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Tennis Banquet Details: Wednesday, June 4th

5/22/2014

Players and Parents,

The year-end tennis banquet is coming. Here are the details:

When: Wednesday, June 4
When: 6:30 pm
Where: High School North
What to Bring: Players' with last name A-L bring appetizer to feed 20-25
Players' with last name M-Z bring main dish to feed 20-25

Please R.S.V.P. number of family members attending to Nicole Fender
markandnicfender@live.com by Monday, June 2, 2014

What Happens at the Banquet: A brief recap of the season, awards/letters distributed, and an overview of ways players can train in the offseason, and enjoy each other's company.

Who should attend: All Varsity and JV players, plus at least one parent should attend. Sometimes younger children like to go and see their older sister's banquet. This is absolutely fine, so feel free to bring them along.

I'll see you soon,

Coach Schwallier

**Also, I was searching the internet the other day and I stumbled across a sweet website that you might like. Some girl named Hannah made it. CLICK HERE to check it out.**

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Regionals - West Ottawa Takes 3rd Place

5/16/2014

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Players and Parents,

Thank you for a memorable season. To all the parents and players who sent me texts and emails last night and today, they meant a lot to me. Your kind words give me my energy.

Ok, on to business. There are 12 teams in our region; we finished 3rd. Kudos to Makenna and Emily on making the finals at 2nd doubles. That win pushed us ahead of Grand Haven by one point, moving us ahead of Grand Haven to end the season. Everyone I've talked to said that your performance was outstanding. However, there were great performances everywhere. Susan, you definitely played the best tennis I've ever seen you produce yesterday. It was unbelievable. Click Here to view complete results from the day.

Last night at home I was thinking about the day, and I basically hope that two things happened for all of you throughout the day yesterday:

1. I hope that at the end of the tournament you were thinking "wow, I'm just a lot better at tennis than I was at the start of the season". Parents, hopefully you were thinking the same thing about your child.

2. I hope that every one of you were looking around at the tournament and finding players that made you think "that's the kind of player I want to be next year at this time". Or "next year I'm going to get good enough to win at a particular flight". Basically, I hope that playing tennis this spring has given you new goals, and I hope that your new goals are very high. I hope that you are making plans so that they actually happen. Time goes by dangerously fast, it is the most valuable thing that you possess. Pay attention to how you spend your time, and don't waste it. Use it to accomplish your goals.

I'll put information out very early next week about our banquet. We will shoot for a Tuesday or Wednesday.

Thanks one more time for a great spring. -Coach Schwallier

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Regional Information

5/14/2014

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Players and Parents,

The following email was just sent to me regarding tomorrow's Regional at Holland. They did a very good job of clarifying everything, so I'm just going to copy and paste it for you:

Due to weather forecast and court availability, there are several changes to the Girls Tennis Regional that you need to be aware of. All changes were discussed and agreed to at last night's seed meeting.

1 - Rain or shine, the coaches meeting will be held in the athletic office at HHS at 8:00 a.m. This is earlier that originally scheduled so please adjust transportation accordingly. It is important to have your coaches on time so that we can discuss site plans and clarify changes. Play will begin at 8:30 a.m. if we are able to play outdoors.

2 - In the event that we play outdoors, warm-up times are as follows:

7:45 a.m. - Holland, West Ottawa, Hudsonville, Grandville, Grand Haven, Mona Shores
8:00 a.m. - Caledonia, Loy Norrix, Kalamazoo Central, GR Union, East Kentwood, Rockford

3 - In the event that we play indoors, three sites will be used. Play will begin at these sites as soon as teams arrive following the coaches meeting. Please plan your transportation accordingly.

Norton Pines Athletic Club (5 Courts) - 1350 Judson Rd, Norton Shores, MI 49456
#3 Singles
#3 Doubles
#4 Doubles

Ramblewood Tennis & Health Club (5-6 Courts) - 250 Spartan Industrial Dr SW, Grandville, MI 49418
#4 Singles
#1 Doubles
#2 Doubles

DeWitt Tennis Center (4-6 Courts) - 301 Fairbanks Ave, Holland, MI 49423
#1 Singles
#2 Singles

4 - We intend to hold all final matches at Ramblewood, but tweaks may be made based on speed of play.

5 - In the event that matches continue until 9:00 p.m., play will be suspended and matches will resume at 4:00 p.m. on Friday. Sites for Friday play will be determined based on weather and court availability.

Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks for your flexibility and attention.

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How Regionals Works

5/12/2014

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What is Regionals? The Regional is the first round of States. The purpose is to determine which teams will qualify for the State Finals.

How do you qualify?
-The top two teams in the Region automatically advance.
-If a team takes lower than 2nd place, but earns 18 or more points at the tournament, they go(This is what we will be attempting to do on Thursday).
-If the 1st singles player makes it to the finals of their flight, they may qualify as an individual.

The 12 Teams in our Region:
Caledonia, East Kentwood, Grand Haven, Grand Rapids Union, Grandville, Holland, Hudsvonville, Kalamazoo Central, Loy Norrix, Mona Shores, Rockford

So how do you earn points?
-The top 4 teams at each flight get seeds. If you are a seed and you win your first match, you get 2 points. This puts you in the semifinals of your flight.
-If you win your next match to get into the finals, that gets you a third point.
-If you win your flight, you get a fourth point.
-Flights that do not get one of the 4 seeds will play a 1st round match worth one point, and every round thereafter will also be worth one point.
-This is a single elimination tournament.

