What a great season it turned out to be. We had a record attendance, and pretty much stretched the season as long as we can in Minnesota. Players who participated in all 3 sessions, had a chance to play 21 matches. We went to Cannon Falls for two inter league matches and had couple of get togethers at the RAC. The league started in the first week of April and finished on October 2nd. Six months of outdoor tennis is pretty good for this part of the world. We welcomed a lot of new players this year. It's great to see the league expanding year after year. We came long way from the opening 2006 season which had only 8 players to start with in men's league. First session this year had 72 players. I thank you all for being part of it, and I hope to see you back next year. I am getting a lot of positive feedback, and I hope we can keep expanding and improving the league in coming years.
Session III summary
As you know, RAC hosted our end of the season event once again. We had a good turnout with 22 players. The event included championship match, doubles play, and trophy presentation to the women's league champion, co-ed league runner up and champion. It was a nice opportunity for us to get together as a group , and play some tennis. In the final match, Tuan Troung defeated Brian Lahr 6-2,7-6. It was a great clash of our top 2 players . Hopefully we will see these guys playing each other many times in the future. Congratulations to the champions Tuan Troung, and Cherisse Kellen who ended up winning the women's division.
You can view final session III standings on our web sites
Scores and standings from the previous 6 years are archived under the history tab on our web site.
Brian Lahr, Cherisse Kellen, Tuan Troung
This year we didn't change much as far as the rules and format go. The main change was adding consolation rounds for session III, so players don't get eliminated after losing a match. It seems like this change was welcomed by many of you who liked playing more matches in September . On the other hand a lot of matches were not completed. We had some injuries that contributed to that, but also little less enthusiasm for setting up matches towards the end of the season than during the previous 2 sessions. Only 64% of matches were completed in session 3, as opposed to 80% in session 1 and 82% in session II. So first couple of sessions were in line with previous years, but the third one was a let down.
We had total of 471 matches scheduled this year, and we managed to complete 357 which puts us at 76% completion rate for the season. It's unavoidable to have some matches missed , but having too many can disrupt integrity of the league. People get frustrated when they sign up for the league to play every week, but then their opponents forfeit, or they are not available enough. I think we have a pretty flexible scheduling system. The league is designed for people interested in playing regularly once a week, so my goal has been to have around 80-85% of matches played. For the most of this season we were above 80% so aside from the last session drop , I think we did a pretty good job keeping up with the schedule. It requires a lot of effort to keep arranging matches week after week. Thanks again for your efforts and flexibility to get matches done on time.
Format change for 2012
Another big change might be coming next year. We might change session I so it looks like session II. Players would be divided in levels/divisions, and format would be round robin. So you would get to play everyone in your division once. I would use past results to set up divisions from the start next year. Top two players from each division would move up a level in between sessions, and bottom 2 drop a level down. Session III would stay the same as this year. This change would bring up a lot more competitive tennis, matches would get closer and people would enjoy playing close to their level each week. It won't be easy to place everyone coming back and also new people, but we will need to start somewhere.
I am not sure if majority would be in favor of this change or not so please submit your vote on the poll that is placed on the right side of this page. You can pick, Yes I would like new format better, or NO current format is better. The current format let's us all earn our session II placement through playing against people of various levels through session I. It gives everyone a fresh start each year, but it also brings a lot of lopsided matches because people of all levels are mixed together.
Join the Journey Tennis Night
RAC will host a breast cancer fundraiser on Saturday October 15th from 5-7pm. If you are interested to play tennis, socialize, and donate for a good cause you can sign up at the activity desk 507-287-9300. Cost is $25 They will have prizes , food, raffle, gifts etc.
Indoor tennis
Dave Hodge will run Sunday mornings tennis again at the RTC indoors site. If interested you can drop him an email for more info or to get on his list hodge@mayo.edu
So long for now. Thank you all for playing in the league and spreading the word about it. Thanks to Dave Pewowaruk and Ashley Bryant for helping me update the scores , Keegan Hakala for organizing our inter league team, Bob Hubert for referring so many new players to the league every year, Christopher Jones for playing new guys to help me determine their level, and all of you who support the league , send feedback, suggestions and encouragement.
Take care and see you next year.
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