doubles:  2-1

1.  Michelle Schupbach / Tai Lucero v. 1/6  8-6

2.  Gia Poynter / Laura Birky v. 2/4  9-8(1)

3.  Sara Ohlman / Elizabeth Hoffmann v. 3/9  6-8  

4.  Jordan Ferree / Amy Sebastian v. 5/8  8-2

5.  Shade Hannum / Tamara Washington v. 7/Katherine Kaiser  2-8

Singles:  4-2

1.  Tai Lucero v. Sarah Ray  6-0, 4-6, 6-2

2.  Michelle Schupbach v. Kirsten Boyer  6-1, 6-2

3.  Gia Poynter v. Lauren Schlabach  4-6, 1-6

4.  Amy Sebastian v. Marissa Shults  6-3, 6-2

5.  Sara Ohlman v. Julia Carey  7-6(4), 7-6(2)

6.  Jordan Ferree v. Julie Buursma  6-7(4), 4-6

7.  Laura Birky v. Taylor Parrish  5-7, 2-6

8.  Tamara Washington v. Meredith Manchester  5-8

9.  Shade Hannum v. Erika Nelson  6-8

Men v Buena Vista

9-0

Doubles:  3-0
1.  Mike Janssen / Sean Stokstad  8-2
2.  Ryan Hickman / Mike Woolf  8-2
3.  Mark Kroll / Zack Decker  8-1
4.  Scott Kleymann / Alex Leovic  8-2

Singles:  6-0
1.  Riley Galbraith  6-2, 6-3
2.  Sean Stokstad  6-0, 6-1
3.  Mike Janssen  6-2, 6-0
4.  Geoffrey Brochet  6-1, 6-2
5.  Zack Decker  6-0, 6-1
6.  Mark Kroll  6-0, 6-1

Women v Calvin
9-0

Doubles:  3-0
1.  Michelle Schupbach / Tai Lucero v. 1/4  8-1
2.  Jordan Ferree / Laura Birky v. 2/6  8-6
3.  Sara Ohlman / Elizabeth Hoffmann v. 3/5  8-1
4.  Shade Hannum / Tamara Washington  7/9  8-1

Singles:  6-0
1.  Tai Lucero v. Megan Visser  6-0, 6-0
2.  Michelle Schupbach  v. Jordan Ipema  6-0, 6-1
3.  Amy Sebastian  v. Ali Roode  6-2, 6-1
4.  Gia Poynter v. Bethany Zoerhof  6-2, 6-1
5.  Jordan Ferree v. Samantha Reitsma  6-2, 6-3
6.  Elizabeth Hoffmann  v. Elise Doezema  6-2, 7-5
7.  Laura Birky  v. Courtney Selvius  6-4, 6-2
8.  Shade Hannum  v. Lindsay Elenbaas  8-4
9.  Tamara Washington  v. Anneke Knot  8-3

Men v Carthage
8-1

Doubles:  2-1
1.  Noah Sprinkel / Curtis Newman  6-8
2.  Yasushi Inoue / Ryan Hickman  8-1
3.  Jeff Damisch / Riley Galbraith  8-5
4.  Daken Starkenburg / Alex Klaas

Singles:  6-0
1.  Noah Sprinkel  5-7, 6-2, 6-4
2.  Riley Galbraith  7-5, 6-0
3.  Yasushi Inoue  7-6, 6-0
4.  Curtis Newman  6-0, 6-2
5.  Ryan Hickman  6-1, 6-1
6.  Jeff Damisch  6-1, 6-0

Game Show Network

Last week we had a good therapy session where I sat down on the collective couch and let you in on my Wednesday doubles prowess, or fading lack thereof. It involved a good deal of crushed dreams, doubles strategy, catharsis, and Castrol GTX. Before we move on to my other seminal life events I am required to tell you that yesterday we once again split sets, mainly because Curtis Newman was inexplicably hitting winners on every ball he touched. No, that’s not a typo: Curtis was hitting winners. In one game particular game, I had hit 6 first serves and was still at deuce because CURTIS hit a forehand return winner, a backhand return winner, and a lob winner. In short, Curtis was treeing out of his mind (for you old people that means he was playing well above his standard level).

He was eating bananas!           

