Alohajrtennis
I actually had a chance to see UW womens team live over the past weekend in SD and they look pretty deep to me. They don't have a bonafide top 10 player but from 1-7, they are deep. My daughter played two of their players in her bracket and they are consistent, strong competitors. In fact, the UW player that my daughter played in the semis took USC, Stanford and UCLA to three sets last yr and beat Arizona and A State in dual matches. So it's not like they are getting blown out by the PAC 12 teams. The overall scores might be lopsided last yr but the matches were competitive. UW is just in a very tough conference.
They should be very competitive this yr in the PAC 12. As for UH, I lived in Hawaii for two years and know J Hernandez well. He has done a remarkable job of building his team from nowhere to a top 55 rankings last year. It's true that it is hard to recruit top Americans so he build his program with foreign players. Looks like UW did the same and should be better for it in the long run
Aloha RCP,
There no question the UW girls are a talented group and no question they do play in a tough conference. Frankly its very surprising to me they have been near the bottom of the conference, instead of somewhere in the middle. The issue is the team is not doing any better in that conference than a team of 5 star Americans would do. And that's the issue - those are the players she thinks are not good enough for her team.
And I know everyone is clever enough to figure out where I am from becuase of my stupid handle, but I don't see the point of drawing UH into this just because I live in Hawaii. I don't represent UH, I did not attended there, but more importantly, Jun didn't make the comments she made, has actually won a conference title(yes I am aware it was not the Pac 12), and I know he doesn't share her attitude. And I honestly believe he would be very interested in talking to any 5, 4 or 3 star who wants to play for Hawaii. No, he did not ask me to post this.
And like like Hawaii, I dont think it appropriate to lump all coaches in with the UW coach and say they all think this way, she's just the only one being honest. I dont think that's the case. From the same interview, here is a quote from the Vanderbilt coach :
Geoff MacDonald, women's tennis coach, Vanderbilt
For MacDonald the debate is mostly a fairness issue. He is not opposed to one or two international players but a whole team of international players doesn't feel right to him. He says Title IX law forced colleges to spend as much money on women's athletics and provide as many opportunities for them.
"I don't know if the intent of Title IX was for a European pro player to come here and take a scholarship away from an American kid who might not be as good."
It is not uncommon for MacDonald to encounter coaches who go strictly overseas and make friends at pro tournaments in Europe. "If we were handing out math scholarships we wouldn't go to Finland and get the best mathematicians. Because this is competitive people are willing to go all over the world."
So, I am willing to give most coaches the benefit of the doubt, unless they open their mouth and say something that removes that doubt.
Every coach has different challenges. Several times people have written something along the lines of "why dont you rag on the Washington State coach, they have all foreigners". Well, I don't really know what the attitude of the Washington State coach is, they are in more challenging recruiting situation that UW( Pullman is not Siberia, but it is not Seattle either, academically, Washington State is not UW) etc. I can see why it would be tough for them to get 5 stars, forget about clue chips. UW should be able to get 5 stars, and they should not be considering themselves too good for 5 stars.