Mozer Signs...

Mark Mozer of Brest, Belarus has signed a National Letter of Intent to join the Clippers for the 2011-2012 school year. Mark has spent the last few years living in Spain attending high school and sharpening his tennis game.

For a glimpse of Mark in action, click here.

Mark will bring an aggressive baseline game that should serve him well versus the competition he will face at the very top of NCAA D2. He will certainly be an asset to the team and we look forward to his contributions.

The fall semester begins September 5th and practice shortly thereafter. The first event on the schedule is the ITA East Regional held at the Ashe Tennis Center in Philadelphia, PA September 17th-19th.

Enjoy the rest of the summer.

Nuff said...

I Smell Cookies...

If you leave cookies in your tennis bag, they will be found...






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Summer Greetings...

I hope that all of you are enjoying your "summer break". I certainly have been enjoying a bit of the small ball as I have been privileged to get out on the golf course several times with former Clippers Rohan Malhotra, Neel Roy, and Doug O'Connell. Unfortunately, my game has not rounded into form just yet but it is nice to have the opportunity to enjoy the out of doors and catch up with members of the Clipper nation.


In other news, Tomasz Olfans has joined us in Bronxville and has attended summer orientation. Tomasz is really going to be a factor in NCAA II and he is ready to contribute immediately.

Also, Coach Neil continues his recovery and has now been removed from his cast and placed into a less restrictive brace that allows for more movement and the introduction of physical therapy. The somewhat apprehensive patient will be sure to progress quickly and hopefully be weight bearing fully in the near future.

In other good news, all tennis coaches have taken and passed the NCAA Recruiting Exam for the 2011-2012 season. This is good to get this accomplished on the first trial.

With any luck the players are looking to improve on their season ending NCAA II National Ranking of #4. For this to happen there needs to be plenty of hard work including summer fitness and on court improvement. If the players have been and continue to do so, good things will happen for the team. If not, well...not good for anybody.

Share the good! Feel free to report any good things that are going on with you. Share your comments in the comment section of any blog posts, send me an email at danabolics@aol.com, send me a tweet on twitter, or send me a facebook message.

Have a great August and be well.

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ITA Scholar Athletes Announced...

The ITA (the governing body of college tennis) has announced their list of Scholar Athletes for the 2010-2011 academic year. We are very pleased and proud to have three members of the team mentioned among the elite student athletes in the country.

Congratulations to Felix Missal, Geza Bazula and Davis Tisserand. These three young men have distinguished themselves both on the court and in the classroom. A student athlete must achieve a minimum GPA of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale for the academic year to be honored.

Click here for the link to the press release.

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The Cast...

Have a nice look at the cast. If you are in the Bronxville area, stop on by the College Racquet Club and sign this, soon to be, piece of tennis memorabilia. Coach T. will be glad to see you.

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Happy Birthday Coach Neil...

As we celebrate our Independence here in the US, we must also celebrate the birthday of Coach Neil Tarangioli. Yes, he is indeed born of the 4th of July. I will not reveal his age here in the land of social media but he certainly looks younger than the number.

I certainly hope he is able to enjoy the day even though he is inconvenienced by his recent surgery and ambulation status. Incidentally, if you check out the "Some intriguing blogs to check out" gadget in the right hand gadget column of this blog, you will note the arrival of the "Achilles Tendon Injury Recovery Blog" in honor of Coach T.

All the best.

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Happy Independence Day...

Wishing all of you a very happy and safe Independence Day. What wonderful opportunities we all have as a result.

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Format Change???

Things could be changing...

There is a motion up before the NCAA D2 Tennis Committee at the moment which considers a format change with respect to match scoring. Essentially the motion suggests a move away from the 9 point scoring format to the 7 point format already used in NCAA D1.

For those of you not familiar with the scoring format currently used in D2: each team match consists of 9 tennis matches: 3 doubles matches and 6 singles matches. Each of these matches is worth 1 point. Thus, there are 3 doubles points and 6 singles points available. The NCAA D1 format has only 7 total points available as the singles matches are still worth 1 point each but the doubles play is only worth 1 total point for scoring. The doubles point is awarded to the team winning the majority of the 3 doubles matches.