This week were going to explore another important part of my life – I know, it’s scary. In Clark Racquet Center is a room that serves as the player’s lounge and in that lounge is a TV. Now everyday there is a very important meeting that takes place in this room. At precisely 2:00 pm there is a gathering to watch the Game Show Network. Yes, the Game Show Network. Curtis, Mark Kroll, Ryan Hickman and myself always gather with a rotation of other players to watch. Our show of choice is Chain Reaction which involves two teams of three contestants playing for a grand total of $7,000. And yes all that money is split 3 ways after taxes, it’s great television. This has become so pervasive that we have been scolded for lateness to practice and this blog post was actually delayed because, you know it, I was watching Chain Reaction.

The game involves male and female teams trying to connect words listed on the screen. An example would be the word Stick with an S below it. Contestants guess the correct word with a letter added for each incorrect guess until one group makes a correct guess. In our example the correct answer for Stick is Shift. Here is a sequence from the show today.

Risky

Business

Contact

High

Sea

Captain

Kirk

For two 30 minute episodes we watch Chain Reaction and by watch I mean scream indiscriminately at the TV. Every wrong guess by us is obviously forgotten and every correct guess is only confirmation of our superior intellect. In one memorial instance, the all-male team was behind and needed to bet big in order to catch the female team. The word that came up was Rocket followed by an S underneath. When we all saw this we immediately started screaming Ship at the TV because, you know, they can hear us. The male team apparently thought just like we did, and bet all they had. The next letter was revealed to be an H just like we all knew it would be, the male team guessed Ship correctly, and we once again proved how freakishly smart we are.

Let this round table meeting begin

Oh wait, that didn’t happen at all! The next letter was actually a C. You could audibly feel our brains collectively exploding together in a devastating blow to our ego. The poor contestant on the show didn’t fare any better than us. His lips were already forming the word Ship even before the next letter arrived. The Females guessed Science, won the round and the show as we all set to the task of separating out our individual brain fragments from the simultaneous explosion that just occurred

After Chain Reaction the fun isn’t over. GSN’s run of 10 hours of Family Feud starts at 3:00. Family Feud needs no introduction, but if you don’t know what this is you were either deprived as a child and are now dead to me or you’re a zombie and are once again dead to me. Either way please step away from the computer and go stick a knife in a light socket (my lawyers tell me I am legally obligated to say you should not stick a knife in a light socket).

Family Feud involves more of us yelling at the TV with our intelligence once again being confirmed. I always wonder when the surveys were filled out and who is filling these things out. Question: Name a sport that has risen in popularity among female athletes. Answer: Wrestling. What kind of women are they hanging out with? I want to meet them!

Every day inevitably ends with Coach Rodgers or Coach Kris yelling at us to get down to the courts for practice while the Fast Money round is going on. “It’s the most important part of the game!”  

Rankings Explained

The KTeR Ranking system is a quantitative compilation of matches played.

Here are the basic premises:

1 Only D3 matches played between Central Region schools count. All varsity matches count.

2 Points are awarded for both Wins and Losses based on the quality* of opponent

(*Teams were ranked 1-99, with the ITA Rankings establishing the top 25. Schools 26-99 were subjectively ranked based on 2012 performance.)

3 Total points are then divided by number of matches played, yielding a per match average.

4 Results are gathered from the various Conference websites on Monday mornings.


Rankings will initially seem skewed/inaccurate. As more matches/data is input, the system will self-correct.
(i.e-Washington University has yet to play a match and are thus not listed this week. Gustavus will also move upwards when an increase in strength of schedule takes effect.)

