I'm not sure how long I get to play the I'm-new-here card, but being new to this program made deciding the lineup extra difficult. At the start of the season in previous coaching positions I've had, I'm familiar with the team. Before the first day of tryouts I already have a pretty good idea in my head where everybody is going to fall in line. The way this season worked out, however, I had one week to analyze every player and stack them all against each other. There were the obvious bests and worsts, but all those guys in the middle....let's just say I did a lot of crossing out and arrow-writing in my notes today. All that being said, I did get a lineup to my guys today - one day before our first match. There were lots of challenges to making the final decision, but two I'd like to talk about right now:
The Brothers
I have twin brothers on my team. They are similar in appearance, play style, and character. Unfortunately they were at the bottom of the lineup. Things worked out just wrong so that one would play and one wouldn't. I had had them playing as doubles partner throughout the week, but for unforeseen reasons (see below) a spot above them got taken. Fortunately, in this situation, it was obvious what needed to be done. This is the time to say no to your soft side and get it done. I had to have them play against each other. They duked it out in a one set to six with no-ad scoring (what I've used this week for challenges - both fast and telling) and we had our winner. I'm glad it wasn't a close one, it makes it a little easier when one obviously has the upper hand, but seeing the dad at the match just might be a bit uncomfortable. Such is tennis coaching.
The Ringer
A Swiss foreign exchange student with eight (EIGHT!) years of playing experience, joined our team today. He came to me last week on Friday to see if he could still join. He got all of his paperwork done by today (which is, like, record time for a high school guy) and joined in on practice. Do all Swiss guys play like Federer? After today I think they just might. This was tricky, he hadn't been at practice all week, he hadn't run, he hadn't been a part of the team and put in the work that they had. What he had done, however, was prove that he was a good tennis player. Is this fair to put him over the others? In a lot of ways the obvious answer is no, but if you think about it a little bit, maybe you can justify it. Think about those eight years he played, when clearly many others on the team had not. While he hadn't put the work into the team that the others had, he had put plenty more work into the sport, to me, that's good enough.
I'd welcome any thoughts on these. Am I ruthless for splitting up brothers? Am I unfair for putting my new, talented player into the lineup? I feel as though I made the right choices, but I will admit it's not so black and white.
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