Hello RTL members
As rackets are collecting dust in my basement , I find it therapeutic to ignore the weather conditions and start talking about the next outdoor season. Hopefully in about two months , we will be out there again smacking the fuzzy yellow ball.
As we approach 10th season of The Rochester Tennis League here is a little preview of things to come.
New players welcome
From the opening session in June of 2006 the league has been growing every year and once again this spring we will be opening it up to new players of all skill levels. If you know someone who might be interested, send them to our site.
Just like last year, new players will be registering on our web page www.rochestertennisleague.com . They will be required to pay one time registration fee in amount of $30.
All returning players will continue to play free of charge.
Session I sign up (singles)
Session I sign up for the returning players will start in about 2 weeks. This year I will email you a link to session I registration form. To register for session I you will need to fill the form and submit it online. An automatic confirmation email will be sent to you after you submit the form. This will help me organize the sign up better then in the past. You won't need to email me back that you are in like we did previous years.
Session I singles will have round robin format and out tentative start date is April 26th.
There will be a couple of significant changes this year.
1. We are scaling down doubles league to two sessions this season .
With many players competing simultaneously in singles , doubles and also various USTA leagues some burnout is bound to happen. It seems like there is less interest in doubles as the season goes on. . So we thought that maybe limiting opportunities would result in more teams signing up and better competition overall. We will try it this year and see how it goes with two 7 week long sessions.
Session I doubles should start May 18th and we will do a separate sign up for doubles beginning of April. Just like last year, doubles teams will require to register 3 players. The format will depend on number of teams that sign up. Division I will play Mondays and division II Wednesdays. Teams can agree to play on different days but expectation is that matches get played on designated nights. We might create an additional division this year depending on number of teams that register. Our goal is to group teams of similar skills so matches get competitive. In the past we had teams that could be sorted in that middle division since they were too strong for D2 but not quite as competitive in D1.
2.Casual division
For those of you interested in playing occasionally without schedule, deadlines or reporting scores we created a casual division. Basically we will pass a list of players who are in this group so they can email each other and play whenever they wish . They won't have schedule, deadlines and they won't need to report scores. Players that sign up for competitive part of the league but show lack of commitment or ability to complete majority of their matches will eventually be removed from competitive league and placed in this group.
Our players are required to show commitment to play on weekly basis, communicate well with their opponents and league administrators and report scores in timely fashion. I think this casual division will be a good fit for those unable to commit to the requirements of the competitive leagues.
Singles league
Singles league will have the same set up as before. Returning players will be sorted to divisions according to their previous results. Each division will have 8 players, top two players in each division will move up a level and bottom 2 will drop down in between sessions. New players will be placed by their USTA rankings, pre-season matches, or self rating. . Placing new players is always a challenging task but even though their original placement might be off a little bit, they will have a chance to move up by winning one of the top two places.
Players will be able to sign up for multiple leagues if they feel confident they can keep up with various competitions. Doubles players without partners are encouraged to sign up and we will do our best to match them up with others interested in playing doubles.
Suggestions/Ideas
This is good time to bring up ideas or suggestions about improving the league or finding different ways to advertise it to new players. Please forward your ideas and suggestions to my email maksimlecic@hotmail.com
Assistant organizers
Improvements made in updating scores on our web site allowed us to include more players in organizing the league last couple of season. It worked really well and I will be looking for volunteers again this year. Generally, each assistant organizer is in charge of updating scores and standings for two divisions. Email me if you might be interested in helping us out.
Registration coming up soon
Since the sign up is starting soon, it's a good time to think about your plans and which leagues you intend to play during session I. It's also a great time to start assembling rosters for your doubles teams. To be eligible , teams need three players. If you end up with 2 please let us know, we might have someone waiting to get on a team. . Please mail me if you have any questions about the sign up or next season .
I hope you are all excited to start another outdoor tennis season this spring . It should be another fun season filled with many exciting matches. Have a great week and I will be getting in touch with you soon.
Maksim Lecic
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