RANK	SCHOOL	CONF	AVG PTS
1	Kenyon	NCAC	217.6
2	Earlham	HCAC	103.1666667
3	Chicago	UAA	68.175
4	Whitewater	Ind	52.7
5	Coe	IIAC	43.9
6	Augustana	Ind	36.5125
7	Wartburg	IIAC	29.88333333
8	Carleton	MIAC	27.97
9	Grinnell	Midwest	17.00770089
10	St Thomas	MIAC	16
11	Oberlin College	NCAC	15.3
12	LaCrosse	Ind	13.375
13	Eau Claire	Ind	10.21875
14	Carthage	Ind	9.609375
15	GAC	MIAC	9.358333333
16	Elmhurst	Ind	9.325
17	Carroll	Midwest	8.755625
18	Zoo	MIAA	5.6
19	Luther	IIAC	5.3625
20	Wheaton	Ind	4
21	Westminster	Ind	4
22	MSOE	NAC	3.967447917
23	Lake Forest	Midwest	3.5
24	Saint Mary's Univ	MIAC	3.340625
25	Buena Vista	IIAC	3.215625
26	St Norbert	Midwest	2.933333333
27	Oshkosh	Ind	2.921354167
28	Ripon	Midwest	2.8
29	St Scholastica	Ind	2.50234375
30	Principia	Ind	2.35
31	Monmouth	Midwest	1.9
32	Denison	NCAC	1.6
33	St. Olaf College	MIAC	1.45
34	Baldwin-Wallace	OAC	1.4
35	Knox College	Midwest	1.3225
36	Concordia(MN)	MIAC	1.00703125
37	Wabash	NCAC	0.928125
38	Rose-Hulman	HCAC	0.825
39	Cornell	Midwest	0.80234375
40	Franklin	HCAC	0.7375
41	Webster	Ind	0.591796875
42	Dubuque	IIAC	0.560384115
43	College of Wooster	NCAC	0.453125
44	Aurora Univ	NAC	0.45
45	Otterbein College	OAC	0.2875
46	Hamline Univ	MIAC	0.2546875
47	Edgewood College	NAC	0.128841146
48	Loras	IIAC	0.100878906
49	Wisconsin Lutheran	NAC	0.096875
50	Simpson	IIAC	0.096484375
51	Concordia WI	NAC	0.0921875
52	Lawrence Univ	Midwest	0.071875
53	Adrian College	MIAA	0.0625
54	Illinois College	Midwest	0.05625
55	Central	IIAC	0.0328125
56	Macalester College	MIAC	0.0265625
57	Bethel	MIAC	0.0140625
58	Ohio Wesleyan	NCAC	0.0125
59	Capital Univ	OAC	0.0109375
60	North Central Univ	Ind	0.005273438
61	Bethany Lutheran	Ind	0.00234375
62	Heidelberg College	OAC	0.000219727

 

Video

To supplement Coach Rodgers' recap post.....a video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2a6mJ8EyoNo

Additional pictures on the Facebook page as well:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Coe-College-Tennis/105913412828214?sk=photos_albums

Monday Meandering....

I see that it is Monday again, and this means I should post a few words.....

Was quite the busy weekend for Kohawk Tennis. Three Men's matches in two cities, Coe's Scholarship Day, and Women's Challenge rounds Friday and Sunday.

Without a doubt, the lead story is the Men's win over Kalamazoo College. Coe had never defeated Kalamazoo, Coe has few significant "road" wins in the past decade, and Kalamazoo is my alma mater. Not only was there a difficult surface speed change for us, but it can be very difficult to play in the face of such tradition. Kalamazoo owns seven D3 NCAA titles, and it appeared to have had another dozen top four finishes.

 Even with two hours of practice, we struggled to return serve accurately, but that was neutralized by it being Kalamazoo's first match of the season. We were able to sweep the doubles, and play well in singles en route to a 7-2 victory over the #30 ranked team in the country. A nice "feather in the cap" for our quickly rising team.

Not to be outdone at all, the nine players that stayed at home took care of business with a 7-2 win over Westminster(MO), AND a 9-0 win over Saint Ambrose University. Coe had 17 players take part in competitive match play on Saturday! Coach Kris, with a ton of help from Betty Damisch and the Women's team, not only put out our usual lunch spread, but threw in a breakfast also! Because of the record number of Scholarship Weekend participants, the Racquet Center was host to a Friday evening dinner for 175. Coe had over 900 people visiting Friday and Saturday.

The Women's Team is prepping diligently for the onset of the Spring portion of their year. Coe did capture their 2nd straight Iowa Conference title last Fall, and fifth overall. Coach Kris will be taking the Team to the Chicago suburbs for Saturday matches with Calvin College and #10Wheaton College. Coe is ranked #11. All eleven players have improved over the off season, and are excited to get the challenging Spring schedule underway!

