League News: 2015.09.16

Season Starts Next Week — Wednesday, September 23rd

State of the League

We look to have 4 divisions; 4 teams each except Division 2 with 5. That means we need 8 court times each week. With only 3 clubs this season, we only have 6 court times available each Wednesday. So, we decided to drop 1 division from the schedule each week on a rotating basis — beginning with Division 1.

Also, 2 of the Division 1 teams are from VRC, and 3 of the 5 teams in Division 2 are hosted at Hollyburn. This resulted in some weeks having too few matches and some with too many. It also meant too many matches being scheduled at some clubs each week. To make things work, we were forced to move matches from over crowded Wednesdays to underutilized Wednesdays. And, one or more matches most weeks had to be moved to another venue. The latter being something most people should be used to as that has been the case for the last season or two.

As of Wednesday, September 16th, we still have not been able to get SportyHQ to display the schedule for the coming season. We will keep everyone apprised. Until the issue is resolved, we will provide the schedule on the "unOfficial League Site" hosted here.

As of Friday, September 18th, the schedule has been published on SportyHQ.

What’s Needed From the Clubs & Organizers

1. All clubs need to confirm they are ready to go.
2. Details for all captains need to be provided so that we can enter them in SportyHQ.
3. Once the preceding is done, captains will need to enter their team members on SportyHQ, or advise us so we can do so.

Our Goals & Consequent Team Make-up

It has always been our primary goal to ensure league matches are competitive, and as challenging as possible for both teams involved (aka Rule 1). As such we have never followed the singles league practice of bottom team going down a division and top team going up a division in the following season. We rely on previous season results for teams, as well as individuals, to evaluate teams for the coming season. We are beginning to use doubles rankings as well but recognize that though the rankings are a reasonable reflection of skill level for many, there is a significant number of players who have inappropriate ranking points.

There is some correlation between doubles ranking and performance in VDSL. That should improve with time and improvements to the ranking system. Club VDSL administrators should be using similar information along with club experience from the previous season to assemble rosters that do not have misappropriated players. Each team should have players of relatively equal ability.

So, in keeping with our primary goal, and the above comments we are adding a second goal, aka Rule 2: everyone should be playing in an appropriate division. That is, no one who shouldn't be playing up a division. And no one playing below their level. Each division should have as evenly matched teams as possible.

If this means that the "team of friends" concept, very obvious in the past, is no longer truly viable. Teams are expected to be made up of players suitable to the division in which they are competing. This may be a little uncomfortable for many to start. But, we expect that by the end of the season, it will be accepted by all concerned. Especially if everyone is getting good, competitive matches each week, with a real opportunity to win any given Wednesday.

Schedule on unOff Site

We believe the copy of the schedule posted on this site matches the one on SportyHQ. Once SportyHQ is live (as of September 16th issue resolution still pending), it will be the official schedule.

That said for the immediate present, the schedule on this site will have to be used by the club organizers to reserve court time, and team captains to schedule their players.

As of Friday, September 18th, the schedule has been published on SportyHQ. That is the official schedule. You will still need to refer to the schedule on this site to see “who's on first” (at least for the foreseeable future).