Chattanooga team tries for two titles

Double success has created a dilemma for a Chattanooga team in the USTA Combos State Championships tournament.

Gary Shields' 6.5 adult men and Tony Bartley's 6.5 senior men both have chances to win district (state) titles and advance to the Southern Sectionals in March in Mobile, Ala., but they are the same collection of players and each is scheduled to field three doubles teams at 9:30 this morning at the Champions Club.

With 10-man rosters -- nine actually for the team listing Shields as captain, since Bartley also is on a 7.5 senior team in the tournament and the limit is two for any player -- and a couple of injuries, each team will try to get by with a forfeit in one pairing this morning.

Both are in first place and the adult team is facing fourth-place Nashville. In the senior division (ages 50 and over) the morning opponent is second-place Memphis but Chattanooga holds a solid tiebreaker advantage even if it loses, provided it wins its final match this afternoon at relatively full strength.

Shields wrecked his knee while playing Friday, and Del Ottinger pulled a groin Saturday but plans to play this morning. The team's other members are John Blake, Don Rutledge, Thomas Denison Carter, Steve Sherbak, Ed Coffey, John Alan Walker and Terry Bartley's, Tony's twin who lives in Memphis.

"We're going to try to win them both," Shields said. "We still feel we've got two pretty good teams."

Said Bartley, whose 7.5 seniors team directed by area combos coordinator David Snyder finished second in a tiebreaker against a Knoxville group -- they split two meetings in the tournament -- said, "I just wanted to play. This is too much thinking."

He admitted to "pestering" tournament director Chris Bodry "all day" about adjusting this morning's schedule.

"He was real nice about it, but he said he just couldn't do it," Bartley said. "This is a good position to be in, having a chance to win two."

Snyder, who lives in Ringgold, has an 8.5 senior team in good shape with a 4-0 record with two matches to play, and his 7.5 group that finished second has another shot at the Southerns with the Georgia championships three weekends from now.

The first women's championships decided Saturday spanned the range of the tournament, with Carol Maples' Knoxville team winning the 5.0 adult title and Vickie Freas' Nashville team winning the 9.5 adult division. Another early champion was Samuel Doak's Knoxville team in 5.5 adult men.