This format change places a greater emphasis on the singles matches and ensures that the team winning any given dual match must win at least one half (3) of the singles contests. Also, this format change could also shorten the dual match somewhat. If a team has won the first 2 doubles matches finishing, the third match would be stopped as a majority has been achieved. I am not sure that this is a big deal though.

I was asked by another coach for my opinion about this rule change and I responded by saying that "it depends on how well we play doubles during any given season." However, truth be told, even though we have always played pretty solid doubles, I support such a format change. With the recent NCAA rule changes in D2, the incoming players are younger (I will avoid the obvious cheap shot at the schools who seem to have a special relationship with the NCAA) and have less experience. As a result, much practice time has to be devoted to doubles...probably more than singles. I feel that it is more important for the players to be hitting more balls and focusing on developing their skills, strategies, and fitness rather than spending more than half of a practice on teaching doubles on a day-to-day basis. If only 1 point is at stake for doubles, coaches could spend a little less time in that area. This, in my opinion, would not only make the players happy but would be better for their overall development.

This rule change, if approved, could be utilized as soon as next season.

What are your thoughts?

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Hey Bernie Tomic...

Gotta give a shout out to Bernie. I remember watching this guy beat the #4 seed in the Junior US Open, Fernando Romboli of Brazil back in 2007. He was 14 years old and maybe weighed 120lbs. We were surprised then that he won but I am not surprised to see him winning now.

Go Bernie.

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Roger as a Lefty...

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Surgery Goes Well...

Good news! Surgery went well yesterday as the skilled Dr. Nicholas, who has served as team physician for the NY Jets and NY Islanders, was able to repair Coach Neil's Achilles tendon.

Of course, the surgery was the easy part. Now the hard road of rehabilitation begins. In general, there will be a period of non-weight bearing followed by a process of strengthening and stretching. All in all your coach should be mobile for the fall season and should be ready for 4.5 USTA tennis next summer.

In the meantime, you may see Neil zipping around on some sort of clipper blue scooter for more rapid ambulation.Join me in wishing Coach a full and speedy recovery.

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OUCH!!!

Everybody send your collective good thoughts to Clipperland as good old Coach Tarangioli goes in for his MRI exam today. Unfortunately, your Coach was injured last night during a USTA 4.5 match.

In only the fourth game of the match, your pal Neil hit his service return from the ad-court and like any good doubles player, began to follow his shot into the net. With that dynamic push off, he felt as though "someone hit me (him) in the back of my (his) lower leg with a tennis racquet".

That is never a good sign and usually means at least a significant strain of the calf/Achilles area. I certainly hope that a strain is all that this is and not a significant tear of the tendon or muscle which would likely require surgery and a fair amount of recovery time.


I will certainly keep you up to date with the process. In the meantime, do not hesitate to send off some well-wishes to Coach Neil. I know he would appreciate hearing from you.

Email Coach Neil: tuki_1@hotmail.com

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Happy Father's Day...

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all the fathers out there a very Happy Father's Day. These well-wishes go out especially to the fathers of our current players that have let us borrow their sons for our tennis purposes. Also, I would like to extend greetings to all former Clippers that are now fathers themselves. It is always a pleasure to see so many of you throughout the year and I hope you all enjoy your special day.

I am pretty sure that if my own father, and former coach of the Clippers, were still alive today, he would want to have a good meal and spend some time with his grandchildren. He would probably splurge and order himself his annual Manhattan cocktail consisting of whiskey, vermouth, bitters and a cherry. I am not sure he actually enjoyed this Manhattan or it was just something that he did once a year for a reason he never shared. I tasted this drink once and found it to taste like I would suppose gasoline would. No thanks.

Have a great day all.

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Clippers Sign Majauskas

Hello again Clipper family folks,

I am pleased to announce that Benas Majauskas of Lithuania has signed a letter of intent to join the team as a student athlete this fall.

Benas has extensive international tennis experience and will be expected to play at a high level here in Bronxville. He was a charter member of a group of solid players from an emerging tennis nation including practice partner Ricardas Berankis. As a 17 year old, Benas achieved an ITF junior world ranking of 367 before choosing to concentrate on academics rather than traveling for tennis. Benas will also be an asset in doubles as he has won two futures events with a partner.

For a quick look at his court work see below:



Join me in welcoming Benas to the Concordia family and wish him nothing but success during his time here.

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