National Signing Day

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ssgator80

Rookie
Florida men signed 3 guys

"University of Florida men’s tennis head coach Bryan Shelton has signed three players for the Class of 2014, his second class as the head coach of the Gators. All three student-athletes signed their National Letters of Intent on Wednesday during the early signing period, with one planning to enroll in January of 2014.



The 2014 class includes three American junior players, all from the state of Florida, ranked in the top 40 nationally. Oliver Landert, from Naples, plans to enroll in January of 2014 while Jordan Belga from Boca Raton and Chase Perez-Blanco from Miami both plan to enroll for the 2014-15 academic year."
 
S

SECFAN

Rookie
Some schools benefit from state scholarship programs (Georgia with the Hope Scholarship) that allow them to get better players or even take some with "potential" without having to use a scholarship.
 
G

gully

Professional
BirdieLane said:
And this explains why other programs recruit foreign players to compete. Programs with weather and facilities and tradition have a massive recruiting advantage. UNC with Loeb/Carter (#1 & #2) last year, now UF with this.
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It helps explain why some programs will necessarily recruit internationally to compete. It certainly does not begin to explain why so many programs at the mid-major level do so, or why some do so exclusively (no Americans ever on the roster), and then compete poorly. But that's probably a thread hijack.

Austin is a major coup, but I personally don't think she'll stay too long at UF. She's been itching to go pro for a long time.
 
F

floridatennisdude

Hall of Fame
gully said:
It helps explain why some programs will necessarily recruit internationally to compete. It certainly does not begin to explain why so many programs at the mid-major level do so, or why some do so exclusively (no Americans ever on the roster), and then compete poorly. But that's probably a thread hijack.

Austin is a major coup, but I personally don't think she'll stay too long at UF. She's been itching to go pro for a long time.
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Wrong, it explains exactly why mid majors recruit internationally. The 1&2-star recruits left over from the 5 power conferences are no where near D1 level. The mid major option is to either suck, or go international and not suck.
 
A

andfor

Legend
gully said:
Or, go 100% international and still suck, which was my point.
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Or suck less.

What's unsaid is that many mid-major D1's can't get enough American tennis players who could remotely compete at the level of the conference they are in. American tennis kids are not or on a very limited basis at best interested in taking their tennis game to mid-majors.

I do find it odd to see some of these schools hire a coach with an international background, maybe he or she played US college tennis, then they go recruit kids almost exclusively from his or her native country and or from the same non-English speaking country. So on some of these all international rosters, American kids who think the whole team is going to be speaking a language they don't understand, they cross them off their list.

There's not enough Blue Chip and 5 stars to go around to all the programs that need them. You have a handful of schools and conferences that get the majority of them year in and year out. Combine that with competition at the 4 and 3 star level from DIII, DII, NAIA etc. the pool for the marginal kids thins further. Not to mention capable tennis kids who graduate HS and don't even play college tennis.

Yea, this may be a thread hijack. Sorry....Until winning does not matter, internationals are here to stay in college sports. It make the overall game better anyway.
 
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TopDawg

TopDawg

G.O.A.T.
Georgia signed 2 for 2014-15 (Andy Martinez and Peter Betran) both 5-stars from Georgia and have 2 that will enroll early in January (Paul Oosterbaan and Wayne Montgomery). If Montgomery's junior success translates to success in college, Georgia should be a tough out this year.
 
C

ClarkC

Hall of Fame
floridatennisdude said:
Wrong, it explains exactly why mid majors recruit internationally. The 1&2-star recruits left over from the 5 power conferences are no where near D1 level. The mid major option is to either suck, or go international and not suck.
Click to expand...

gully said:
Or, go 100% international and still suck, which was my point.
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I assume that gully can cite examples of mid-major conferences where most of the teams are all internationals, but one of the teams recruits American players and wins the conference, proving that the other teams should have been recruiting Americans, and yet the winning team is no more attractive as a destination for American recruits than the other schools.
 
