Pro League This Week Ep. 12: Stop 4 Pick'em, Stephen Preissler Goes All In, and Pandemonium Coming to Jacksonville
Game week is finally here. After the longest break of the All Florida Pro League season, Stop 4 lands at The Hub in Jacksonville this Saturday, and on Episode 12 of Pro League This Week, Hugh Green and David Tabb are calling their shot: absolute pandemonium. The Ballers are home, fans are pouring in from Jacksonville, St. Pete and Orlando, and minor league registration is exploding, with one division already capped at 16 teams. Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/so6NUQ9DwRo
The Pool of Death Comes to Jacksonville
The morning pool is stacked: the top-two Jacksonville Ballers and St. Pete Iceburgs alongside the O-Town Bangers and Miami Blaze. Hugh went chalk with a Ballers 3-0 sweep at their home stop, backed by a simple case: two pool wins, a midseason title, the same four players all season, and now a home crowd behind them.
David went bolder. He likes the full-strength Bangers, with BK back in the lineup, to finally show what they can do, and he is calling an Iceburgs upset over the Ballers on championship court to close the morning. His reasoning: everybody is sick of the Ballers winning, everybody has watched the tape, and a long, intense day in front of your hometown takes a toll. Both hosts agree the Blaze face an uphill climb with Jake Bower missing a second straight stop.
The Afternoon Pool Is Anyone's Game
If the morning is the pool of death, the afternoon is the coin-flip pool. The Lakeland Palms, Sarasota Manatees, Punta Gorda Tide and GNV Chomp all arrive with retooled rosters and full squads, and the hosts expect a day of 3-2 matches and dream breakers.
Hugh likes the Palms, rejuvenated by Maddy Stone-Wheatley and their second waiver period moves, to edge the Manatees in the match of the day. David took Sarasota, pointing to hometown roots and the way they have been playing. Both agree on the stakes at the bottom: the Tide sit at just 3.5 standings points while the sixth-place Palms hold 12, and only the top six make the season finals. For Punta Gorda, Saturday is a must-win day, and blowout losses could all but end their playoff hopes.
David also dropped a hot take for the day: expect at least one marathon game past 30 points, maybe 32-30 or even 36-34, because these teams simply know each other too well now.
Stephen Preissler: From 0-7 in the Driveway to All In
This week's interview is St. Pete Iceburgs pro Stephen Preissler, and his story is one of the best in the league. Pickleball was his first paddle sport. His mom got him hitting wooden paddles over two-by-fours in the driveway, he went 0-7 in his first tournament and swore off the sport, then came all the way back: a European Championship with Team Austria in Rome, a finance degree from Stetson, a job at Fidelity Investments, and finally the December decision to leave the nine-to-five and go all in on pro pickleball.
Preissler opened up about the trade that sent Hanna Duncan to the Tide and brought Arielle Nealy to St. Pete, his partnerships with Kamden Bradstreet and Sofia Manzanares, and the execution lapses that have cost a team that once went 14-1 in pool play. His message heading into Saturday: the Iceburgs have the talent, the film study and the smarts. Now it comes down to execution, and getting over the hump against the Ballers.
Manatees Film Room
Before Saturday, the hosts hit the tape on the Sarasota Manatees' midseason tournament. The takeaways: Andi Godwin is getting more athletic every stop, Adalynn Lund remains the steady rock, and Christian Lund's relaxed look at the net is a weapon, hiding hand speed and a flick he can send down the line, through the middle or cross court. With the full roster back together in Jacksonville, the Manatees are a serious threat in that wide-open afternoon pool.
Looking Ahead
From here, the season becomes a sprint: Stop 4 on Saturday, the final stop in Lakeland a few weeks later, then the finals with the cash prize on the line. Every one of the five games in every match matters, and somebody's playoff hopes will not survive the weekend.
Catch every minute of Episode 12 on YouTube: https://youtu.be/so6NUQ9DwRo
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