The men return to play at home Saturday where they face double duals once again. The morning match will be against Carthage College:  Coe will attempt to avenge last year's disappointing 5-4 loss to the Redmen. Carthage will be led by Jeff Lotz, the Central Regions #14 ranked player. In the afternoon, Coe hosts Buena Vista University in their opening Iowa Conference match. BVU is currently atop the IIAC standings with an unblemished 2-0 record. 

Finally, we are close to having enough data to publish the first Central Region Men's Quantitative Rankings of the year. One way or another, I will post tomorrow on the Rankings, and how we are compiling and evaluating the data.

Until then.....

 

Live Scoring - Men v Saint Ambrose

Coe 9

Saint Ambrose 0

Doubles:

1.  Damisch/Mike Woolf v. O'Donnell/Wood   8-4

2.  Klaas/Starkenburg v. Gonzalez/Rohlf   8-0

3.  Kroll/Brochet v. Ambrosy/Laudman   8-0

Singles:

1.  Jeff Damisch v. Santiago Gonzalez   6-3, 6-4

2.  Geoffrey Brochet v. Sam O'Donnell    6-1, 6-4

3.  Zack Decker v. Luke Wood    6-2, 6-3

4.  Mark Kroll v. John Rohlf    6-3, 6-0

5.  Daken Starkenburg v. Brandyn Ambrosy    6-4, 6-0

6.  Scott Kleymann v. Rob Laudman    6-3, 6-1
Exhibition:  Matthew Moore v. Laudman   8-4

Live Scoring - Men v Westminster & Men at Kalamazoo

Coe 7
Westminster 2

Doubles:

1.  Damisch/Woolf v. Stephenson/Becker    8-3
2.  Klaas/Daken Starkenburg v. Wollmershauser/Yob    8-2
3.  Kroll/Decker v. Connell/Tolbert     8-3

Singles:

1.  Jeff Damisch v. Tony Stephenson    4-6, 4-6
2.  Geoffrey Brochet v. Tyler Wollmershauser    6-2, 6-2
3.  Zack Decker v. Anthony Becker    6-3, 6-3
4.  Mike Woolf v. Steven Yob    6-2, 6-0
5.  Mark Kroll v. Nathan Connell    7-5, 6-1
6.  Alex Klaas v. Kyle Tolbert    2-6, 6-3, 7-10
Exhibition:  Scott Kleymann v. Kody Renner    6-2
                      Matthew Moore v. Kody Renner    6-1
                      Daken Starkenburg v Kody Renner    8-2

Also being played at this time......Coe at Kalamazoo!
Coe leading 3-0 after the doubles (8-5, 8-3, 8-4)!
Live scoring from that match here:
http://kzoo.edu/sports/live/mt/xlive.htm

Wednesday's With Tom

Folks, it’s no secret that today is Valentine’s Day. It’s a day dedicated to that patron saint of superfluous gifts and romantic dinners at packed restaurants. The day we all frantically buy chocolates and cheap cards at Walgreens on our way home from work to express our deep love for that special someone who we kinda put off ‘til the last minute, sorry next year will be better. Last year even I was swept up in Valentine’s Day activities and invested in purchases for that special someone (to the tune of $5.62). However, this blog post is not going to be dedicated to this ever-so romantic day, but to something more important (and romantic): Me. 

That last statement may seem a little bold, and also narcissistic, but I contend that actually falls right in line with what the ideals set forth for Valentine’s Day. In our own way, by talking about me, we are celebrating what this day is all about.

The answer's each other right?

Every Wednesday morning for the past few weeks our top doubles team, Noah Sprinkle and Curtis Newman, have been meeting at the Clark Racquet Center to play former Coe player Tom Jennings and myself. Close followers of the program will remember that Tom and I played a doubles match against each other during our college playing days. Tom squeaked out the victory for those of you wondering. Now we team up to once a week to play the best current Coe team and re-live our glory days while being constantly reminded that we aren’t as nimble, quick, or agile and have less power than we once did.

