Our Tennis Season for Uninitiated
Our tennis season has three parts: the Regular Season, the Region Tournament, the State Tournament. Each part has their purpose. The purpose of the Regular Season is to decide the seeding for the Region Tournament. During the Regular Season, we play the other 11 teams in our region. The final standings, after the Regular Season is said and done, are the seeding for the Region Tournament.
The Region Tournament decides the seeding for the State Tournament. Everyone in the region plays. This is a single elimination tournament. The kicker is that if you lose before the Semifinals, you don’t go to State. If you make it to the Semifinals, the good news is that you will be going to the State Tournament. The bad news is that how you perform in the next two rounds decide your seeding for the State Tournament. Win it all and you are the #1 seed from our region. Make it to the finals and lose, you’re the #2 seed. Winning the playoff between the two Semifinal losers makes you the #3 seed. Lose the playoff and you are the #4 seed.
The State Tournament decides who is the best team in the state. Regions 1-4 are in the top half of the draw. Regions 5-8 are in the bottom half of the draw. Your seeding from the Region Tournament determines which side of the draw you are on. If you want to take a look at the draw, you may find it here: http://ga.prepcountry.com/?m=33717&w=1&s=37&class=5
What is interesting about this system is that in the end, it all turns on your performance in the Region and State Tournaments. Case in point, in 2008, the #2 team in the state (Walton) didn't go to the State Tournament for the first time since the '80s. The Walton Boys were beaten at the Region Tournament by the #7 seed (a team not even on the state ranking radar). As a result, Walton wasn't at State. The flip side is that the Pope Boys, the #6 team in our Region did go to State. Go Pope!