Solid freshman coming up this year

[aeropro7]

High school tennis is going to be really competitive this coming season. Grant Lopez of Nederland is a super champ 14. Lain Herr of Cathedral is a superchamp 14. and Bug of Kelly(sophomore) is a super champ 14. Do you think any of these state ranked players will give Deaver a run for his money?

[sportsfan07]

Unfortunately NO. He is way to talented to lose to the Herr boy or BUG. I have never seen the lopez kid, but i have heard that Deavers will take him pretty easily too. It will be another dominating year. But im going for the underdogs out there. I just dont see it being done.

[tbs8590]

you obviously dont know whos out there practicing and getting a heck of a lot better.

[aeropro7]

you obviously dont know whos out there practicing and getting a heck of a lot better.

amen brother amen.

[sportsfan07]

Look man, I know who you are, and you are a great player. BUT LETS BE REAL. Do you think you will be Deaver coming up this year? Becuz im pretty sure Desai and Minick believed they could beat Deaver before the year started. And look at them. and regardless what you or anyone else says, they were the next two best players. And now you are arguing about that yall will beat Deaver next year, COME ON NOW!! As much as yall are practicing and getting better, so is Deaver. So lets argue about who will come in second hahaha.

[Guest car ramrod]

High school tennis is going to be really competitive this coming season. Grant Lopez of Nederland is a super champ 14. Lain Herr of Cathedral is a superchamp 14. and Bug of Kelly(sophomore) is a super champ 14. Do you think any of these state ranked players will give Deaver a run for his money?

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[sportsfan07]

CAR RAMROD RULES! And he happens to be RIGHT!!!

[SLandry09]

Yeah, do you seriously think Deaver will be sitting on his butt all summer while other people are improving ???... def. not. No one will be able to beat him next year.... NO way... haha sorry. ;D

[SLandry09]

...not from around here anyway.

[tbs8590]

there are plenty of solid freshmen trust me... lane is a great player... so is grant. you can never say anything about next year because until it starts noone knows what will happen

[cword]

no 1 will beat Deaver next year. he has already whooped every 1 like a red-headed step son in the middle of k-mart & plus he's practicing even more this year, so im pretty sure he'll be better & massacre every 1 again. there's no chance

[athlete5]

no 1 will beat Deaver next year. he has already whooped every 1 like a red-headed step son in the middle of k-mart & plus he's practicing even more this year, so im pretty sure he'll be better & massacre every 1 again. there's no chance

amen to that cword..nobody has a chance. not even the so called all mighty kelly kids. deaver has this whole area in the bag..hes unstoppable!

[Babolat Baller]

Deaver has made it to state already his sophmore year and regionals his freshman year, i really don't thik that he is going to sit back and let an upcoming freshman beat him. And bug I give you props for getting two games on him, but don't loose your head.

[jake94]

I don't see any of those 3 coming close to Deaver this year. My prediction is that by his senior year that Grant Lopez is going to be a very, very good player. He has all the tools and a dad that will hit with him all day long and twice on Sunday. lol Grant has a distinct advantage of being able to hit with and coached by the best tennis player in SE Texas any time he wants. That could go a long way in the development of his game unless he pushes him too hard and burns him out.

[jake94]

you obviously dont know whos out there practicing and getting a heck of a lot better.

Actually, Deaver is practicing more than ever right now. I have seen him out at LU playing at night against a few LU players. I was told he lost last night to Chema(Emanuel Olivier LU #4 singles) 7-6 6-1. I saw him playing him again tonight but do not know who won or what the score was. He is playing against a lot better players than he will play against this high school season and is holding his own. I don't see anyone in the local high school tennis scene posing a serious threat to him this season.

[jake94]

If you guys are planning on competing with Deaver this season, then you better have some weapons. He played Chema a few days ago and split sets with him. He also played against David Wanja(Lamar) who serves 120+ and lost in two tight sets. I played with him this evening and he has a collegiate level forehand and an above average serve. We split sets. I don't see anyone competing with him this season in high school locally and probably not even until state.

[garsnare]

I know Deaver is a very good player for our area, but I saw him lose 2 and 1 to a Super 18 kid who is ranked in the 100's a couple of weekends ago in Houston. Last time I checked (summer) he was ranked around 160 in the Super 16's. He will be a champ 18 when he ages up, he is not even close to the top 1/3. I don't know him personally, but eveything I have heard points to him being a really good kid. I'm not talking bad about him, just trying to give a better picture of how weak Southeast Texas is in junior tennis. Currently, he and Sagar are the only 2 boy's Supers in the area, which is actually more than we have historically had.

If he is playing that close with Lamar's players, I think it is more a statement of how weak Lamar is at the bottom of the lineup because Deaver is not even close to being a Division 1 college player.

[jake94]

I know Deaver is a very good player for our area, but I saw him lose 2 and 1 to a Super 18 kid who is ranked in the 100's a couple of weekends ago in Houston. Last time I checked (summer) he was ranked around 160 in the Super 16's. He will be a champ 18 when he ages up, he is not even close to the top 1/3. I don't know him personally, but eveything I have heard points to him being a really good kid. I'm not talking bad about him, just trying to give a better picture of how weak Southeast Texas is in junior tennis. Currently, he and Sagar are the only 2 boy's Supers in the area, which is actually more than we have historically had.

If he is playing that close with Lamar's players, I think it is more a statement of how weak Lamar is at the bottom of the lineup because Deaver is not even close to being a Division 1 college player.

