JEFFREY REINHART jreinhart@LNPnews.com
To: The powers that be in the Lancaster-Lebanon League front office.
Re: Tennis championships.
Hear me out here:
Must admit that I know absolutely nothing about your budget, but you just might want to invest in chair umpires for your L-L League tennis championship matches.
Just the title matches.
I know you have a roving official at the league tournament (and he’s a darn good one), but he can’t keep his eyes on every match, especially when he’s outside the fence.
Monday’s Triple-A final at hot and steamy Conestoga Valley between Hempfield’s Lauren Hankle and McCaskey’s Leah Rutt was wildly entertaining. They put on a great show on a brutally warm day (each player went through about five bottles of Gatorade, bless their hearts), exchanging powerful forehands and backhands and slugging it out, back and forth, for nearly two and a half hours. It was an instant classic.
But (ah, the rub), I have to tell you that a few times, both players questioned some calls aloud, and it was pretty ugly. I’ve been covering tennis around here for, oh, 16 years or so, and I must say that I’ve never seen two players question calls so outwardly like that. I know it was hot, and that probably led to them being a bit edgy.
But it was uncomfortable to watch.
There was one call that stood out in particular: Hankle called a ball wide. Rutt protested. Loudly. The roving umpire just happened to be standing outside the fence, and he ruled in favor of Rutt and made them replay the point.
Hankle protested. Loudly. Can’t blame the kid, really. She was mounting a comeback and wanted to defend her league championship (which she went on to do). She did make a few good points to the ump, but again, it was uncomfortable to watch.
The roving umpire gave Hankle a warning for verbally abusing an umpire.
Man, that doesn’t even sound good, does it?
Anyway … in an important match like that, I don’t see why the L-L can’t get a chair umpire for the entire match - not a guy roaming around trying to keep track of like eight courts at once.
Has to be some room in the budget for that, right?
I’m sure you can pluck a chair from Bent Creek or LCC for the day. They’d be glad to help. And I don’t think you’d be breaking the bank to pay someone to sit in said chair and referee the championship match from start to finish.
I shouldn’t (heck, nobody should) feel uncomfortable watching a girls’ tennis match. But that’s how I felt a couple of times on Monday. I tip my (sweaty) cap to Lauren and Leah for playing a fabulous match - but it was a match that needed a full-time umpire. And I think we’re in the day and age to make that happen.
The ball is in your court.
Ball. Court. Get it? I’m here all week. Tip your waitress.
