US College Signings 2019 (and general college chat)

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

US College Signings 2019 (and general college chat)

Elegant Point · Satellite level

2019 ITA NCAA D1 All-Americans www.wearecollegetennis.com/2019/05/31/2019-ita-ncaa-di-all-americans-announced/ (then click on blue heading at top of article to obtain the table)

The criteria for ITA All-America honors include earning a top 16 seed into the NCAA Singles Championship, advancing to the round of 16 at the NCAA Championship or finishing in the top 20 of the final Oracle/ITA Singles Rankings. All-America recognition is awarded to doubles teams that earn a top eight seed into the NCAA Championship, reach the NCAA Championship quarterfinals or finish in the top 10 in the final Oracle/ITA National Doubles Rankings.

Brits mentioned include Paul Jubb (S), Barnaby Smith (D), Oli Nolan (D), Henry Patten (D), Lauryn J-B (D), Eden Richardson (S)

(apologies if I've left anyone out)

Oakland2002 · All-time great

The Freshman classes for 2019 have all been ranked and some British recruits feature.

On the ladies side South Carolina are judged the No 1 class. Gemma Heath is their top recruit, she is joined by a Spaniard, a Brazilian 2 5* US recruits and a 3*, they have only gone out of state for one of the 5* recruits. Obviously a big change and big boots to fill as they are the present national team champions.

Kira Reuter is part of the No 4 ranked Texas Tech class and joins Nell and Olivia Peet in Lubbock.

Florida State rank 6 with their top recruits being Victoria Allen and Sasha Hill.

Interestingly Old Dominion continue to feature in the top 25. If you exclude Pepperdine who have a very established programme; Harvard and Yale apart whose capacity to recruit is not necessarily linked to tennis they are the only non power conference to feature.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

On the Gents side where there are fewer scholarships as so many go to Football and Basketball, Texas are ranked No 1 nationally, all 5 American recruits. Duke No 2, all 4 American recruits. The first Brit to feature is Jacob Fearnley as TCU at No 4, Cams Alma Mater.

At No 19 South Carolinas No 1 pick is Connor Thompson, who joins our own NCAA champion Senior Paul Jubb.

Squeezing in at No 24 are the Zags (Gonzaga) again a bit like Old Dominion on the ladies side, the only non power conference programme (Pepperdine and Ivy League excepted). Matthew Hollingsworth being part of a class of 4 recruits, obviously good in that he will have good completion day in day out and they should do very well in conference but it could be tough to get a game as a freshman

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Oakland2002 wrote:
The Freshman classes for 2019 have all been ranked and some British recruits feature.

On the ladies side South Carolina are judged the No 1 class. Gemma Heath is their top recruit, she is joined by a Spaniard, a Brazilian 2 5* US recruits and a 3*, they have only gone out of state for one of the 5* recruits. Obviously a big change and big boots to fill as they are the present national team champions.

Kira Reuter is part of the No 4 ranked Texas Tech class and joins Nell and Olivia Peet in Lubbock.

Florida State rank 6 with their top recruits being Victoria Allen and Sasha Hill.

Interestingly Old Dominion continue to feature in the top 25. If you exclude Pepperdine who have a very established programme; Harvard and Yale apart whose capacity to recruit is not necessarily linked to tennis they are the only non power conference to feature.

Gemma, Kira, Vic and Sasha - those are some excellent players, lot of time for all of them - the US are lucky to get them smile

Serious best wishes for the four of them, and all the other girls going stateside.

(and a little special best wishes to Gemma - her mum has posted on here several times about Gemma's problems with the LTA and, for a girl with SUCH talent, it's a crying shame).

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Oakland2002 wrote:
On the Gents side where there are fewer scholarships as so many go to Football and Basketball, Texas are ranked No 1 nationally, all 5 American recruits. Duke No 2, all 4 American recruits. The first Brit to feature is Jacob Fearnley as TCU at No 4, Cams Alma Mater.

