Rapacious: adjective rapacious landlords. grasping, greedy, avaricious, acquisitive, covetous, mercenary, materialistic, insatiable, predatory, voracious, usurious, extortionate; informal money-grubbing; North American English informal grabby. ANTONYMS generous.
Author: ethomasparham
YOU TELL ME
Heartland == BOB AND WILLIE
There’s a big achin’ hole in my chest now where my heart was
And a hole in the sky where God used to be.
My American dream
Fell apart at the seams.
You tell me what it means,
You tell me what it means.
THE REST OF THE STORY 2
College tennis faces an uphill battle
Like most Olympic sports in the post-House world, tennis has a murky future
Pete Janny
July 21, 2025
Kent also cited the foreign influence on college tennis, and he believes the financial stressors in 2025, like revenue sharing, may lead to an even larger proportion of international players on rosters. According to an NCAA report released in 2022, 61 percent of men’s tennis players and 66 percent of the women are from outside the United States, marking a large increase from the 38 percent and 50 percent, respectively, reported in 2006-07. The 2025 national championship-winning Wake Forest men and Georgia women both follow this trend; 63 percent of the Wake Forest men are internationals, along with 58 percent of the Georgia women.
August 5th, 1999 From TENNIS WORLD by Beth German:
“The NCAA is also to be blamed for not keeping tennis specific numbers. It is impossible to find out how many international players take roster spots, scholarships or Graduate from college.”
*****( COMMENT ON THESE “EXCERPTS”)
I support the Pete Janny article, adding this: He, as others in the past ( the USTA, ITA , etc), have cited the % of internationals on American college tennis rosters including all members of all rosters. Above it is 61% for men, 66% for women.
While acknowledging a significant increase, it doesn’t give a complete picture of the real situation.
Technology makes research easier. Embedded below is a “jackleg “ effort I made —studying the top college teams in 2025. Bottom line: All divisions (NCAA 1, 11, NAIA, JUCOS, men and women averaged about 90% of starters. And most probably “scholarshipped “ players. Only NCAA 111 (non- scholarship ) and NCAA 1 women were less than 90%.
Wake Forest featured 11 of 12 international singles and doubles participants . Georgia’s Women 10 of 12.
Admitting readily my amateur study is questionable, most of my coaching “veterans” concluded, “…that’s about right. “
For 50 plus years any allotment or quota that saved scholarships was dismissed by a lawsuit feared; a threat based on “ discrimination based on national origin. “ Ironically the current administration is taking a strikingly similar position on EDUCATION. Is higher education awarding too many of the best slots to brighter international students ?
How would the current judiciary rule on that? Just saying!
For the MISSING CHART click on the link below or MILESTONES https://littlegreenbookoftennis.com/2025/02/25/milestones/
Scroll to THE REST OF THE STORY, then on down to THE MISSING CHART.
POWERED BY DELUSION
It’s a system built on dreams, but powered by delusion.
(Copied from NATIONAL MEN’S TENNIS ASSOCIATION ( President’s letter, July 2025)
A follow-up idea stemming from yesterday’s post about the economic inequities between junior and senior tennis is a related micro-topic. It centers around the illusion of return on investment. The junior tennis ecosystem is largely fueled by a powerful fantasy. Parents (and sometimes even the players themselves) believe that with enough money, sacrifice, and hard work, tennis greatness and a lucrative professional career are within reach. Failing that, at least there is the potential of a college scholarship.
Junior tournaments are populated by families burning vacation days to stand on blistering hot sidelines, pouring resources into private lessons, national travel, custom stringing, fitness trainers, and sometimes even homeschool tutors. It adds up—quickly. And while few say it out loud, the intentions are clear. The hope of a future payoff. Framed that way, junior tennis isn’t an indulgence, but rather an investment.
The emergence of NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) deals has clouded the dynamic for college tennis. In marquee sports like football and basketball, NIL opportunities have turned collegiate athletics into quasi-professional ventures. However, for “minor” sports like tennis, it is starting to show the opposite effect. Athletic departments and third parties are directing resources toward programs that generate visibility and revenue. Meanwhile, tennis slips further into the background. The money is flowing, just not toward tennis. All that to say, players who earn college scholarships for tennis receive far less in financial remuneration than what was poured into their junior development.
If you watch “King Richard” or read Ben Rothenberg’s “Naomi Osaka: Her Journey to Finding Her Power and Her Voice,” you can see the same haunting story of staggering costs and financial strain that comes with chasing tennis greatness. In both stories, the results are extraordinary. However, the outcomes were more likely to be ruinous for all but the most statistically improbable outliers. For every Serena or Naomi, there are thousands of families who went all in, only to come up empty-handed. It’s a system built on dreams, but powered by delusion.
And yet… that delusion is part of what keeps the junior tennis engine running.
OLD FARTS GAME PLAN
OLD FARTS GAME PLAN ( from KERRY BURNIGHT )
Inbox
Tom Parham <ethomasparham@gmail.com> | 10:40 AM (6 minutes ago) | ||
to me | |||
I scoured the findings of 35 years of empirical testing on psychological wellbeing in longevity. The deeper I dug into the findings, the more I recognized a profound underlying pattern. The hundreds of predictors found in thousands of studies on what is necessary to thrive in longevity consistently group into four essential elements.
Grow: They continue to expand and explore.
Connect: They put time into new and existing relationships.
Adapt: They adjust to changing and challenging situations.
Give: They share themselves.
PRO’s and CON’s
The first link is hot off the press from NIL /WIRE.
WHOA NELLY is a blog I wrote in October.
AI AND I
I asked ChatGPT to ” analyze, critique, summarize my total blog (www.tomparham.wordpress.com).” In less than a minute the link below popped up, followed quickly by several add-ons offered. Several personal reactions include:
- The book, THE LITTLE GREEN BOOK OF TENNIS, is the book only. The blog by the same same title icludes all seven books and 500 plus blog articles.
- The cover of Harvey Penick’s RED BOOK OF GOLF is a mistake although as an admirer, I used his “golf method” for my tennis book.
3. In earlier writings I used the word POINT to describe the hit moment. Coach Jim Leighton advised that a pupil might misunderstand this terminology. Several of these references slipped by intended editing.
https://chatgpt.com/c/687a677d-cc00-800e-ad0b-b91574b6925f
“People get ready, there is a change coming. “
THE GAME WARDEN
OFF COURSE
I could pee off the deck , of course.
If I had the stream of a horse.
But my pump has grown dim
and if I hit the deck’s rim,
She will know, for sure, of course.
THE FAMILY THAT GAMBLES TOGETHER
—-RAMBLES TOGETHER.
We drew for draft picks, 6 players per team. For each win your six wins you get one point. Like the NAIA tennis championships
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1f5-a4WRfggvaNXCvbeXKgwZQiVUmwuUXAQnP1DYw2tI/edit?tab=t.0
Son Tee designed and manages this. The “draft” was fun. POP
The Little Green Book of Tennis 