Back at it Friday with another quad….we’ll see if the results make it to the morning paper or not. No pictures either….the morning was devoted to getting our assigned food to the quad (2 Panera bagel packs with cream cheese, 30 20-ounce bottles of Gatorade, and a double-double-batch of the patented sausage cheese balls and I never got the camera in the car to even contemplate picture taking.
Match 1: Lost to Forest Hills Northern, 6-3, 2-0 (injury default). Adham comes up grabbing his back in the second match and it is obvious he is in a great deal of pain and can not continue. We’ll discuss the long-term ramifications of this after the match summary. The short term effect is that Kevin has to find another partner for the rest of the quad….and worse yet, the team can’t juggle the line-up mid-quad….one of the two varsity alternates is going to have to move up to play #2 doubles for the rest of the quad.
There is nothing good that can come from the rest of today’s action
Match 2: Lost to Holland West Ottawa, 6-2, 6-4. Paired with Parker, who I thought played well, but it is awfully hard to just jump in and play with any kind of chemistry. They played a lot better together in the second set than the first.
Match 3: Lost to Portage Central, 6-2, 6-2. And in what to me is the crazy coaching move of the day, Kevin plays with the other alternate Alex. Didn’t think Alex played as well as Parker, and that may have been the competition too…..but it is the same deal as the 2nd match, it is only near the end of the 2nd set that Kevin and Alex begin to show any kind of chemistry or awareness of what each other is going to do in certain circumstances.
So what does this injury mean? Well it means that the tournament in Ann Arbor tomorrow is going to be ugly, and I just can’t believe that Adham will be able to go on Tuesday…the only thing that is going to make that injury better is rest.
And if he misses the next week that is ok….the league season hasn’t started yet. I hope that they settle down on one partner and let Kevin and that boy try and make a go of it….and they most likely will rack up a whole bunch of losses while that happens.
But, if the injury is something that is going to take much longer to heal….well, some unpleasant choices might have to be made. If Adham is out 3-4 weeks, can he realistically come back in late September and be in shape to play and have any team chemistry with Kevin? What would the team do at that point; leave Kevin with one of the two alternates? Keep them at #2 doubles (and basically sacrifice any points from #2 doubles at states….because it is iffy that this partnership would beat our #3 and #4 teams).
Ugh. Hope Adham is better soon……
