Midwood HS (1940), Brooklyn, NY

[Steve R.]

50 minutes ago, DaveO said:

Opinions are great.  They merit respect.  An opinion backed up by substance of one sort or another merits more respect (or is subject to debate with with different substance)

One thing bothered the bejeebies out of me.  I'm your contemporary and I played high school tennis. (I was lousy-though I played doubles competition as a soph--no big deal)  My high school never got nuttin'.  No front row seats anywhere.  Not in tennis, baseball, football, etc etc etc.  Nuttin'.

I guess that is the difference between New York City and Jersey!!!!  As a junior and already established as high school newspaper sports editor (in the final month of that year) I got to interview Willis Reed who spoke at our school sports awards ceremony.  I heard we had to pay him to get out there. (Regardless a great thrill) Another example of NYC vs Northern NJ   

Hey, don't knock H.S. doubles.  Although I played singles in my senior year, I wasn't #1 singles since our coach had recruited a sophomore who could kick my ass (still can, since he's still a teaching pro) & I knew I wasn't even top 10 in NYC singles.  I had played doubles previously and had (in my Junior year) come in 2nd in the NYC "Mayor's Cup" H.S. Doubles Tournament (with my partner of course).  At any rate, feeling the need for revenge, we teamed up again in my senior year and won the tournament.  So, 47 years later I still have bragging rights to having once been the best H.S. doubles player (forget my partner, he was just window dressing) in NYC.

Our coach was a tennis fanatic who was the only sports coach not a gym teacher (he taught Social Studies) at the school.  He recruited off the basketball courts (where I was out-heighted and out-classed by too many others to get off the bench), he recruited from junior programs, he recruited from asking teaching pros who their promising lesson takers were.  At a time when you were supposed to go to the H.S. in your geographic neighborhood, we sure had some "adjacent neighborhood" guys around.  Needless to say, he was plugged in to indoor winter training courts (almost no other H.S. had this) & high level tennis promoters.  Hence the tickets.  And some racquets.  And balls.  Basically, the HS said "I see nothing, I hear nothing, I know nothing" and had nothing to do with any of it (except accepting the City Championship accolades each year). 

As for your claim that the tickets were "the" difference between NJ and NYC -- well, there's another opinion that I can state without needing to back it up with "substance" & you may not like that one either.