I agree with you garsnare about local tennis being weak. What I do find interesting though is that Deaver is starting to take tennis seriously now in his junior year and has been a state qualifier as a freshman and sophomore. I think he is really going to turn the corner this season. I played with him for the first time yesterday and he is definitely a good kid. Very polite and respectful. He hits a very heavy ball and has a forehand that is top notch. My post was more of a reaction to the locals that feel they are going to hang with him this season. I do not see it happening. I actually think it hurts him in that he has no high school competition locally. He is playing the lower tier LU singles guys close and those are the 5-9 players. LU has some solid singles guys 1-4, but is still a low level D1 program. We do need to remember, however, that he is a junior at Silsbee and is not supposed to be a D1 college player yet. If you look at Danos as an early season junior, there is not much difference in the heaviness and pace of their shots other than Andrew's serve. I played with Andrew twice a week in his prime and Deaver's forehand can be every bit as good in my opinion if he keeps working at it.

[garsnare]

You are right about the lack of competition hurting him. If he went to a Houston or Dallas school he could probably be a top 50 super. I don't think anyone in the area will beat this year either, but there are a couple of kids who have improved enough to at least compete with him. One local kid beat the #94 kid in super 18's 2 and 2 this weekend, and I bet if I gave you 10 chances you still couldn't guess which local it was. (don't cheat and look it up)

If you are comparing him to Danos to make the case for him eventually being a D1 player, that's not going to convince me because Danos wasn't a D1 player. Some of my players were playing at the D3 regionals in Abiline this weekend, and there were tons of kids who were ranked 30 and up in the super 18's that were playing D3. I've had 2 top 100 super 18's in the last 3 years go play college tennis. One plays D2 and the other juco. You have got to be top 20 minimum to be a legit D1 player.

On a side note. You seem to know Deaver well, any idea why he was playing in the 18's draw in Houston. Has he aged up?

[jake94]

All good points again. And, I have no idea who the local is that won this past weekend vs. #94. Who was it? Fact is I do not follow the high school tennis scene much locally. I am 30 now and play age groups, levels, and open mostly. I think much of the problem when thinking of D1 players is that we have a D1 here in our own backyard that isn't really D-1 caliber. I agree with you that Danos was not a legit D-1 candidate, but he could have fit well in the 4,5,6 spot for LU. The LU women's team has made strides and is an average D-1 team now, but the men are still behind the curve. Hopefully with the new coach coming in from Louisville that will change in a few years. As for your question about me knowing Deaver, I met and played with him for the first time yesterday. I am not sure if he aged up or not, but he was a little better than I thought he would be. If we would have played a 3rd set, he would have won because I am out of shape and have not played competitive singles in a long time. I play tennis 3-4 times a week, but always doubles. lol

[garsnare]

You  nailed it with the comments about the Lamar men. In the last 10 years there have been a bunch of local kids who were "on the team" that would have been lower line-up D3 guys. The local juniors see that and think, "I'm almost as good as that guy, I can play D1 tennis". It has made for some seriously delusional junior players in recent years.

I feel you man, I'm 33 and so cripled I can't play competitively anymore. So all I do now is coach.

The local kid who beat the Super 18 kid this weekend is Scott Carnley from Warren. He is not big time, but he will be a solid D3 player somewhere next year. Of course, I might be a little biased since he is one of mine.

[jake94]

You  nailed it with the comments about the Lamar men. In the last 10 years there have been a bunch of local kids who were "on the team" that would have been lower line-up D3 guys. The local juniors see that and think, "I'm almost as good as that guy, I can play D1 tennis". It has made for some seriously delusional junior players in recent years.

I feel you man, I'm 33 and so cripled I can't play competitively anymore. So all I do now is coach.

The local kid who beat the Super 18 kid this weekend is Scott Carnley from Warren. He is not big time, but he will be a solid D3 player somewhere next year. Of course, I might be a little biased since he is one of mine.

Did you play down here? If so, where at and what year? We may have crossed paths at some time. I played 4 years varsity tennis at Nederland for Coach Lopez and graduated in '94. I won district in singles in 92,93, and 94. Made it to state my senior year. Now I am a has-been  ;D but I still play with some of the up and coming juniors when Jorge or Wong call me to. I play mostly doubles these days and playing singles yesterday showed me how bad my cardio is lacking!

[garsnare]

I played at Warren and graduated in 92'. Didn't you play for Woodville your freshmen year?

[jake94]

No, you are thinking of Jason Dickerson who started at Woodville and ended up at Kountze. His brother Marcus was also a good player at Woodville, too. I played all 4 years at Nederland for Lopez. My freshman year I was seeded number 1 in singles at varsity district and choked. I came in 3rd that year and won the next three. I missed the chance to win 4 straight which has never been done at Nederland, but Grant Lopez will have a good shot at that record the next 4 years.

[garsnare]

Ok. Sorry about the confusion.

Now back to the original topic of this thread. I think Grant has a very realistic shot at winning district 4 years in a row. His only competition this year will be Legato, and he makes way too many errors to beat Grant. He should have a cakewalk the next 3 years. He is going to have to get a lot better to have a shot to get out of regionals and qualify for state, but I think he can do it by his junior and senior year. 4A region III is a weird region. 2 years ago, there were only 2 super boys. 1 in singles and 1 in doubles. Then last year, there were 7. 5 in singles and 2 in doubles. Heck, there was even a 1st round singles match with 2 supers playing each other.