INTERVIEW WITH A BLOG CHAMPION!
As is our custom, when somebody wins one of The Blog’s contests, he or she wins an interview with little old me. Today, we finally have a she! Eileen Hillis was one of the final entries into our DraftKings style tournament last weekend. She was one of the very few entrants who I had never heard of, which makes her win all the more impressive. Her team was one of only two to roster the best overall deal of the tournament, Chaz Downing for $750, but she also picked two of the tournaments overall top performers in David Liu and Jonathan Jemison. Downing proved to be invaluable as his final three points were the last of the entire tournament and vaulted her ahead of three others an into sole possession of 1st place. Quick shoutout to #HeinrichManeuver and #OldManWootton for finishing in a tie WITH ME for 2nd place. I’ll let readers find out more about Eileen from the interview, but let’s just say I wish that my mom was the only person that beat me in a DIII tennis DraftKings style tournament that was organized by a team of anonymous bloggers.
D3NE: What is your background and connection to DIII tennis?
Eileen Hillis: I have a son, Ethan Hillis, who will graduate high school in 2017 and hopefully go on to play DIII tennis. As for me, I am a former D1 player who now only plays when Ethan can’t find anyone else to warm him up before a match.
D3NE: So your connection to DIII tennis is that you might be a DIII mom in the future?! How knowledgeable were you about DIII tennis going into the draft?
EH: Not very. Although that ended up being an advantage. I started casually following DIII tennis when Ethan was a sophomore in high school. I paid attention to the college commitment announcements on tennisrecruiting.net, noting a player’s rating and school of choice. I did this to understand the caliber of the players entering DIII and where Ethan would fit in. For some of the top ranked commits, I tried to follow some of their college results – curious to see where they ended up in the lineup and how they fared against more experienced players. Last spring, I started reading the Blog to keeps tabs on how certain schools were faring.
D3NE: Thanks for reading! How did you decide your players and put together your winning lineup?
EH: Well…I decided to take full advantage of my limited knowledge and go with some of the recruits that I learned about on tennisrecruiting.net for 5 of my 6 players. That meant choosing among various freshmen and sophomores. I winnowed down that already short list by mostly choosing players on the two teams that I expected to get to the finals – Chicago and Emory. For my first two picks, I went straight for the bottom of Chicago’s lineup – David Liu and Max Liu. My third and fourth picks were from Emory – Jonathan Jemison and Andrew Harrington. All were chosen for their potential to win singles matches. Then I held my breath and checked to see if any of them played doubles. All but Max did. My 5th pick was an exception to my selection process. I went with Kalyan Chadalavada , a sophomore from Pomona who was an All American in doubles his freshman year. Ethan had met him 3 days earlier on an unofficial visit. With $750 and one pick left, I returned to tennisrecruiting.net. That led me to Chaz Downing, a former 5 star recruit and Carnegie Mellon freshman.
D3NE: Downing was the best value of the tournament! You came out of nowhere to sneak by a lot of people at the very end of the tournament. Were you surprised that you won?
EH: Completely shocked. I figured that I would do well after the Friday morning matches since both Chicago and Emory were scheduled to play at 9 am. Then I expected things to go downhill quickly, which they did. On Saturday, I avoided checking the draft standings until late in the evening. I was tied for 7th and I gave up all hope. On Sunday, I watched the live stream until Emory and Case were just short of clinching. I stepped away for a while and later checked the live scores to see who won the Mosetick-Chua match, among others. I happened to note that Chaz Downing was leading by a set and 4-1 when the live scoring stopped updating. With zero expectations, I checked the draft standings, curious to see who won. Much to my disbelief, I was tied for 2nd, only one point out of the lead. With Downing’s result still not in and no one else having him in their lineup, I sensed victory…
D3NE: And how does Ethan feel about his mom claiming a piece of DIII Tennis history?
EH: While he didn’t come out and explicitly say it, I think he is quite proud of me. He just smiled and shook his head in amazement and then agreed to let me reveal both of our identities. I’m hoping that after this victory, Ethan will have a little more respect for my tennis knowledge and finally start listening to my advice.
D3NE: He absolutely should! Should we have another tournament? If so, will you defend your title?
EH: I definitely think you should have another tournament. It is a great way to expose participants to players and teams they wouldn’t ordinarily follow. I learned a lot. Having said that, I am one and done. Going to rest on my laurels. On the other hand, Ethan would like you to have a tournament for the Stag-Hen so that he can submit a team and test his luck. Oops, I meant skill.
D3NE: Perfect. Any suggestions or comments about The Blog itself?
EH: The Blog is great. I really like your humor. Just curious – what kind of paying jobs do you guys (I’m assuming you are all guys) have that you have this much time on your hands?!?! One suggestion: maintain a list of the DIII commits to the top 40 teams so that readers don’t need to go to another site to find out this info.
Congrats to Eileen, and to you for a great article! I love her suggestion about maintaining a list of DIII commits 40 teams. Also nice would be some sort of annual “redraft” article when they’re juniors or seniors, showing who outperformed and who underperformed expectations at the time they committed.