Final rankings tabulated for 2023

Every single player in the Cedar Club’s Men’s League knows where they are ranked and, of course, where they are supposed to be ranked.  Alas, for far too many, those numbers do not coincide… but the S.H.I.T System does not lie.  A cold mistress who simply rates and ranks your play based on the results of your matches throughout the season (October 2022 thru April 2023). Almost everyone got in a dozen or more matches this year, and some, in excess of 30! 

In the end, Michael Johnson held off David Brock to stand atop the podium by just 125 points. That’s literally the average score of one winning match! Drew Lied claimed the bronze just 94 points back of Brock.

Former ATA Wunderkind Michael Johnson had this to say about winning the title for the second year in a row. “Brock’s going to claim that I didn’t play enough matches this year for the title… but, hey, I’m a big believer in the SHIT System — thanks, Brad, for all of your hard work.”

This year’s winner of the coveted MOST IMPROVED PLAYER (based on how many spots they improved from the start of the year) is split between Travis Murphy and Brad Seefeld.  Both jumped up 9 spots on the ladder!  While everyone else was belly-aching about how difficult it was to move up, these two kept their heads down and mowed right past the competition. Impressive work, boys.

“Aww, shucks,” commented Seefeld, “anyone want a donut?” 

“Maybe the rest of these guys will stop calling me Sugar Tits, now.” said Murphy. 

Don’t count on it, Travis.

Worth mentioning is Sean Cooley’s moving up 7 spots when he was already in the Top 20… moving from #17 down to #10.  That’s really tough to do… especially when you consider he only won 55% of his matches. Apparently Sean stayed in about the same spot and everyone else just fell in line behind him. 

Cooley expressed his gratitude, stating, “I’d like to thank Duke, Ben, Jason, Ted, John, Russ and Beany for their sacrifice. I like being in the Top 10.”

This year saw an unusually high influx of former tennis players who took up platform tennis for the first time… “tossed into the fire” with top 25 rankings to start won them no favors from mid-tier players who were moved back to positions they weren’t accustomed to. Meanwhile, many bottom of the ladder players found their summer league and open paddle training effective as they continued to move up throughout the year. That’s what makes this game so great… you’ll likely drop into a ranking where you will be challenged at precisely the level of your play.

Don’t like where you are?  Play Summer Paddle, Open Paddle, schedule your own paddle — and just start winning matches. 

What follows are the stats:
(ranking improvement, or lack thereof, is based against the 2022 Year-end rankings)

Top 5 Ranking
Rank/Points/Name
1. 25789 – Michael Johnson
2. 25664 – David Brock
3. 25570 – Drew Lied
4. 25321 – Eric Arvold
5. 25118 – Erik Zipp

Top 5 Winning Pct. (10 min)
Rank/Pct/W-L/Name
1. 80% – 8-2 – Feldbruegge
2. 76% – 15-5 – McPherson
3. 75% – 12-4 – Lied
4. 74% – 17-6 – Laughlin
5. 74% – 14-5 -Murphy

Most Improved
Rank/- Rank/Name
1. -9 – Travis Murphy
1. -9 – Brad Seefeld
3. -7 – Sean Cooley
4. -6 – Mitch Regenfuss
4. -6 – Tom Lehmann
4. -6 – Phil McPherson

Most Matches Played
Rank/Match/Name
1. 38 – Tom Lehmann
2. 33 – Mike Feiertag
3. 32 – Dan Einhorn
4. 31 – Steve Klafke
5. 28 – Andy Peterson
5. 28 – David Lucke

Most Wins
Rank/Wins/Name
1. 21 – Tom Lehmann
2. 18 – Mike Feiertag
3. 17 – Pat Laughlin
3. 17 – Brad Seefeld
5. 16 – Dan Einhorn
5. 16 – Phil McPherson
5. 16 – Andy Peterson
5. 16 – David Lucke

Most Losses
Rank/Losses/Name
1. 17 – Tom Lehmann
1. 17 – John-Michael Fleming
3. 16 – Dan Einhorn
3. 16 – Steve Klafke
5. 15 – Mike Feiertag

Worst Winning Pct. (10)
Rank/Record/Name
1. 0% – 0-13 – Gleb Skylr
2. 8% – 1-12 – Chris Hale
3. 17% 2-10 – John Massa
4. 22% 4-14 – Will Casey
5. 27% 4-11 – John Arcuri

Worst Ranking Drop
Rank/Losses/Name
1. +8 – Steve Mayer
1. +8 – Chris Hale
3. +7 – John Massa
3. +7 – Todd Bentley
3. +7 – Brad Schmieding
3. +7 – John Arcuri

Tightest 5 Grouping
Rank/Points/Name
55. 19325 – Troy Roberts
56. 19253 – Phil McPherson
57. 19243 – Will Mrotek
58. 19235 – Justin Olson
59. 19185 – Andy Peterson

5 guys who didn’t change their ranking at all, despite playing in over 72 matches combined over the course of the year: Michael Johnson. (#1), David Brock (#2), Kurt Doman (#43), T.J. Strachota (#52) and Chris Nolte (#80).