MHSTeCA's Forum Page

This page is being set up to allow coaches from around the state to express their opinions on topics concerning tennis in the State of Michigan. Listed below are several items that have come up at Board of Directors meetings. Please feel free to comment on any of them, pro or con, or any other items that pertain to tennis.

If you have a topic for discussion either here or at the next Board of Directors Meeting, please contact Joe Gentle.

Some ground rules:

  1. Please start your 'discussion' with a brief description of the topic/idea to be discussed.
  2. This is not a place to degrade, ridicule, insult, etc. any person, school or team.
  3. No abusive or vulgar language.
  4. Please 'sign' your name so we can give the credit for good or new ideas to the right person.
  5. The management reserves the right to remove any opinion.

Topics up for decision:

The reality is that there are really two very different "worlds" of high school tennis in Michigan. One is the elite world which is composed of teams with USTA tournament players and the other is the world of teams without such players. The proposed reworking of the MHSAA tournament would create championship opportunities for teams from each of these worlds. Link to the attached documents for further explanation of one proposal to create a tournament where every school can compete against other more similar teams and thus hopefully, more invigorate Michigan high school tennis. (Click here for complete proposal.)

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The purpose of the Claims Committee is to provide a detailed and precise method; for seeking timely enforced corrective action of ethical, rule, and code violations.  Furthermore, the role of this committee will be as a last resort where High School Tennis Coaches and Schools have previously made every effort towards a reasonable solution and are unsuccessful. (Click here for complete proposal.)

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Deadline for Line-up: Should it be beneficial that a specific date be established in the fall season and in the spring season in which a team's line-up must be established, and shall not be allowed to be changed except where noted acceptable in the coach's manual. (illness, injury, family emergency, academic/disciplinary action). This would be used to make sure schools are reaching the 50% rule at their flight, and team's are making every effort to establish their line-up early in the season.

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Regional Wild Card: Every season teams of high talent do not make it out of tough regionals and advance to state that have multiple talented teams within the same regional. This proposal would allow for regional managers to have the ability to submit a wild card team nomination to the seeding committee to be considered for a wild card allowance into state. The manager would include certain pertinent season information from that team and the seeding committee could allow up to 4 wild card teams per division.

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First Doubles Teams: Allow First Doubles at the Regionals whose team did not qualify to play at the State Finals.

    • Possibly the best team in the state is NOT able to play for a state title and the team has a legitimate lineup
    • If we are looking for parity and a chance for weaker overall teams' players to participate in the finals, this will help
    • We already allow the 2nd and 3rd best players on a team to play First Doubles
    • Maybe this will make us more vigilant about checking stacking issues
    • Our State Finals Tournament is truley not a TEAM tournament as it stand now - with allowing 1st Singles qualifiers to play and score TEAM points
    • We will now have an opportunity to see the BEST doubles team in the state

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Tennis Parity: What can we do as a body of coaches to help create more parity among ALL teams around the state? More parity will inevitably create more and stronger tennis programs which is ultimately good for high school tennis in general.

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Third Set: Are you in favor of eliminating full third sets and having all matches play a match tiebreak?

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Finals at one site (Midland) for all Divisions. Basis: This may mean that Friday we play at separate sites to get down to the semi-finals and then head to Midland for Saturday.   It may be good for our sport and make the all-state selections easier. 

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