jcgatennismom
Hall of Fame
Junior tennis players are told to look for a college that is a good fit tennis wise so they wont sit on the bench. One suggested measurement is using UTR, e.g. look at the UTR of the top 6 players on college teams of interest and see how junior players' UTRs compare. I think jr to jr is fairly accurate though 30 matches is not enough for juniors-my son may play 30 matches in 2 busy months if he plays several 64 or 128 draws. College players may play less than 30 matches fall and spring season. Do any of you have an opinion on whether UTR is valid comparing jrs vs college players and internationals? There is limited crossplay except for ITFs, and a few juniors playing ITA summer competitions. Juniors who attend regular school cant play ITFs; in our section there were quite a few players at KZoo 16s that attend regular school (half day) and play high school tennis.
If any of you are college coaches reading this, do you think UTR or TRN is more accurate? I have heard UTR is used more in California and the Northeast than in the rest of the US. If coaches see it as accurate, then there is less pressure on players to miss several days of school to play an ITF so they can be compared to international players. I do think UTR may be overstated for juniors; most of the rising jr 4 star TRN 80-130 players rising juniors I know are ranked 11.6-12.4 and there are college players at mid tier school ranked in a similar range, and I am not sure these juniors are truly competitive with guys who have 2 years college playing experience. These juniors may have defeated some guys who are committed freshmen for D1, but that is different than playing guys with college experience. Many of these rising juniors were in the 10=10.5 UTR range as sophs so there is a high likelihood that many will have UTRs of 12.7-13 by summer before their senior year if their UTR increases .7-1.3 each year.
One other question, a lot of teams with rosters of players in the 11.5-13 range are 75% or more international players. If a US junior is in that range and the school is of interest, should the junior Email the coach? Are US players happy if there are only 1-2 Americans playing on the team? My son is looking at teams that are 50/50 but that really cuts down on the number of teams he can contact. I have heard many teams that are mostly international players have connections with academies in certain areas of the world, and there was no point in contacting those coaches. However there may be some schools that recruit internationals because they have not had success recruiting Americans. When my son contacted private D2 coaches, they were glad to hear from him.
Many US academies now have visiting international players and some are better and some are less talented than Americans. I have heard college coaches prefer internationals because of their maturity and work ethic. However, I think our US juniors work hard. Some tournaments they play two 3 sets matches WITH ADS (could take 3.5 hours for one) and 2 doubles in one day-occasionally they may do that two days in a row until they are exhausted and end up in the backdraw. Sometimes they compete those number of hours in 90+ degree heat. My son came in 2nd in a 3 1/2 day long 64 draw high level sectional tournament playing 6 singles and some dubs finishing at 8pm on a Monday night (sick school day), and Wed afternoon he defeated a top 100 TRN senior in a high school match and then had to catch up on schoolwork before another tournament the next weekend. His teammate played 10 matches over 4 days to win a backdraw at a high level sectional on a weekend + one "sick day" in the middle of state playoffs. Again one day off from tourney and then a big playoff match. These guys are passionate about tennis; they go to a academically high ranked public school, play tennis, do homework and that is about it. They take two virtual classes and do 2 weeks of work on one weekend on the weekends that dont have tournaments.Between high school tennis and tournaments, they may play 20+ matches in a single month, and the 1S and 2S matches are not cream puffs-they are playing 3-5 stars in a high school match. To me that is a great work ethic.
Do you think UTR in the future might encourage coaches who currently are mainly interested in internationals or US players with ITF points to take another look at American juniors? From what I have seen public D2s are not interested in US players at all; I have heard of coaches who did not answer Emails or phone calls from in state US juniors in similar UTR range as their current players. Junior players keep hearing at USTA forums to be open to playing at schools besides D1, but unless players are looking at private schools, I think players have a lower chance of playing D2 public schools than D1 public universities. Do you concur that the top D2 schools are almost all international players? Other than playing ITFs and/or hitting with international juniors at US academies, what is the best way for US juniors to show college coaches that they are ready and able to compete with international college players and that they will be hardworking teammates to international players on their own team?
If any of you are college coaches reading this, do you think UTR or TRN is more accurate? I have heard UTR is used more in California and the Northeast than in the rest of the US. If coaches see it as accurate, then there is less pressure on players to miss several days of school to play an ITF so they can be compared to international players. I do think UTR may be overstated for juniors; most of the rising jr 4 star TRN 80-130 players rising juniors I know are ranked 11.6-12.4 and there are college players at mid tier school ranked in a similar range, and I am not sure these juniors are truly competitive with guys who have 2 years college playing experience. These juniors may have defeated some guys who are committed freshmen for D1, but that is different than playing guys with college experience. Many of these rising juniors were in the 10=10.5 UTR range as sophs so there is a high likelihood that many will have UTRs of 12.7-13 by summer before their senior year if their UTR increases .7-1.3 each year.
One other question, a lot of teams with rosters of players in the 11.5-13 range are 75% or more international players. If a US junior is in that range and the school is of interest, should the junior Email the coach? Are US players happy if there are only 1-2 Americans playing on the team? My son is looking at teams that are 50/50 but that really cuts down on the number of teams he can contact. I have heard many teams that are mostly international players have connections with academies in certain areas of the world, and there was no point in contacting those coaches. However there may be some schools that recruit internationals because they have not had success recruiting Americans. When my son contacted private D2 coaches, they were glad to hear from him.
Many US academies now have visiting international players and some are better and some are less talented than Americans. I have heard college coaches prefer internationals because of their maturity and work ethic. However, I think our US juniors work hard. Some tournaments they play two 3 sets matches WITH ADS (could take 3.5 hours for one) and 2 doubles in one day-occasionally they may do that two days in a row until they are exhausted and end up in the backdraw. Sometimes they compete those number of hours in 90+ degree heat. My son came in 2nd in a 3 1/2 day long 64 draw high level sectional tournament playing 6 singles and some dubs finishing at 8pm on a Monday night (sick school day), and Wed afternoon he defeated a top 100 TRN senior in a high school match and then had to catch up on schoolwork before another tournament the next weekend. His teammate played 10 matches over 4 days to win a backdraw at a high level sectional on a weekend + one "sick day" in the middle of state playoffs. Again one day off from tourney and then a big playoff match. These guys are passionate about tennis; they go to a academically high ranked public school, play tennis, do homework and that is about it. They take two virtual classes and do 2 weeks of work on one weekend on the weekends that dont have tournaments.Between high school tennis and tournaments, they may play 20+ matches in a single month, and the 1S and 2S matches are not cream puffs-they are playing 3-5 stars in a high school match. To me that is a great work ethic.
Do you think UTR in the future might encourage coaches who currently are mainly interested in internationals or US players with ITF points to take another look at American juniors? From what I have seen public D2s are not interested in US players at all; I have heard of coaches who did not answer Emails or phone calls from in state US juniors in similar UTR range as their current players. Junior players keep hearing at USTA forums to be open to playing at schools besides D1, but unless players are looking at private schools, I think players have a lower chance of playing D2 public schools than D1 public universities. Do you concur that the top D2 schools are almost all international players? Other than playing ITFs and/or hitting with international juniors at US academies, what is the best way for US juniors to show college coaches that they are ready and able to compete with international college players and that they will be hardworking teammates to international players on their own team?