It's Wednesday and I'm exhausted. It was a tough day at work. And to be honest with you, keeping up with this soap opera is exhausting (in addition to everything else I have going on in my life). I really never intended for this to get as big as it did. I got in touch with the lady who runs Parenting Aces (if you've never been, I highly recommend this site: http://www.parentingaces.com). Someone posted my blog to her site, she noticed it and contacted me. She has over 100,000 subscribers and no signs of slowing down. We chatted about what was going on and about life in junior tennis - in the end, she agreed to give me some exposure. So nice. Riding on the shoulders of giants.
She has two kids in college and so is out of the junior tennis scene, but she has lived through it. And what she told me was so discouraging. There's very little (my optimistic side interpreted "no" as "very little") chance things will change and people within the organization (not all of course) will act in a vindictive manner.
This entire episode seems so silly. It could have all been avoided by a simple reply and the willingness to fix the wrong. Here's an example of how this could have been so much easier:
From: "Marino, William" <wmarino@chapman.edu>
Subject: RE: Chapman University Fall Junior Open Tournament (level 4)
Date: December 9, 2015 at 1:54:11 PM PST
To: Phil Pellouchoud <ppellouchoud@Dexcom.com>
I fixed it.. The system laid it out that way. I didn't notice it. Thanks
-----Original Message-----
From: Phil Pellouchoud [mailto:ppellouchoud@Dexcom.com]
Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2015 1:46 PM
To: Marino, William
Subject: Chapman University Fall Junior Open Tournament (level 4)
Hi,
Thank you for publishing the draws, but the draws do not look correctly laid out for G16s.
My daughter is the #3 seed and she should be on the same side as the #2 seed.
The placement of the seeds does not make any sense.
-phil
See how easy that was? Instead, this has blown up way bigger than I expected or wanted. It may seem like I'm always complaining about draws - but to be honest, I can count on one hand the number of times I've complained to the tournament director about the draws. And my kids are playing tournaments almost every weekend (and have been for the last 5+ years).
I am beginning to think that the draws were made out of spite. I don't make that statement lightly, but I am running out of viable explanations and the people running the show won't give me answers to very basic questions. I ask specific questions and I get answers to questions I didn't ask. I really don't know what to make of it.
I hope anyone reading this does not think this is about an incorrect draws being corrected. It's not. It's about accountability. It's about transparency. It's about being open. It's about having a system in place that's fair and objective. It's about not letting egos and spite be a part of the system. It has almost nothing to do with the draw being incorrect.
Sorry this post was heavy on frustration and short on substance, but like I said - I'm exhausted. Good night.
Mr. Pelloucid: Unfortunately, it appears that your comment about the placement of the #3 seed is off-base. While the positions of the #1 and #2 seeds are always the same (top and bottom of the draw), Tournament Regulations specifically require that the position of the #3 and #4 seeds be drawn by lot. They are NOT to be "placed" in the draw. Please refer to page 77 of the "2015 Friend at Court" publication, which is used by Referees for purposes of making the draw. You can obtain this online at USTA.com
ReplyDeleteUPDATE: Trevor Kronemann (Director of Junior Development) and Bruce Hunt (Executive Director) continue to give Phil the run around.
ReplyDeleteHere is the evolution of their explanation:
1) Trevor invokes the “All Factors” Method of Seeding as the reason for why Zack and Jessie were not seeded, but refuses to actually say what factors were used.
2) Bruce Hunt (Trevor’s Boss) gets back to Phil and tells him that the seeds were done using the Auto Seed feature of TDM. Phil then asks what list was used to come up with the auto seeds (a list always has to be chosen to use for auto seeding).
3) Tonight, Trevor sent Phil an email apologizing for accidentally using the wrong list when doing the Auto Seeding. However, when you look at the possible lists that the SCTA has to choose from, their is no list that could have possibly generated the original seeding that was generated and the name of the list provided by Trevor does not in fact exist.
Bruce, Trevor, we need a straight answer as to what occurred here and what you will do to make sure this never happens again.
Bill Kellogg runs the SCTA and is ultimately responsible. Bill, we need to hear from you.