At No 19 South Carolinas No 1 pick is Connor Thompson, who joins our own NCAA champion Senior Paul Jubb.

Squeezing in at No 24 are the Zags (Gonzaga) again a bit like Old Dominion on the ladies side, the only non power conference programme (Pepperdine and Ivy League excepted). Matthew Hollingsworth being part of a class of 4 recruits, obviously good in that he will have good completion day in day out and they should do very well in conference but it could be tough to get a game as a freshman

Thanks for this, Oakie.

As with the girls, and sorry if I'm being slow, but when you say the Freshman classes have all been ranked, have they ALL been ranked? Or just the top 25 or so? Because we've obviously got more than 2 boys going stateside this fall. So wouldn't they all be on the list, somewhere ?

Oakland2002 · All-time great

I dont know she may have fallen from the frying pan right on to her feet.

She has been recruited to a cracking programme at the University of South Carolina who appear to know exactly what to do to dominate at college level and then facilitate transition. All the LTA nonsense goes away for 4 years and you know where you are at the end.

If Gemma can get close to that number 1 slot as a freshman she will get tested week in week out in the SEC and a very strong out of conference schedule against the best teams from the other power conferences (particularly the power house programmes in adjacent North Carolina at Duke and UNC ). That is how Paul was so successful and quite rightly as NCAA champion getting a bit of support.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Oakland2002 wrote:
I dont know she may have fallen from the frying pan right on to her feet.

She has been recruited to a cracking programme at the University of South Carolina who appear to know exactly what to do to dominate at college level and then facilitate transition. All the LTA nonsense goes away for 4 years and you know where you are at the end.

If Gemma can get close to that number 1 slot as a freshman she will get tested week in week out in the SEC and a very strong out of conference schedule against the best teams from the other power conferences (particularly the power house programmes in adjacent North Carolina at Duke and UNC ). That is how Paul was so successful and quite rightly as NCAA champion getting a bit of support.

Yes, absolutely. The LTA stuff is now irrelevant. There's a lot of other teenage stuff, too, that goes on at the end of juniors and it's not always conducive to good tennis.

But now, with a great programme, and set-up, and a prevailing wind, she'll have every chance, as you say.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Coup Droit wrote:
Oakland2002 wrote:
On the Gents side where there are fewer scholarships as so many go to Football and Basketball, Texas are ranked No 1 nationally, all 5 American recruits. Duke No 2, all 4 American recruits. The first Brit to feature is Jacob Fearnley as TCU at No 4, Cams Alma Mater.

At No 19 South Carolinas No 1 pick is Connor Thompson, who joins our own NCAA champion Senior Paul Jubb.

Squeezing in at No 24 are the Zags (Gonzaga) again a bit like Old Dominion on the ladies side, the only non power conference programme (Pepperdine and Ivy League excepted). Matthew Hollingsworth being part of a class of 4 recruits, obviously good in that he will have good completion day in day out and they should do very well in conference but it could be tough to get a game as a freshman
Thanks for this, Oakie.
As with the girls, and sorry if I'm being slow, but when you say the Freshman classes have all been ranked, have they ALL been ranked? Or just the top 25 or so? Because we've obviously got more than 2 boys going stateside this fall. So wouldn't they all be on the list, somewhere ?

So the top 25 programmes have been ranked by a points scoring system, other programmes scored points but not enough to get them in the top 25 programmes. A large group of judges from the media, junior tennis experts, tournament directors national and international, referees and ranking experts? are invited to list the classes.

No 1 scoring 25 points, No 25 1 point. On the women's side South Carolina came top with 343 points (8 experts scoring them top, 2 experts was the next best, so quite conclusive ), Dartmouth in 25th scored 61. Apologises to Princeton who along with Harvard and Yale recruited really well indeed better than both. You are either on the list or in the addendum theses other colleges scored points..only 17 only 4 of which more than 20. You are either in or you are out.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Many thanks, Oakie.