How do you get seeded?
-The Tuesday before Regionals each coach attends a meeting, where we bring our players records for the entire year.
-Any coach may nominate any flights for a seed.
-We look at the results of all of the nominated players, and the top 4 teams will earn the seeds at that flight.
-To get seeded above teams not in the OK-Red, we must show that we have dominant wins. This is why we schedule tough opponents all year long...wins against them help us earn seeds.

Where do we stand?
If we performed like we did at the West Ottawa Invite, we'd have scored about 10 points at the Regional. However, we have been improving far faster than our competition. Based on our performance at the Conference Tournament on Saturday, we would have taken 14 or 15 points if it were scored using a Regional scoring system. I believe we are still about 3 or 4 points short, but we are within reach. The bottom line is that we can qualify for the State Finals, but we will need to rock on Thursday.

FOR AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT A REGIONAL TOURNAMENT LOOKS LIKE, GO TO "WOMENS 2013 RESULTS" AND CLICK ON OUR REGIONAL RESULTS.

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Happy Mother's Day

5/11/2014

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Moms, thanks for all you do every day for the girls on this team. We've got 14 great girls on this team, and that's definitely not a coincidence. A special thank you to Pam. You do a great deal of extra work when I'm in season so that I can be a coach. I appreciate you so much. Also, a thank you to my mom for coming out to so many of the matches and for all you do for me. I'm a lucky guy. Have a great day everyone!

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Moving up...OK Red Conference Tournament

5/10/2014

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Girls, thanks for making today a good day. We started the day as the 4th best team, and now we've moved to 3rd. We need to improve a little more and we can make a push for 18 points on Thursday.

Special Congratulations to 4th doubles. Taking home a Flight Championship is pretty sweet, especially in a conferences with teams as good as the OK-RED. Lauren, instead of using yesterday's injury to frustrate you, you clearly used it as a motivator. You were so focused and hard-working all day long. You were awesome. And Jacklyn, you were all over the place out there! Both of you were so smart, and so upbeat all day long. Parents and coaches from other schools were complimenting both of you constantly on the sidelines during your final match. Your win will make me have to update the "Meet the Players" page!!!!

Special thanks to Julia for driving and for all the little things you do to help coordinate all year long. You have made this year so much easier for me, and I appreciate you a great deal.

Alright, here's the schedule for next week:

Monday: Improve (Practice 3-5pm)
Tuesday: Match @ Holland
Wednesday: Improve some more (Practice 3-5pm)
Thursday: Regionals...LETS GO!!!!!

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OK-Red Conference Tournament/Unity Christian Info

5/8/2014

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Players and Parents,

Here is the info for Saturday's Tournament:

Host: Grandville
Participating Schools: WO, EK, HUD, ROCK, GVILLE, and GH
Important Times:
6:45 am - Arrive at Great American Bagel
7:10 am - Leave Great American Bagel
7:45 am - Arrive at Grandville
8:05 am - Coaches Meeting
8:20 am - Players Meeting
8:35 am - Play begins

Where will you be playing:
Round 1:
Grandville High school: All Singles, plus #1 and #2 doubles
Calvin Christian High School: 3rd and 4th doubles

Round 2/3:
- If you are playing for 1st-4th place after the 1st round, then you will play at Grandville for the rest of the day.
- If you are playing for 5th or 6th place after the 1st round, then you will play one more match, which will be at Calvin Christian.

Additional Note: On the "Meet the Players" section of the website, you'll notice that under some of the players pictures, you see certain accomplishments listed. Winning your flight at the Conference tournament is one of the things that gets listed there.
______________________________________________________________

Unity Christian Information (Friday):
1. ASAP after school - Get to transportation
2. Arrive at Unity Christian (on 48th avenue just South of Port Sheldon)
3. Play Great
4. 20 minute practice afterwards
5. Go home and rest up for Saturday Morning!

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Varsity Girls Schedule/EK Recap

5/5/2014

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Hey Girls/Tennis Parents,

Just wanted to recap the changes that have been made to the schedule. Hopefully these changes make it easier to navigate the Tulip Time festivities. Here's what the schedule looks like going forward:

This Week:
Tuesday: Home match against FHC
Wednesday: Practice
Thursday: Fun day...go enjoy Tulip Time and get refreshed:)
Friday: Away match at Unity Christian +20 minute practice afterwards
Saturday: OK Red Conference Tournament @ Grandville (they have not emailed me the details yet. When they come out, I'll pass them along)

Next Week:
Monday: Practice
Tuesday: Match @ Holland
Wednesday: Practice
Thursday: Regionals

Girls, nice job today with East Kentwood. Our special shout out goes to two groups. First off, the doubles. You did your job, and I never coached a single one of you. Thanks for taking care of business. Also, Casey, congrats on your win over Macey Hodge. She packed some serious power, and you fended it off. I was very impressed with your performance.

Have a nice night girls and I'll see you tomorrow. -Coach

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Welcome to WO Tennis!

Tennis Banquet Details: Wednesday, June 4th

Regionals - West Ottawa Takes 3rd Place

Regional Information

How Regionals Works

Happy Mother's Day

Moving up...OK Red Conference Tournament

OK-Red Conference Tournament/Unity Christian Info

Varsity Girls Schedule/EK Recap

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Dewitt Information

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