You see me and Tom are like your dad’s old muscle car, or if you’re my dad’s age, then we’re like your old muscle car that you got rid of for that Toyota that has much better gas mileage and the money you saved is helping to pay for your son go to college because there is no way on God-Green-Earth he’s staying home and being a bum for life (sorry, I got a little off track there). Just like an old Chevelle , me and Tom have a poor turning radius, can’t corner for anything, and have bad handling. Our safety features are non-existent , and we are just waiting to get into an accident. Oh yeah, and we leak a quart of oil a day (I’m not sure what that last part of the analogy even refers to). However, when we get going in a straight line there’s no stopping us. That’s because we’re very good moving in a singular direction and also because we have no brakes. What all this means for doubles is that me and Tom do one thing, and only one thing, very well: we charge the net like the running of the bulls.

Tom is in the lead

On the other side of the net is Noah and Curtis who are the newest models of European luxury. Look at him, he’s fast, can turn on a dime, has power, and can still accelerate through any turn. The only saving grace for Tom and I is that we’ve played quite a bit of doubles and can usually read where to be on the court. This is good because like I said, we only move well forward and in a straight line. Just point us toward the spot we need to be and let us go. An observer of our matches would no doubt notice the striking number of times Curtis or Noah re-directs the ball in an unexpected direction past me and Tom for a winner, very slowly. There are no shortage of points where this occurs followed by that person walking back and apologizing with something to the effect of, “sorry that really slow ball got by me. I kinda expected him to go the other way.”

Despite all of this there is some interesting strategy involved. It took Curtis and Noah all of 2 seconds to find that my weak spot on returns is my forehand, or the entire right side of my body. And it only took me a few weeks of practice where all I received was forehand returns to remember how to hit that shot

I was really confused for a few weeks

This last Wednesday, Curtis had the misfortune of playing us on a day where we couldn’t stop hitting 1^st serves in to him. However, that does not mean that we held easily because Noah had the fortune of playing us on a day where we couldn’t stop missing 1^st serves to him. It was frustrating for everyone involved as Tom and I wondered why we couldn’t make serves to both sides of the court. Curtis wondered when we were going to stop pile driving the ball at him without missing. And Noah wondered how many returns he was going to have to crack (or redirect every-so-delicately) for a winner before they won the game.

Some of our deficiencies even help us in unexpected ways. For instance, overheads at the top doubles spot are hit with a good deal of chutzpah, but when either me or Tom strike an overhead, well, no of us are really sure what’s going to happen. After one such overhead that Tom struck when he was a good 2 feet from the net, he turned to me and in anticipation of my question said, “No I didn’t miss-hit that ball. That’s just all I got.”

Overall both teams have 1 win apiece, so the old guys still remember something about how to play doubles. Or as Curtis put it: we got incredibly lucky. Me and Tom are fine with either assessment. Next week (and a few quarts of oil later) we’ll play again. Who’ll win next round? I’ll keep you informed.

Central Region-Early Returns

Well, this is the 700th post on this blog, and it has been fun to keep this going. Thank you to the 396 of you who checked in on us Saturday! Hope some of you were able to view the Live Streaming? I am working on being able to provide Live Streaming of Court #1 on all of our Indoor Matches.

The Central Region is usually the earliest of the four regions to get significant play underway. Now two weekends into February we do have some results, but not yet enough to publish rankings. Perhaps next week!

What is readily apparent is that it is still difficult to go from indoors to outdoors, as evidenced by Gustavus' trip to Texas. I will still predict Gustavus will be a factor come the month of May. Whitewater looks to be very strong, possibly the #3 team in the region. Kenyon appears worthy of their #2 national ranking.

Intriguing match mid-week this week: Earlham vs Denison. Earlham has a strong lineup on paper this year. Denison is always solid and well-coached.

Grinnell is very, very deep, as is Coe. Both schools have the challenge of transitioning from "good" towards the top 10 in the Central. Both have big opportunities this weekend. Grinnell gets up matches with Whitewater and Wheaton, Coe travels to Kalamazoo, where they have never won.

Special shout-out to Augustana, who by winning 3 Supers and a doubles TB, knocked off annual power Luther 5-4. Look for Luther to bounce back quickly this next weekend.

Other scores of interest:

St Mary's 54 over Carroll
Baldwin Wallace 63 over Oberlin
Elmhurst 63 over Wabash

Many of the higher ranked Central squads kick off this weekend, including Case Western, Kalamazoo. Wheaton, and Depauw.

