About 4.0 Mens

I saw Andy Clarke’s blog online when I googled for “Englunds Main Line tennis classic.”  He has a nice blog about his first year playing 4.0 tennis in the same flight as us.  We all agreed as a team that we’d like a public place to post comments as we navigate through the season in our annual quest to make it to Nationals.  This is all of our team communications except confidential future lineups.

We have always had a weekly recap emailed to the team which is humorous and fun.  As the team captain I get hysterical replies that are not visible to all.  This is a great format to let everyone see what’s the latest news is.

A single clarification, our name is not nearly as scandalous as it may seem.  My name is Russell Chamberlin and Canh Ho is on the team and very instrumental to our success.  In searching for a new name, the city or location of our home courts seemed so boring.  Chambermaids was suggested but it didn’t move me.  When Canh and I started a new 4.5 team – the name then occurred to me and it was put to a vote with only one “nay” from the team – majority rules.

The history of this team is an impressive one.  It was started by the charismatic Pete Blok in 2002.  He was part of a larger 4.0 team and he with Matt DiAddezio as co-captain decided to form a new team called the Blokheads.  Success was instantaneous as the team advanced to Sectionals in their first season together.  Key contributors at singles were Jeff Tang (now a 5.0) and Seth Yoskowitz (now a 4.5) – by the way, there is no substitute for a 2-0 lead in every match with a best of five format.  At dubs, big contributors were Pete Blok (current 4.5), Matty D (current 4.5), Rick Schwartz, Tom Faith, Jim Aiken, Tom Loch, Larry Jamieson and Ed Watters.  Jim Colton got injured (broken collarbone) and Pete added 2 more people from a 3.5 team; Phil Cannavo and myself half way through the season.

The team has gone on to miss Districts only once since but we have yet to make it back to Sectionals.  We are 61-7 lifetime in the regular season after 7th seasons together.  In 2005, I became the captain because Pete & Matt got bumped to 4.5.  Eric Markowitz has been the co-captain for the last 4 years.

We have had a blast year after year with so many memorable moments including Todd Smith’s comment, “Hit the ball, Roger!” and the Tom Ramsay impersonation contest.  We’ve had great players come and go including Larry Knox, Sergei Kolpakov, Don Seavey, Todd Smith and Kenny Koay – all current 4.5 players.

Our current roster is: Ron Rubenstein, Tom Ramsay, Eric Markowitz, Tom Faith, Chris (Andre) Kyper, Jesse Brown, Canh Ho, Mitch Reading, Bob Cohen, Tom McAvoy, Joe Sassa (a.k.a. Joey Zaza), Bill Carpenter, Brandon Dinh, Chris Flouris, Tom Loch and Phil Cannavo.  As I write this I just realized only 4 “originals” remain from 2002 and only 2 from the very beginning (Tom Faith and Tom Loch).