I will look at last weekend’s 2018 Kentucky High School Athletic Association state tennis championships from the perspective of an observer/coach and from the perspective of ethnography. Match Impressions – Singles and Doubles Semifinal Rounds Saint Xavier and Manual High School dueled in their regional contest and entered the final day of the state tennis…
Category: High School Tennis
Second Season: Saint X wins Regional Title with Eyes on the State Tournament
What a Difference 1 Week Makes The 6th Region of Kentucky’s 16 high school tennis regions crowned a familiar champion before regional realignment goes into effect in 2019. Saint Xavier’s tennis team absorbed a tough upset loss on Senior Day 1 week ago. At the same venue, Saint X fended off duPont Manual High School to…
Saint X Hosts Trinity: Senior Night
I referenced not particularly liking losses in dual matches. My first season of being part of a tennis coach in three years ended with a dual match loss, but the atmosphere was something that I’ve never seen in all of my years of being around high school tennis at Saint X as a player, at…
Thoughts on the 2018 Kentucky Duals
Saint X won 2 matches at a weather truncated Kentucky Duals tennis event today. St. X beat Owensboro Catholic 9-0 & Covington Catholic 7-2. A lot of great tennis played by all 3 schools. — Dan Martin (@DanMartinTennis) March 11, 2018 The Kentucky Duals is an annual event that brings together 8 of the top high…
Imperfectly Perfect – Part 4: Unexpected Champions
We entered our eighth match facing a school that had a lot of good athletes as well as 4 really strong players. If we were playing them 1-14, I would have felt good, but we were playing our top 7 versus their top 7. This was going to be a coin flip of a dual…
Imperfectly Perfect – Part 3: Seventh Heaven
I approached my second season as head coach with guarded optimism that we could finish with a winning record. We returned every player from our 5-7 team. We also had a good amount of interest from 9th and 10th-grade players who had not been on the team last year. I subbed for a class in…
Imperfectly Perfect – Part 2: Season 1’s Emerging Road Warriors
As our first dual match got closer, I had no idea what to expect from our opponents but felt good about our team. The week of our first match, one of the players in my line-up failed to measure up to our weekly academic eligibility standards. I was down to 5 players I trusted to…
Imperfectly Perfect – Part 1: Head Coach?
With the Kentucky high school tennis season having just begun, I am looking back on my coaching start. I became a teacher in August 2002. I mentioned to my co-worker and athletic director that I would like to help both the boys and girls’ tennis teams. He said that would be fine because each team…
Dan Martin: Assistant Tennis Coach at Saint Xavier High School in Kentucky
I am sorry that I did not get any Australian Open predictions posted for this evening/morning’s matches. I did want to share that for the third time in my life that I will be helping to coach a high school tennis team. I will continue to write for Tennis Abides of course and will hopefully…
Saint Xavier High School (Louisville) Wins 9th Consecutive State Title by Logan Flynn
Reprinted from the Xavier News September 2017 issue with the permission of the author. I am hoping to have Tennis Abides focus on both college, junior, and high school tennis in the coming months. For full disclosure, I have been teaching at Saint Xavier High School in Louisville, KY since August 2017. The Streak Continues For…
Tennis Abides: Dan Martin on Tennis and Life 