Reluctant San Clemente Reaps Biggest Reward From System

Bob Gustafson is almost embarrassed to admit it now, but he actually voted against the Southern Section’s new scoring system for boys’ tennis.

Gustafson’s San Clemente team has made the county’s biggest turnaround, rebounding from a 1-17 record last season to open 8-1 this year. The reason for the turnaround?

Of course, the new scoring system.

Gustafson’s well-balanced but not star-studded team probably has benefited from the sudden emphasis on doubles more than any other in the county. San Clemente is not blessed with a highly ranked singles player, but it does have some fairly decent doubles players.

So when Gustafson heard that doubles sets would given one-third of a point more weight per set than singles, he knew there was nothing left to do.

“I told my kids, ‘We’re going to stack the doubles,’ ” Gustafson said. “It takes a player who understands the team concept to do something like this.”

Some players weren’t too happy about the doubles shift; four lettermen quit the team before the season. But those who stayed have bought into the team concept.

“It’s been great to see the kids leave the egos at home,” Gustafson said. “Once we won our first two matches, it wasn’t hard to convince them. It was right before their eyes.”

Gustafson said it didn’t take long for Trabuco Hills Coach Craig Orr to become convinced that doubles was the way to go. San Clemente defeated the Mustangs, 11 2/3-9 1/3; the result under the old system would have been a loss in the tie-breaking games scored.

“(Orr) said, ‘Thanks for illustrating to my players how to use this system,’ ” Gustafson said.

The Tritons have lost only to La Jolla, San Diego County’s top-ranked team, and breezed through most of their other matches.

The No. 1 doubles team of Daniel Roditi and Eli Engle is 15-0. The No. 2 team of Jeff Shoemaker and Jason Gavilan is 10-2, and the No. 3 team of John Aslanian and John Murphy is 10-5. Therefore, the doubles teams are often providing 10 to 12 points a match. Only 10 2/3 points are needed to win.

Singles aren’t providing much, but Gustafson said their points are necessary.

“Most of our singles wins have been gratuitous, icing on the cake,” he said.

Gustafson said the real secret to his team’s success has been the chemistry between his doubles teams.

“I put Daniel Roditi with a guy right in the middle of the road in terms of talent, and playing with Dan seems to bring out some of Engle’s best skills,” he said.

Gustafson said the natural inclination would have been to mix and match his three most talented players with his three least talented, but he said that didn’t work.

“That kind of backfired, so I decided to match styles,” he said. “That seemed to give us the best chemistry.”

Had the new system not come into play this season, Gustafson said Engle, Shoemaker and Aslanian probably would have played singles. And Roditi, the Southern Section individual doubles champion two years ago?

He would have probably been just another good doubles player on a team going nowhere.