Until next Monday......

Ryan Hickman - VIDEO

Monday morning entertainment for you.....

A VIDEO featuring first-year player, Ryan Hickman, from Hutchinson, KS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ks5OafttDk

Men v Monmouth - 2/9

Coe - 9       Monmouth - 0

 Iowa (Clark Racquet Center) 

Singles competition

1. Riley Galbraith (COEM) def. Chris Franco (MC) 6-2, 6-1

2. Yasushi Inoue (COEM) def. David Johnson (MC) 6-4, 6-3

3. Ryan Hickman (COEM) def. David Stewart (MC) 6-2, 6-2

4. Jeff Damisch (COEM) def. Marco Franco (MC) 7-6, 6-4

5. Geoffrey Brochet (COEM) def. Alex King (MC) 6-0, 6-2

6. Zack Decker (COEM) def. Andrew Shiakallis (MC) 6-3, 6-1

Doubles competition

1. Noah Sprinkel/Curtis Newman (COEM) def. David Stewart/David Johnson (MC) 8-6

2. Sean Stokstad/Michael Janssen (COEM) def. Chris Franco/Marco Franco (MC) 8-2

3. Jeff Damisch/Michael Woolf (COEM) def. Alex King/Andrew Shiakallis (MC) 8-0

Live Scoring - Men v Wisconsin - LaCrosse

Coe - 7       LaCrosse - 2

Kohawk Tennis via Twitter!! Follow our live tweets of the days action!

https://twitter.com/KohawkTennis

Live Video Feed- http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/coe.portal#
Directions: Click WATCH in the right hand column

DOUBLES:

1.  Newman/Noah Sprinkel v McMillen/Dante Pitera      8-2

2.  Galbraith/Inoue v Mirasola/Mirasola     8-1

3.  Mike Janssen/Stokstad v McGrane/Stefan DeLong     8-5

Exhibition - Daken Starkenburg/Alex Klaas v LaCrosse     8-4

SINGLES:

1.  Yasushi Inoue v Kevin McMillen     0-6, 6-7

2.  Riley Galbraith v Vic Mirasola     6-2, 7-5

3.  Curtis Newman v Kyle McGrane     6-3, 6-2

4.  Sean Stokstad v Tony Mirasola     3-6, 6-4, 10-12

5.  (Ct 2) Ryan Hickman v Travis Murphy     6-0, 6-0

6.  (Ct 3) Jeff Damisch v Nick Skanavis     6-1, 6-4

(Ct 1) Exhibition - Geoffrey Brochet v LaCrosse     8-0

(Ct 4) Exhibition - Mark Kroll v LaCrosse     8-3

Nowhere, Iowa

On Friday February 1^st I found myself in the middle of Nowhere, Iowa with no clue where I was or how to get back to Cedar Rapids. The temperature outside was a cool 10 degrees and the road I was traveling on was so desolate no snow plow had ever desecrated this virgin path. The reason I was in this place was simple: the other two tennis coaches were trying to murder me. How did I end up in such a predicament? How did I come to realize this truth? It could be because I’m the world’s greatest detective (second only to Batman). It could’ve been the look of death in everyone’s eyes. But how I ended up in this situation, that’s what this tale is about.

I found it!

I arrived at the Clark Racquet Center at my customary time of 11am. The other coaches said they, along with senior player Curtis Newman, were going to the University of Iowa tennis match that afternoon and invited me to go also. At the time it seemed like an innocent enough invitation, so I went along. We were able to go to the Iowa tennis match because we’re tennis coaches and don’t actually work for a living. And Curtis was able to come along because he’s a senior in college, so he had nothing going on either. So we were off!

On the way to the match we ran into an oddity. There was a backup of traffic on Interstate 380. This prompted the question from me: “there’s traffic in Iowa? How is that possible?” We arrived just as doubles was beginning and any follower of D-I tennis knows how important doubles is: not very. That didn’t matter to me; I like doubles and that’s what I was getting to watch. Judging by the attention of the dozen of fans there, they were  enthralled by the action. Said one fan I hypothetically interviewed, “when does the wrestling meet start?” (meet? match? scrum?) Coe VP Mike White was there also watching his son play 3 doubles (victory was secured). I would describe the tennis as…well…uh, balls were being struck and there was definitely movement occurring on the courts. That about wraps up my Mary Carillo-esque commentary. If you’re wondering about the match, Iowa went on to secure victory fairly easily.  

