Tennis team is in shambles

[Soonerdawg]

From all I have heard, Jay Butler is a great guy. However, he is a horrible tennis coach. I don't know how we did against Southern, but against the remaining schedule, save Grambling, we have won not one a single match. We are consistently putting up goose eggs. (LSU 0-7; Sam Houston 0-7; USL - 0-7; UAB - 0-6). We barely beat Grambling - 4-3.

Butler has no business coaching tennis, and Oakes should absolutely be ashamed of this hire. Butler is a basketball coach. Would we hire a tennis coach to coach basketball? Of course not.

Oakes, shame on you. You have embarassed the team and our university.

I hope Butler can turn this around, but I don't see much hope.

Jay, please prove me wrong. If you don't, please live up to your reputation as a great guy, and resign as soon as the year is up. Use your talents in an area you have some competence.

[DallasDog]

We could have more than one program heading this direction if we are not very careful.

[grimey]

What kind of scholarships do they give for tennis?

[Soonerdawg]

I think they have eight full rides to give.

[hookdown]

Sad, very sad.... :bigcry:

[TECH88]

I think we need to move this thread to recruiting

[Brian96]

I agree--and I'm not even an Inside Dawg.

[jlam]

man....i was starting to wonder if anyone noticed that we have a tennis team. I'm actually impressed that you guys know this much about it. In short you guys are right....the program is ridiculous. The atheletic dept is putting almost NOTHING into it to help either. The only reason we still have a tennis team i believe is bc of title 9, because the school really does the bare min. for it to survive. Its a shame when Northwestern State U calls us and tells us it wont come back here to play us again because our courts are in such bad shape that they are scared that their players might get hurt. We actually play our home matches at the Ruston High Courts now. Its really a shame bc weve had some players with some real potential come through here in the last few years and they had to watch Jim Oakes walk by every one of their matches on his way over the the baseball game without so much as glancing over. They dont even have enough players to play the matches now that the number 6 quit the team . I think that we should just stop the bleeding and cut the program altogether. I dont want to and i love tennis, but its better that embarrassing ourselves to all the other schools.

[Soonerdawg]

You may have news. Did somebody quit other than Westbrook? No. 6 is the girl from Arkansas, isn't she? Did she quit?

What is your opinion of the "volunteer" assistant?

[jlam]

You may have news. Did somebody quit other than Westbrook? No. 6 is the girl from Arkansas, isn't she? Did she quit?

What is your opinion of the "volunteer" assistant?

Yeah....Katie Westbrook quit a couple of months ago....but just recently another girl named Heidi (i cant remember her last name, i only met her once or twice) quit the team. Im not sure of her reasons, but that leaves the team playing with 5 which means that they forfeit at least one, basically two, points right off the bat. And Noel, the girl from El Dorado, is still on the team (she should have been #6, but i guess they stacked her up to #4......poor girl had to play the #4 against LSU.....from what i was told she only won like 4 points the whole match and those were on unforced errors from the other girl).

[altadawg]

man....i was starting to wonder if anyone noticed that we have a tennis team. I'm actually impressed that you guys know this much about it. In short you guys are right....the program is ridiculous. The atheletic dept is putting almost NOTHING into it to help either. The only reason we still have a tennis team i believe is bc of title 9, because the school really does the bare min. for it to survive. Its a shame when Northwestern State U calls us and tells us it wont come back here to play us again because our courts are in such bad shape that they are scared that their players might get hurt. We actually play our home matches at the Ruston High Courts now. Its really a shame bc weve had some players with some real potential come through here in the last few years and they had to watch Jim Oakes walk by every one of their matches on his way over the the baseball game without so much as glancing over. They dont even have enough players to play the matches now that the number 6 quit the team . I think that we should just stop the bleeding and cut the program altogether. I dont want to and i love tennis, but its better that embarrassing ourselves to all the other schools.

Wow.

[theprofessor]

I think that we should just stop the bleeding and cut the program altogether. I dont want to and i love tennis, but its better that embarrassing ourselves to all the other schools.

i believe this was oakes plan all along. cut the tennis team to start up women's golf. it should happen within the next couple of years.



theprofessor

[Brian96]

i believe this was oakes plan all along. cut the tennis team to start up women's golf. it should happen within the next couple of years.



theprofessor

Why would he need to cut tennis to start up women's golf? Is it only a budgeting problem, or is there some other reason to cap the number of women's teams?

I've been wondering why we don't have a women's golf team. With a men's team already in place, it doesn't seem like it would be that much more expensive to support a women's team. But what do I know...

[Soonerdawg]

i believe this was oakes plan all along. cut the tennis team to start up women's golf. it should happen within the next couple of years.



theprofessor

I too love tennis, but hate the way Oakes has handled this. If he wants to cut tennis, just say so and start a golf team. We all can accept this. In the meantime, he needs to quit allowing coaches to recruit good players and then destroy their careers by hiring a new coach who has no idea how to coach them.

[TECH88]

Should have no problem starting a girls team since we get to play for free on one of the top courses in America. BTW, I was told the golf team budget was in the neighborhood of 12K.