League Update as of August 10th

Subject: VDSL 2014-15 — Amended Season Proposal

Good afternoon all,

The good news is that Jonathan Money has stepped up to captain/organize a Division 4 team at Van Lawn. Wayne Maunder and Gerry Whithworth feel they have enough players to field 3 teams: 1 Evergreen team and 2 VRC teams (though one of them may use an Evergreen player or two). We are also hoping the clubs will manage to produce a shared pool of Division 4 spares for the season. Perhaps easing all the Division 4 captain's lives.

So we have need to revise our proposal for the coming season. We hope it will be the last time for this coming season!

Court Availability

We have been advised by Justin Todd that the VLT doubles court will not be available in the New Year. Schedules will be developed accordingly. And, as best we know at this time, there will be no VLT teams playing in the 2nd half of the season.

It has been suggested that some of the clubs have unused court time available (e.g. Saturdays) that might be made available during the 2nd half of the season to allow Lawn teams to continue to play for the whole season. We have never investigated this option. But, based on a past discussions, we don't believe many of the current players would be interested in adding a 2nd day/night to the schedule. All thoughts (please e-mail Lynn & Rick) on the subject welcome.

Promotion/Demotion

For the coming season, it was decided to promote VRC Tallman to Div 1, and EVE Johanson (was Henwood) to Div 2. And, to demote EVE Stiphout (was Sibley) to Div 3.

Though a team was promoted, this does not imply all the players from last season should also be promoted. It is incumbent upon the club and team captain to ensure that the promoted teams will be competitive in their new division. That may mean some player recruitment. And, unfortunately, you may need to let some players know they should look to play on a team in a lower division this season.

For example, in the case of Evergreen team Johanson would likely be able to recruit some of the top players from last season's Sibley crew to strengthen their competitiveness this coming season. While the lower echelon players from last season could look to play for team Stiphout — which could need players to ensure its viability.

How Many Divisions?

With Division 4 looking to have 4 teams, we are back to a 4 division league.

League Make-up

That leaves us with the following divisions for the coming season:

Division 1

Evergreen — Bleay (was Kerluke)

to be determined (Captain)

Hollyburn — Kevin Johnson

Kevin Johnson (Captain)

Van Lawn — Brian MacFarlane

Brian MacFarlane (Captain)

VRC — Gerry's Kids (promoted)

Peter Tallman (Captain)

VRC — Williams (was Jinks)

Geoff Williams (Captain)

Division 2

Evergreen — Johanson (promoted)

Annette Johanson (Captain)

Hollyburn — James

Bill James (Captain)

Van Lawn — Gray

Paul Gray (Captain)

VRC — Mottus/Pybus

Randy Mottus (co-Captain)

Gord Pybus (co-Captain)

Division 3

Evergreen — Broman/Berwick

Lynn Broman (co-Captain)

Ed Berwick (co-Captain)

Evergreen — Gaffney

Brian Gaffney (Captain)

Evergreen — Stiphout (demoted, was Sibley)

Will Stiphout (Captain)

Hollyburn — Kaffka

Sue Kaffka (Captain)

VRC — Los Burritos (was Maddison)

Ed McCorkell (co-Captain)

Rick Kochanski (co-Captain)

Division 4

Evergreen — Whitworth

Gerry Whitworth (Captain)

Van Lawn — Money

Jonathan Money (Captain)

VRC — Coutts

Greg Coutts (co-Captain)

tbd (co-Captain)

VRC — Maundeer

Wayne Maunder (Captain)

Second Half of the Season

The second half of the season will be made up of 3 divisions of 5 teams (& 1 bye) each. See the preliminary schedule for who's where.

Now or Never

We ask for all of last year's participants, if you believe you have a better solution please let us know now. Because of the loss of the Lawn court in the second half of the season, we are unable to accommodate any requests for new teams this coming season.

We will, in light of the changes, rework scheduling options to match the revised league structure. And, where feasible some alternatives. But, unless you can by August 15th convince us to make changes, this proposal will define the coming season. We will let you know when we have a draft schedule available for review.

So, please step up and be heard!

Lynn Broman & Rick Kochanski for VDSL