Newsletter #2 What a start

 I have to say that this was probably the most turbulent opening round we ever had. After that huge snow storm dumped more then a foot of snow on May 2nd,  it appeared that our entire season will have to be pushed back for the first time since the league started. Incredibly enough week #1 turned out to be one of the most successful starting weeks ever. We were able to complete 45 out of 50 matches scheduled , which puts us at 90% match completion rate. Only 5 matches ended up being recorded forfeits and no DNPs were recorded. Thank you all for doing an incredible  job setting up matches and working around the weather this past week. Some of you took advantage of nice weather before our official start date and played your matches ahead of time. Others were ready to set up matches on the short notices as soon as snow was gone.
Again thank you all for your dedication to the league ,  flexibility and commitment to  finish matches before the deadline.

Over the past 7 years the league expanded  every season.  This year is no exception,  we are breaking attendance records once again. The singles league has 94 players (64 in men's, 16 in women's, and 14 in two wild card divisions). We also have  42 players on 14 teams in our doubles league.
Our wild card groups are created from people that signed  up late. We have a couple of spots open in Wild card #2 so if you know someone who is interested send them my way.

Doubles league session II
RTL doubles branch was created last year and we ran one pilot session. This season we plan to keep going with doubles through the summer. Session II starts June 24, designated days will be Monday for division I and Wednesdays for division II. Teams will need to register with 3 players and they are expected to  field a team on designated day each week. I will start session II signup in two weeks.

Inter-league meets
Just as previous seasons, we plan to set up a couple of inter-league meets this summer with Farmington Area Tennis League. There is also a possibility of a meet with a Mankato league that is just starting this year. Our team captain Keegan Hakala will get in touch with you once we have something set.  Last season we did one meet in Rochester and then another one in Farmington. Prior to 2012 season we  used to meet in Cannon Falls for these matches. Inter-league meets consist of various doubles and singles matches and everyone is welcome to sign up for them. They are a nice and fun opportunity for us to play tennis as  a part of a team, meet other local tennis enthusiasts and represent RTL.

Reporting scores
As you know 4 of us are entering scores for singles league and 1 is doing it for doubles. If you are not sure who updates   your scores or if you have questions please refer to the  note on the top of the schedule page on our web site Please make sure you are   emailing your scores promptly and to the right person. Sending  e mail reminders about unreported matches each week is time consuming and more work for people who already dedicate a lot of their free time to the league.

Have a great weekend and good luck in your coming matches