Elegant Point · Satellite level

Brits featuring in the top 25 MM recruiting are:

Men
No 3. Gonzaga - Matt Hollingsworth (also in Oaklands top recruiting list), 7. Middle Tenesse - Bradley Buckland, 13. Liberty- Deji Thomas-Smith
Women
No9. N Arizona, Mimi Bland & Eleanor Beazley and Liberty also at 13. in the women's- Eloise Saraty

Many MM struggle to recruit Americans- they would reportedly rather sit on the bench for a power conference team than play for a MM. Liberty are trying to build both men's and women's teams and more Brits heading off there............seems to be fewer Brits going to Memphis and Drake which recruited heavily in the past.

-- Edited by Elegant Point on Saturday 15th of June 2019 08:49:19 AM

Oakland2002 · All-time great

The Zags have done really well recruiting the associate head coach from Oregon, Jonas Piibor. Oregon have really developed into a competitive force in the really rough PAC-12 primarily down to some savvy recruiting. Interestingly where ever he goes he also ups the players grades (started at Indiana State). To recruit a highly ranked (15) Californian (Ok it was Sacramento) to the rain of Spokane is quite an achievement. The Swedish lad is ranked 35 and Matthew 115. The target must be NCAA team qualification and perhaps some wins against the weaker Northern PAC 12 Schools.

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

I don't know much about the US college scheme, so could someone enlighten me on how the higher/lower ranking colleges work. I've been following Ethene Dowling who got a scholarship to some lower college, but does this mean that she is not of the calibre to 'make it' like the ones at higher colleges, or is it just a choice?

Elegant Point · Satellite level

It's complicated!

for a basic introduction check out USTA.com college tennis: General introduction https://www.usta.com/en/home/play/college-tennis/programs/national/college-tennis-general-information.html

https://www.facebook.com/TennisSmart/posts/2136815909729311 Tennis Smart Player pathway info

-- Edited by Elegant Point on Sunday 16th of June 2019 12:31:56 PM

-- Edited by Elegant Point on Sunday 16th of June 2019 12:34:27 PM

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Helen40 wrote:
I don't know much about the US college scheme, so could someone enlighten me on how the higher/lower ranking colleges work. I've been following Ethene Dowling who got a scholarship to some lower college, but does this mean that she is not of the calibre to 'make it' like the ones at higher colleges, or is it just a choice?

Really unless you are playing in and going deep in the NCAA tournament which is the best of college tennis and probably ranges from a 25K futures to early rounds of challengers in quality you are very unlikely to be able to transition to the professional game as a singles player. Even those that specialise in doubles will have had at least the same levels of doubles success, usually singles also. The Bryans won the doubles, one was also singles champion, their parents wouldnt let them play each other.

All most exclusively the players playing at that level come from the powerhouse programmes (top 25) who are almost exclusively in the power conferences, SEC, PAC 12, ACC, Big 12, Big 10 each with 10-12 teams in. I would say 2-5 players per year have a sniff of making it, usually they have been top 20 juniors also.

Most SEC teams are strong but in the other conferences there are 3-5 colleges that have a great rep for tennis, the conferences are primarily formed for football but are also aligned for most other sports. To put in perspective for football 85 scholarships can be awarded men's tennis 4.5 womens 8! So really you are talking 30 strong programmes where you would have to dominate in the number 1 slot (6 players in a team) and there are about 250 Div 1 male programmes and over 300 female. Lots of potential scholarships for players who aren't at a level where professional tennis is an option however a free degree from an Ivy League college, Vanderbilt, Rice, Stanford, UCLA, Cal, Florida, Texas, North Western etc.... are not to be sniffed at and you would get to train and play almost as a professional in superb facilities for 4 years.

Div 2 colleges are more restricted on the number of scholarships they offer, Div 3 dont offer scholarships for sport eg. MIT, interestingly twinned with our best College Sports University, Loughborough for research in sports related subjects.

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Monday 17th of June 2019 01:45:10 AM