Announcing the 2013 McCarren Tennis Ladder
We're back!! Sign-ups for the 2013 McCarren Tennis Ladder will begin immediately, so register here. The season will officially start May 15. This year there will be 4 separate ladders: a women's ladder, 3.5 ladder, 4.0 ladder, and 4.5+ ladder (to be clear: women may play in any of the ladders, but men may not play in the women's ladder).
Initial seeding will be based on the results of last year's ladder. If you are joining for the first time, or if you sign up after May 15th, you will automatically be added to the bottom of the ladder. Please review the full set of rules here. The entry fee will be $35.01 per player.
This year we will be using Tennisrungs.com to run our ladder. Once you fill out the registration form and pay, a ladder administrator will send you an email to invite you to join Tennisrungs.com. If you have any questions, please contact the administrators of the ladder that you're interested in playing in.
Women's Ladder - Anastasiya Konopitskaya (anskaya@gmail.com)
3.5 Ladder - Michael Truong (milk_and_mallard@hotmail.com)
4.0 Ladder - Drew Malcolm (drew.malcolm@gmail.com)
4.5 Ladder - Michael Moshan (michael@mccarrentennis.org)
Thank you TennisRungs.com!
We would like to send a special shout out to Tim Owens, co-founder of Tennisrungs.com, who graciously donated a lifetime membership to McCarren Tennis!! Tennisrungs.com removes all the headaches that comes with running a tennis ladder, allowing easy access for players to challenge, report scores, and view match statistics online. If you know of anyone else who participates in a tennis ladder, please help spread the word about Tennisrungs.com. Thank you Tim, we are really looking forward to using your website for our ladder this year!
And the winner is…
Eric Gonda! Congratulations to Eric for beating Wojtek Januszko 4-6, 7-5, 10-4 in a closely contested ladder final match this afternoon. Unleashing punishing ground strokes, Wojtek built an early lead before Eric nabbed a crucial break to run away with the second set. With the momentum finally on his side, Eric eked out the win in the super tiebreak to become the first McCarren Ladder Champion.
Thank you to everyone who came out this afternoon to watch the final, and more importantly, to everyone who participated in the ladder this year. It was another successful fundraiser for the maintenance of the courts. See you next year!
Lincoln Terrace Tournament
We are excited to announce that the Lincoln Terrace Tennis Association has invited McCarren Tennis to play against them in a one day tournament next Saturday, September 8th starting at 12pm. LIncoln Terrace is located on Buffalo Ave, between Eastern Parkway and East New York Ave. Players of all levels are welcome (they have players ranging from Division I college players to people who are just learning the game). Food and refreshments will be provided. I have led team McCarren against Lincoln Terrace in the King's Cup three years in a row now and I can personally attest that not only are they a group of great people, they are also tennis fanatics! Sounds familiar? If you're interested in playing, please send an email to meng@mccarrentennis.org.
Ladder championships
As the inaugural season of our singles ladder winds to a close, we would like to thank everyone who participated this year for making it a success. Every dollar of your donations will go a long way to help maintain the courts.
Don't forget the week of August 28th will be the last week for the regular season. On September 2nd, the top 16 players who have played at least 5 legal matches (defaults don't count) will move on to a single elimination tournament. Players will be seeded based on their ranking in the ladder. Players will arrange their own matches but we will announce all the scheduled times on the website. Who will take home the gold this year? Will it be Gonda, who has maintained an undefeated record all season, will Moshan assert his dominance once again, or is it finally Wojtek's turn to shine, proving one and for all that he is the best tennis player in Williamsburg/Greenpoint?
“Tennis Fees Ace Out Many” – Wall St. Journal
A friend just pointed out a nicely researched article from the Wall St. Journal entitled, "Tennis Fees Ace Out Many." It confirms our arguments when we fought against the Parks fee increases two years ago -- the fee increase has led to a steep fall-off in the number of people playing the game in New York City. The overall number of permits issued was down by a third in 2011, with even steeper declines on the horizon for 2012 (final numbers are not yet in). On the brighter side (note sarcasm), with many poorer New Yorkers priced out, there definitely have been shorter waits at the courts. We're curious what the McCarren community thinks: is the shorter wait worth the extra fees? Is this fair? Should we fight to overturn this policy? Comment below.
Regardless, the thing that particularly galls this editor is that this huge fee increase was ONLY applied against tennis. Some other rec fees went up, but nothing came close to doubling, and no other sporting activity in NYC is taxed so highly -- and receives so little in return in terms of services or maintenance.
Full article here.
Mural Windscreen, v2.0
Team McTennis -
adidas has been kind enough to repurchase and reprint the Bedford side windscreen -- it should be ready Monday or Tuesday, and hopefully we can get it hung by the end of next week. They're reprinting it without their adidas logo on the left side, so hopefully that will keep the neighborhood anti-corporate watchdogs (a.k.a. ignorant vandals) at bay. Please do try to spread the simple word that the windscreens on all 4 sides (including the unbranded screens) were provided by adidas, and that their gift allowed us to use our money for other needed repairs (cracks, surface, paint). Unfortunately getting any money from the Parks Department remains impossible due to budget cuts, but they have cooperated with this project from the beginning. Thanks to Stephanie Thayer of Parks and OSA for her help.
Since the repair team has to return to rehang the screens, we making sure they finish the repair work as well. Please write in if you see anything in particular that needs fixing. I know there are some line painting issues, but what else?
The Worst-Kept Secret: Windscreens!
As I'm sure every one of you has noticed, our dear courts are now wrapped from head to toe in brand new 9' windscreens. Not only that, but we are the proud recipients of a custom made windscreen mural, "Brooklyn-Love," designed by Brooklyn artist Brent Rollins. I hope everyone finds a place for our sponsor, adidas Originals, in their tennis-loving hearts. This really is an amazing gift to the Brooklyn tennis community, something that will improve play at the facility for years to come. The value of the donation is about $15,000, if any of you are curious.
Because adidas Originals donated the windscreens, the moneys you generated through your donations and participation in our tournaments & ladders can be repurposed for other needed repairs. Crack repair work has already begun, and is slated to be completed next Monday -- sanding down the crack sealant and repainting the affected areas. We're sorry for the inconvenience, but play will be disrupted on Monday, June 18, from 8 am to 5pm. Please plan your play schedules accordingly.
Thanks again to adidas for its generosity. We're a lucky little tennis group, no?
Taming those Wicked Winds…
Yet more magic coming to courts very near to you. We'll give you the full scoop in a couple of days.
The view from Berry Street
The Ladder is Up
Folks, the ladder for our 2012 season is up. Please click here to see the results or click "Ladder Results" on the sidebar to the right. For rules and information, click here. We'll email everyone who's participating with each competitor's contact information shortly. Remember that the entry form will stay open for a good while -- you can join anytime!
Good luck!