I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER

2018 Summer Leagues Breakdown

I hope you get one good last, long look of the sun. Because before you know it, it will migrate itself south for the winter to torment the lower hemisphere leaving us with only dissolving memories of what it was like. Detroit winters aren’t exactly renowned for its glorious unclouded days so justifiably a good percentage of squash players take advantage of the warmer months and get their fill of fresh air.

This summer on our courts was a mixed bag of results in regards to usage. Overall this year, it’s no secret that we haven’t been able to keep up the trend of the past 13 years, the unfortunate leaving of our assistant pro has had the expected consequence in that category. However, the summer leagues were - comparatively speaking - well attended and as I always say, for the players that kept up their squash over this time period, they have a reasonably large head-start on their counterparts for the start of the 2018-2019 season.

The Doubles League was an 11 week season (or a 10 week season for the Monday group because of the Memorial Day holiday). We one-upped ourselves from the last 2 summers on registrations this time with 48, spread over 4 categories. Like every summer, the allure of good weather, BBQ’s, playing golf, sailing, talking about golf, porch sitting, daydreaming about golf, pool floating, watching golf, and couch vegetating can take over and on occasion it was difficult to find 4 players to even turn up. Keeping that in mind, at times it was frustrating, but overall it was acceptable: 

• 64 total matches (across all levels) were arranged. 6 of them were not played due to not being able to find enough subs. The good news is that we did not have any no-call-no-shows.
• For the Monday A league, subs were only required 25% of the time – actually a decent stat! 1 match wasn’t played. 8 matches did not require any subs at all – also an excellent number! Only 2 subs were required in the final 3 weeks.
• Tuesday B were not as dedicated. Only 1 match wasn’t played, but we needed to find subs 37% of the time. Every single match – except 1 – needed at least 1 sub. Matches were somewhat competitive as only 7 of the 21 matches ended up 3-0. Bruce Shaw ended up with the most points in this group, but since he played 13 matches, it would have been difficult not to!
• The Wednesday Open group struggled a little. For some reason, the hardest level to manage is this one, the top players seem to want to enjoy their summer more than the rest of us. 3 of 11 matches did not get played, subs were needed 38% of the time, and every single match required at least one sub. In fact 8 of the 11 matches needed at least 2. Can’t argue with the competitiveness though – none of the matches that were played were 3-0.
• The easiest group to supervise were the Wednesday C league. 1 match wasn’t played, and only 6 subs were needed for the whole season (13%)! Six of the matches didn’t need any sub at all, and just 3 results ended up as 3-0.

The singles league stretched out all the way through to Labor Day. Since all matches are self-schedule and everybody can play as much as they please, whenever they please, why not keep the thing running all summer long? Reward the dedicated I say! I really like this format and it encouraged many groups of members to consistently arrange matches on a weekly basis. Hence, we blew last year’s match record out of the water: 

• 99 players were registered this year. I was a little disappointed with that as I was hoping to get at least 100 if not 110. Still, 9 teams of 10 and 1 team of 9 is pretty darn good for the summer.
• We had an amazing 636 total matches completed. That’s up from last year’s 502 matches – or a 26% increase. We averaged just under 40 matches a week.
• Team 8 played 224 matches, or, 35% or the overall total. Team 8 also played the most last year.
• Team 8 broke all kinds of records. Amongst them, they are the first team ever in the summer league to complete a full round (45 matches) and receive the 10 point bonus. They completed 35 matches in round 2.
• Paul Gormley and Matt Turnbull (Team 8) played each other 26 times. Matt is a glutton for punishment on this one – he only won 4 of those matches. 
• Paul Gormley scored 322 individual points overall. He played 79 matches. Next best was Matt Turnbull with 235 and Jon Diewald right on his tale with 231.
• 8 players on Team 8 scored over 100 points.
• Team 3 only played 6 matches. Ugh.
• 16 players did not play any matches. Also a big “Ugh…!” This one hurts the most.

Half of Team 8! Jon Diewald, Alex Nitsche, Paul Gormley, Sam Fogleman, Matt Turnbull

Congratulations to all the winners – and a big special mention (again) to Team 8 for their incredible performance. The results will be posted outside court 8 for a couple of weeks, so be sure to check out the numbers.