quote:
This whole interview process has been so political it is a joke.
Really they all are, aren't they? I mean you can't tell me Mike Sherman was the most qualified guy for the football job, yet whoever had Byrne's ear told him that "getting" A&M was important so BB chose him and he has done well.
For this tennis job Denton has Byrne's ear and has told him that making A&M Tennis into a developing ground for American junior players to become pros is what we need to do, or at least that's what the rejected candidates are being told. That's why candidates like Mark Beyers (Ole Miss), Michael Hegarty (Arkansas), Lauren Meisner (SMU), and Howard Joffe (Maryland), all coaches who recruit and develop primarily foreign talent, are not being given interviews even though they were all candidates for the job and have much stronger resumes coaching WOMENS COLLEGE TENNIS than any of the ones getting campus interviews. So good news for all of you on the "anti-foreign" bandwagon. Bad news for those of you hoping to get a coach who isn't going to have to learn on the job.
Alison Ojeda and the ND assistant don't have a prayer IMO. I think they are being brought in just to have some female candidates and to make it look good. Obviously Denton is installing one of his cronies (Rubio or Harmon) and the best way to make that happen is to convince BB that the "American pro academy" thing is the way to go and to eliminate any actual viable candidates from consideration, leaving only his puppets. I think it's Harmon.
Incredibly smart move by Denton actually because not only will they hire his buddy but also someone who can help him out incredibly with his huge MEN'S tennis connections. The whole WTA American prep academy thing is a joke. No American kid who has a prayer of being in the top 100 WTA is going to college and if they do they sure aren't going to pass up Stanford and Florida to play for the guy that got fired from the USTA...or for any of the other candidates. If they really want to do that then go hire, Martina Navratilova, or at least Zina Garrison if we want to go local and reasonably priced like we did with Denton.
Guys with pro ambitions will go play for a Grand Slam finalist who might help them get there. A boy at 18 knows that he can go play for Denton and come out of college at 22 and still not in his prime with a realistic shot on the tour, but women don't go to college to make the tour. Women go because they know they can't get there or have already failed trying.
The name of the game in womens tennis is recruiting. It is why Kleinecke failed and why Meisner at SMU has succeeded in spite of what some claim is a "high school" knowledge of teaching the game. It is why Ojeda failed at MTSU and why she wouldn't do much better here. The ND coach has never had to recruit because that school and Harvard (her previous stop) are both places where you "choose" rather than recruit. It is why I think Rubio is probably the best candidate remaining, assuming he can recruit girls as well as boys.
Bottom line is that hey, if it helps the men's team get better I'm all for it. I have come to expect an average womens team but have really been enjoying the success of the men, and if we're going to have mediocrity on the womens side but Harmon can sneak a few blue chippers over to Denton then the hire has my vote.