Now, back to the important part of the story: my eminent death. As I mentioned earlier, traffic on 380 was backed up, so we decided to take a different route. We were just entering I-80 when Mike White, who had left a little earlier than us, said 380 was clear. What he didn’t mention was that the on-ramp from I-80 was blocked. This could only mean one thing, Mike White and the Iowa Department of transportation were in on the plot to murder me! You heard it here first. Now I knew why Mike was at the match. He used the false pretense of going there to see his son play in order to set everything up. Watching your son play tenni? That’ll never hold up in a courtroom buddy!

We drove on and took the next available exit which was somewhat of a portal into a different world (AKA Iowa). With Kris navigating we ended up traversing roads with names like Half Moon Bay Ave. Places remote enough that the map apps on your phone say you’ve crossed some unknown barrier and are probably in purgatory

You've crossed the river Styx into Hades. Please make a legal U-turn when possible

It was at this point that I started questioning all the life decisions I had made that eventually brought me to Iowa like looking for a job, getting a college degree, playing college tennis, finishing high school. I eventually stopped this line of reasoning when I got to my 14^th birthday where my parents neglected me in favor of prom duties for my sister. I’m not bitter or anything. It’s cool. I’ve moved on. I don’t even care anymore.

We came to a place in the road where a frozen stream went across – yeah, bad road but good place to get killed. I believe whole heartedly that this was the place where my demise was meant to occur. Kris wanted nothing more than to push forward and drive Coach Rodgers’  SUV through the stream. I knew the reason being that we would get stuck and I would be forced to get out and push, facilitating a plunge face first into said frozen stream followed by the sweet kiss of death. Either that or Kris thought we would make it over the frozen stream  because 1,000 lb SUV is weaker than expanded, crystallized H₂0. For those of you not following this line of thinking let me enlighten you. Water is a liquid. Ice is a solid. Solid structures are stronger than liquid structures. Since humans are 70% water by the transitive property we will definitely make it over the ice because it’s a stronger structure. That’s just simple math.

"Doesn't ice float becasue it's less dense than water?" Shut up!

Coach Rodgers wasn’t buying all this math crap and decided there were better places to lay the murder down on me. He executed a flawless 16 point turn and redirected the vehicle toward a more suitable location. Luckily for me, Curtis (God bless ‘em) used his non-kill oriented map app to find a road that led us away from, wherever it was we were, and closer to civilization. The road we were on took us back to, and actually crossed, 380. Unfortunately since the Iowa Department of Transportation was in on the whole thing, there was no on ramp here either. Who Builds An Interstate Highway You Can’t Get On!

My other saving grace was that I was proving extremely difficult to take down and time was working on my side. Men’s practice started at 3:15 which at this point in the story was about 5 minutes ago. Since we were in such a rush to get back the other coaches, through some signals I obviously didn’t pick up on, decided to fore-go their plans and get back to the Racquet Center for practice. Of the few duties we have as coaches, attending practice is high on the list.

I just want to say thanks to Curtis for saving my life but naming rights for my first born have already been promised to at least 11 other people. Get in line!

Women's Practice - VIDEO

Highlights from the first two days of practice:  Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF4vSfaLLKQ

Enjoy!

Weekend Recap - Video

The men testing Sush and Geoffrey on US Geography via Emmie's iPad (and a toddler application).

The men kicked off their Spring season with two wins:
Coe 9 Eau Claire 0
Coe 8 Principia 1

A video from Saturday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjAHt-lbvfk

Additional pictures on the Coe College Tennis Facebook page (thanks Betty!).

Women kick off today with a 3:30 practice!  Video footage to come.

Coach Rodgers is busy this morning collecting Regional results for input into the KTeR quantitative ranking system (our own project, started last year, to supplement the current subjective/committee released NCAA rankings).

Today also marks the start of the faculty/staff 10 week COrE wellness challenge at Coe.  The newly released Kohawk Fit blog will have results, nutrition tips, etc if want to follow along and/or use as a resource for your own health and well-being!

