INSIDE THE EYE OF THE STORM – By A Guardian Of The Game

Written by: Staff on 30th October 2013

INSIDE THE EYE OF THE STORM - By A Guardian Of The Game |

The initial clouds enticed everyone to batten down their windows and doors and to set up supplies for the onslaught. Reports suggested the storm would change the nation’s topography, saturating the plains with a burgeoning prosperity. And then it struck.

In some areas, the storm raged, with headlines and floodwaters, sending progressive coaches onto their phone lines to purchase new nets, balls and rackets, in the hopes that the changing climate would allow their seedlings to grow more quickly. Inside the squall, a few found pockets of mist, and used a combination of red, orange, green and yellow balls in an attempt to quell the sky’s rage. The hurricane, however, which was supposed to cover the entire United States, has not proved as powerful as some imagined. There are virtually untouched regions, where traditional coaches have seen the impending clouds and joined in a mutual aggressive “huff,” blowing air from experienced lungs, and sending the clouds back to White Plains.

And then the front edge passed – the hard falling rain of administrative command, the tempestuous winds of innovation, the thunderous mandate – all quieting as the rim of the hurricane sped over America’s player development pathway.

Comfortable now inside the eye, the populous waits – some dreading, some hoping -while cumulonimbus clouds materialize on the horizon. Youngsters press themselves to greater heights, straining to break through the now-wet soil, seeking to extend themselves toward the unseen sun.

The eye will be here for several years, opening and closing at moments as coaches nurture their offspring, waiting to harvest the fruits of their labors when they reach maturity. At present, the USTA claims the US has the world’s best crop of twelve year olds, which is to say (in their opinion) that the storm clouds are nurturing the future. Then again, history shows the nation has always done well at tournaments like Les Petit As and Junior Davis Cup type competitions. Then too, private coaches see a disruption in the lower competitive divisions, as though the seedlings are skipping from bud to flower without the foundation of a fortified stem.

Questions remain about the storm’s power to influence the approaching harvest. If a champion rises from the fertile fields of American soil, which crop will have produced it? Will he/she be flowered in the multi-colored hues of the governing body, or dressed simply in the single shade of the private community.

On a grander scale, what happens next is a mystery. Will we ride out the storm to find rainbows and greener pastures on the other side, or will we find the landscape left devastated and desolate? A friend once described war as “hours of boredom with moments of terror.” This storm may hint of that. And so, we watch our planted plains…and wait….

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10sBalls_com says:

October 30, 2013 at 1:39 pm

INSIDE THE EYE OF THE STORM – By A Gaurdian Of The Game – http://t.co/9FRrfrwsAa #tennis @BleacherReport #sports @TMZ_Sports @usta
10sBalls_com says:

October 30, 2013 at 2:27 pm

INSIDE THE EYE OF THE STORM – By A Guardian Of The Game – http://t.co/9FRrfrwsAa #tennis @BleacherReport #sports @TMZ_Sports @usta