C

ClarkC

Hall of Fame
TopDawg said:
Georgia signed 2 for 2014-15 (Andy Martinez and Peter Betran) both 5-stars from Georgia and have 2 that will enroll early in January (Paul Oosterbaan and Wayne Montgomery). If Montgomery's junior success translates to success in college, Georgia should be a tough out this year.
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Montgomery should be top 3 immediately, which will help the top 6 lineup be very deep. Looks like a better lineup than Ohio State, probably better than USC, competitive with UCLA and UVa.
 
J

justinmadison

Semi-Pro
floridatennisdude said:
Wrong, it explains exactly why mid majors recruit internationally. The 1&2-star recruits left over from the 5 power conferences are no where near D1 level. The mid major option is to either suck, or go international and not suck.
Click to expand...

There are 400 players three star and above. I don't think the top 5 power conferences are recruiting 400 players.
 
T

tennis5

Professional
There are many positives and negatives with foreigners playing tennis.
The biggest upside is they raise the tennis level, the biggest negative is that they take spots away from Americans.
Overall, I believe it lessens the chances that future American parents will pay into an expensive sport
if junior might not get scholy $ or even a spot at a school ( desired school that is).

But, since this is a thread on National Signing Day, I will stay on topic.
Really curious as there are a few blue chips ( boys side) not signed up for any college or indicating any interest.
Are we going to see more boys going pro earlier and skipping the college process?

I have to wonder with Jamie Loeb's success as a freshman...
( Won All-American and the National Indoors, she won that 6-3,6-2 )
(From Zoo tennis 11/10 - As for her future, Loeb is looking to catch up on the school work that she's missed during the fall season,
yet not being on the courts the next two months when she's playing at such a high level is a concern.
http://tenniskalamazoo.blogspot.com/2013/11/north-carolinas-loeb-uclas-thompson.html)
What is the upside of her staying in the college ranks? Should she have just gone pro? ( currently ranked around 390).
And of course, I am curious about DB... Does anyone know where he is heading off to college?
 
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TopDawg

TopDawg

G.O.A.T.
Ohio State has 3 coming in January with one being a 19 year old from Finland that was ranked as high as 16 in the ITF Jr Rankings. The others were the top ranked player in South Carolina and Ohio - Article

Ole Miss signed an 18 year old from Sweden, Gustav Hansson, that reached 99 as a junior. I'm guessing he'll enroll in January.

South Carolina signed 4 for next fall including Gabriel Friedrich who was ranked as high as 28 as a junior - article
 
F

floridatennisdude

Hall of Fame
justinmadison said:
There are 400 players three star and above. I don't think the top 5 power conferences are recruiting 400 players.
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No, the major schools are looking at 50-100 of the top of that group. Outside of that, you probably aren't going to be a player that makes a school elite.

There are 15-20 per year that can play at the top of a major conference power with success. There are another 30-50 that can contribute to those schools at the bottom of the lineup. Another 20-50 that may be able to play at the mid-low tier programs in a power conference. So on, use your imagination and fiddle with the numbers. I'm speaking in generalities.
 
T

tennisballer

Rookie
Knowing that Papa is originally from Oklahoma, I'm a little shocked he chose Tulsa over Oklahoma. Wonder how John Roddick feels about this development.
 
A

andfor

Legend
JLyon said:
WOW!!
Nice Job by Tulsa
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It is a surprise he ended up there instead of OU or even OSU. OSU is building a new facility. Tulsa is nice, I always enjoy it there and their tennis facilities are first class. However, based on what some players we know who have to play there say, "Tulsa is the most boring town in America". I can see Papa going there to play #1 or #2 for sure out of the gate. He may be a 1 or 2 year player depending on his success. If scholarship was a consideration, I could see coach Westbrook giving him a full.
 
S

SECFAN

Rookie
I've been to Tulsa for NCAAs, and while the facility is nice, there is not much interesting about Tulsa. Really nice coup for them.
 
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