Live Scoring - Men v Principia

Coe: 8

Principia: 1

Doubles:

1.  CN/NS v. JS/JW       8-5              

2.  JD/MW v. KH/AR   8-3              

3.  ZD/MK v. AS/AF    8-3  

Singles:

1.  RG v. Joey Sander          6-0, 7-6(1)

2.  YI v. Jason Wissman      6-1, 6-0

3.  JD v. Kevin Hagenlocher     6-3, 3-6, 6-10

4.  RH v. Andrew Rohrer          6-0, 6-0

5.  GB v. Aaron Switzer        6-2, 6-0

6.  ZD v. Andrew Fields        6-1, 6-1

Exhibition - AL v. Principia     8-1          

Live Scoring - Men vs Eau Claire

Coe: 9
Eau Claire: 0

Doubles:
1.  CN/NS v. RVL/JM                        8-6
2.  RG/YI v. MR/DS                          8-6
3.  MJ/SS v. FM/Zack Katz                8-1
Exhibition - ZD/MK v. Eau Claire     8-3

Singles:
1.  NS v. Ryan Vande Linde              7-6, 6-4
2.  RG v. Forent Marco                      6-2, 6-1
3.  YI v. Joe Meier                             6-2, 6-1
4.  CN v. Mike Roden                       6-0, 6-3
5.  SS v. Braden Parman                   6-4, 6-1
6.  RH v. David Stingley                   6-1, 6-4
Exhibition - MK v. Eau Claire          6-4, 6-2

Night Before Match Thoughts- Curtis and Kroll

Coach Rodgers has asked Mark Kroll and myself to share the thoughts and feelings we have before the first match of the year with all of you.  He phrased it as, "the wily veteran and the young kid."  This will be my last semester of tennis at Coe and with that comes many emotions.  The first is sadness and that may sound weird the night before two matches but the reason is, I have fallen in love with the game of tennis in the past 8 years and in four months my competitive career will be over.  There have been plenty of matches where I did not like competing (mostly because I was that nervous), but now I realize how much I enjoy being on the court and playing my heart out for my teammates.  Tomorrow will be my first time competing in the first group of singles players and not coming out of the bull pen (a new challenge for my nerves).  Enough with the sadness and what I will miss in four months but now lets move on to what I am feeling about this upcoming season.

The 2013 Coe College men's tennis team is the most talented team I have been apart of in my 4 years.  Talent is great but talent does not always result in success so I am very excited to see how the team performs.  I think we will have a great year and I don't have much else to say tonight but I know i will after the matches are over.  My final thought is that I hope I be a good captain this year and lead the rest of the team in a very competitive but respectful manner.  Tomorrow will be the first big test for myself and for my teammates.  Go Kohawks!

Those are certainly inspiring words capt'n. As a first year student at Coe and first year member of the Kohawk tennis family, my thoughts on the first match of the season are pretty straight forward: hit the ball over the net. Sitting here in the office, writing my portion of this blog I am not feeling any nerves. I'm sure that as I step on the court though the butterflies while start to flutter, and hitting a basic forehand (which is already a bit of a challenge for me) will become increasingly more difficult as the match time approaches. Especially since I "have never played a tennis match before" according to Rodgers (just one of his many jokes). I'm looking forward to watching my teammates compete on the courts and hopefully we can set the tone for the rest of season. Not knowing much about the conference I am not the most qualified to say how good or bad we will do. However, after just three weeks into the spring season I can say that as a team we all work really hard and are more than willing to leave everything we have on the court. I'm excited to see where the season takes us and by the way the coaches and upper classmen talk about the season, I think we are in for some fun.

The negative-one-thousand-degree-wind-chill-walk over to the racquet center will certainly be interesting, hopefully we will all make it over without going face first into the ice. It will be a good day of tennis for the Kohawks tomorrow. The energy of the team is electric which is something that makes being a Kohawk so special. If you have the chance to make it over to Clark to watch and support we would most certainly appreciate it, and if you can't due to distance we all know that you are thinking of us and we acknowledge that as well.

So, from a veteran and rookie, Curtis and Mark, here is to a great season for the men of Kohawk Tennis!!

Let's go get 'em boys!!