@andfor @bobleenov1963 Some comments on GGC. It would be hard for NAIA GGC National Champs to recruit US players considering GA has 6 D1 colleges with tennis (5 public, 1 private) all with football, at least 3 public D2 schools with good tennis teams in the Peach Belt including former national champ Columbus State, and Emory former D3 national champ for smart rich kids. Georgia gives out 90% tuition scholarships to attend GA public unis to GA HS graduates with a 3.0 who have taken several rigorous courses (used to be 4-might be more now) so a lot of GA tennis players do stay in state. You have to understand that GGC is basically a 4 year commuter college located between residential neighborhoods and the highway to AThens. The only sports at GGC are men's and women's tennis, soccer, softball and baseball. GGC has a nice facility with a lot of courts-used to be a local club and still is used to hold tournaments. However, there's not a whole lot near the few buildings on campus=if my son played a junior tourney there, we'd drive to the Subway near Walmart.
The international players who played at GGC were very talented players who played NAIA mainly because they either didnt have the amateur eligibility to play D1 or D2 ,were older, or had academic issues (e.g. the US 5 star who only studied 1-2 hours a day for virtual school and did not get in the P5s that recruited him). Now for the internationals, Atlanta was not too far down 85 and the climate was ideal for yearround play, but I used to feel sorry for the GGC guys because they had so few competitive matches. Their record is 165-3. They havent lost since April 2015 when they lost to a top 5 D2 school. They beat Emory, most D2 teams, hardly ever even dropped a line vs NAIA schools even in the final rds of nationals. I think the only D1 team that would play them was Citadel which they beat. I think the team only had a 1-2 competitive matches a year. And their early teams had a Wimbledon jr finalist (US) and a former ATP top 500 (Argentinian) but they played mostly these small NAIA religious schools that probably never knew what hit them. Their competitive time was in the fall when they used to play Southeast Intercollegiate, and I remember UGA's 1 squeaking out a 3 setter vs GGC's 1, and a GGC player winning the B draw. GGC would usually win the Oracle Cup and send singles and dubs pairs to the Oracle fall national when they'd usually beat some D1 players but in all those years no D1 team except Clemson would play them in dual season.
@andfor It reminds me of how Ole MIss wouldnt play Memphis when Memphis was good... However one time supposedly there was an unofficial exhibition match between GGC and one of GA MM D1 schools-no coaches around, 8 lines, the D1 team drove to GGC and lost but again, it was unofficial.
No decent US tennis kid would go to a startup commuter university in the middle of the burbs with very few opportunities to play challenging matches. US juniors benefited from GGC internationals because GGC with its 12 hard and 4 clay courts would lease its extra courts to different academies. The GGC team usually would practice 2 hours max bc when you are blanking all your NAIA opponents, why hit for 3-4 hours? After they finished team practice, coaches from the jr academies would pay a couple of them a very reasonable fee to hit with their best juniors. Win Win for all. So it helped GA players get better due to GGC having all those unchallenged internationals with free time on their hands.
Some of the unis at risk of being cut with mostly international rosters are located in states without much domestic tennis depth. One way to make the team valuable to the community is to encourage matchplay between the college players and local academies or high school teams providing some income for the players. Now GGC players seemed to have plenty of time at an easy school with not much to do, and D1 teams might be too busy except in the fall. However,for many teams, this option could be a solution to save the teams and improve American tennis.
@bobleenov1963 sometimes you have to see the glass half full not empty. Instead of complaining about internationals here, instead be happy about all the $ US players could be saving not traveling internationally because there are friendly older college players from South America, Europe, Australia, Asia, and AFrica in their own backyard.
and
@bobleenov1963 GGC is not at risk of being cut having won the NAIA National Championship every year from 2014-2019 and the longest college winning streak ever. No expensive football or basketball coaches crushing the athletic budget either. Now I doubt the GGC current team is as talented as the original team as D1 schools have figured out how to get waivers for 24 y/o Israelis who have played 30 Futures and once were top 500-guys like the ones on GGC's first team But GGC will probably stay one of the best teams outside Power D1. Chase is a good recruiter.
