Team history Houston Wranglers

1 team history

1.1 inaugural season
1.2 remade roster, same results
1.3 final season

team history
inaugural season

after many years of supporting , sponsoring local sports teams , events in houston, jim , linda mcingvale, owners of gallery furniture , westside tennis club, founded new franchise bring professional team tennis houston first time since houston astro-knots folded following 1983 season. team play home matches @ westside tennis club, home @ time u.s. men s clay court championships. initially, team identified houston. name wranglers announced few weeks later.

at 2005 wtt draft, wranglers selected former world number 1 female player steffi graf marquee player , mardy fish, member of 2004 united states davis cup team, roster-exempt player. ashley fisher, edina gallovits, ansley cargill , ryan newport drafted roster players. following draft, wranglers acquired tommy haas in trade st. louis aces in exchange undisclosed consideration. after being selected wranglers in draft, graf said, playing houston , owners jim , linda mcingvale special. have wonderful memories of winning title in houston on last visit there, looking forward playing in front of fans again. graf, had not played competitive tennis since 1999, agreed play wranglers out of gratitude support mcingvales had given agassi foundation, charity run , hsband, andre agassi.

the wranglers signed former houston rockets basketball star john lucas, had experience wtt player, head coach. wranglers signed broadcasting deal knws-tv channel 51 have home matches televised locally.

as customary in wtt, wranglers encouraged fans enjoy brand of tennis making noise , cheering on team. wranglers team in league cheerleaders. wranglers debut home loss aces on july 6, 2005, in front of enthusiastic crowd of 3,628 fans. haas had been scheduled play in wranglers opener. however, suffered injury @ wimbledon forced him retire during first-round match against janko tipsarević. haas never appeared in match wranglers.

graf made appearance of season in home match against sacramento capitals on july 12, 2005. star power along anna kournikova , elena likhovtseva, ranked number 16 in world, playing capitals drew paid crowd of 4,862. graf lost women s singles set likhovtseva in tiebreaker, , capitals handed wranglers sixth straight loss start season, 20–18, in overtime. wranglers first ever victory came following evening, @ home against boston lobsters, 23–22, in super tiebreaker. wranglers finished 2005 season 3 wins , 11 losses, wtt s worst record.

a remade roster, same results

since wranglers had wtt s worst record in 2005, selected first in each round of 2006 draft. wranglers traded first overall pick in draft newport beach breakers in exchange 11th pick in first round of marquee player draft plus financial consideration. breakers used top pick select pete sampras, scheduled play road match in houston. wranglers passed on making selection 11th pick, leaving steffi graf unprotected, , did not select marquee player in second round. venus williams, had been acquired philadelphia freedoms in trade, scheduled play in houston. in roster-exempt player draft, wranglers protected mardy fish in first round , selected anna-lena grönefeld in second round. in first round of roster player draft, wranglers selected jan-michael gambill , left ashley fisher unprotected. in second round, chose ahsha rolle , left edina gallovits unprotected. in third round, wranglers selected bryanne stewart , left ansley cargill unprotected. wranglers used final pick on johan landsberg , left ryan newport unprotected. end of draft, fish returning player previous year s squad. none of players left unprotected wranglers chosen other teams.

on may 22, 2006, wranglers announced had hired jim mavity coach team. mavity tennis coach @ james e. taylor high school in katy, texas. mavity, 67 years old @ time, held state record guiding team texas final 4 11 times. had won multiple coach of year honors including 2003 award presented national federation of state high school associations. since wtt season took place during summer break, mavity did not leave high school coaching job.

landsberg experienced problems visa , unable play wranglers. team signed doubles specialist graydon oliver replace him before start of season. jan-michael gambill s younger brother, torrey, appeared in matches wranglers substitute player. new coach , remade roster did not change results. wranglers repeated 3 win , 11 loss performance , again finished wtt s worst record. 2 of wranglers 3 victories came against 2006 wtt champion freedoms.

final season

the wranglers again passed on making selections @ 2007 wtt marquee player draft on february 7, 2007. however, visit houston anna kournikova scheduled. @ wtt roster draft on march 27, 2007, wranglers did not protect roster-exempt players mardy fish , anna-lena grönefeld. did protect jan-michael gambill , bryanne stewart in first , third rounds, respectively. in second round, wranglers selected mashona washington , left ahsha rolle unprotected. final pick, wranglers chose goran dragicevic , left graydon oliver , torrey gambill unprotected. thomas blake named new head coach of wranglers. bronwyn greer replaced michael kopp team s general manager.

the wranglers struggled more in 2007, had in first 2 seasons. victory came @ home on st. louis aces, 23–19, in overtime. jan-michael gambill clinched match in overtime after losing final set of men s singles. following 1 win , 13 loss season, wranglers announced team folding. owner linda mcingvale said, not right type of community wranglers. re big of city many options. there s jillion other things in summertime in houston. team sold fewer half of 4,500 tickets made available match featured kournikova playing visitors. late in 2007 season, attendance @ wranglers home matches typically less 1,000.