The primary take-away from the planning conference is that play in the 2017 18 & Over Adult Leagues will begin THE WEEKEND OF JANUARY 14, 2017.
BY DECEMBER 30, 2016, Dana Eddy needs the teams that will be playing from each facility, the captains for the teams, and the email addresses for each captain. He is also to hae all the facility conflictsand court times by this date. He can be emailed at dfeddy@suddenlink.net.
The mandatory meeting for the captans for 2017 will be JANUARY 9, 2017, at the Charleston Tennis Club (CTC) clubhouse. Refreshments will be provided. The meeting will probably start at 6:00 p.m. More details will be provided later.
The planning conference was atteneded by Kerry Vigilanco (YMCA), Amanda Ream (TIC), Amanda Morris (TVTC), Neil Rajapakse (TIC), Lonnie Simmons (YMCA), Marcie Campbell (YMCA), Marey Casey (League Coordinator Emeritus), Rebekah Hoh (TIC), Rosalia Pacifico (TVTC), and Jay Lukens (TVTC).
Other decisionsat the planning conference include:
- The modified two seasons will be used again this year. If a division has five or more teams, then a singe round robin will be played and a winner determind. A second season will be played with another round robin among the same or more teams. Home and away will be reversed in the two seasons. As a reminder, if your team wins the first season, you have to go from that season even if you also win the second season. You are also reminded that if five teams is the number of teams in the division, you will only have four matches to qualify everyone. You should plan accordingly when the number of teams becomes known.
- The tiebreakers will remain as they have been - number of courts won, head to head, sets lost, games lost, and then a coin toss. Discussion was had about using the 21 point sytem as the primary tiebreaker in which the first courts get 5 points each, second courts get 4 points each, and the third doubles court gets 3 points. The rationale is that it would encourage order of strength in lineups. The discussion was lengthy and somewhat animated. In a close vote, the decision was not to implement the 21 point system at this time. However, the season will be monitored closely to see if stacking lineups is an obvious issue and the issue will be revisited.
- Subjects for the Captains' meetings were discussed including: (i) No coaching from spectators; (ii) Rescheduling of Matches or Courts for reasons other than the best players are not available (iii) Exchanging written lineups by the captains, not the professionals and (iv) Rule for attendance at clubs with less than five courts.
- The possiblity of other areas playing in the league including Beckley and Ashland, were discussed, but no concrete requests had been made. However, it is likely that Greenmont will not have a 3.5 Men's team, but Beckley, by Sam White, may.
- A proposal by a player that fees for courts be split among both the home and away team was discussed. In the end, the proposal was not supported because catains do not want to be saddled with getting money from 16 people and some clubs bill members rather than accept cash and make change. The suggestion was made that, if the issue is teammates not playing in home matches in order to avoid fees, some teams calcuate the charges for the season before matches begin and spilt it among all the teammates at the beginnging.
- Combos in the fall was discussed due to rampant rescheduling that occurred due to players also playing in the Early Start League at several levels. However, this is the only event available to players under 40 years of age. Accordingly, the combos will still be offered, but it will be evaluated closely.
These were the highlights. But, again, take note of the deadlines.
