Santa Barbara Phoenix League
Highlights of rules: Age: must turn 50 in following calendar year. Format: round robin. Scoring: 2nd deuce and 5-5 tie break in 1st two sets. 4.5 limit: one listed 4.5 player per match. Qualification to play in final quad: must have played in at least two matches throughout the year.
League Structure: The Team Captains shall act as a League Board of Directors and shall have the responsibility to elect the League Commissioner, approve league rule changes and resolve grievances. The Super Seniors League shall be managed primarily by the League Commissioner with the consent of the Board. The League Commissioner shall elected by a majority of the board.
Grievance Resolution: Any grievance shall be communicated in writing to the League Commissioner as soon as practical following the event that lead to the grievance. The League Commissioner shall respond in writing with his ruling to all affected parties and all League Captains. In rare instances, should the affected parties strongly disagree with the League Commissioner’s ruling, an appeal to the League Board can be submitted in writing. The Board may choose to override the Commissioner’s ruling or allow it to stand. All decisions of the Board shall be final.
Players: Only players sixty-five (50) years or older are eligible to play in the Men’s Super Seniors League. For clarity, a player can be on a team roster in the Fall and play if they, if fact, will be 50 any time during the following calendar year If it is determined that any player does not meet this rule, then all matches played with that player will be defaulted, past and present. Women can play in the league.
All players should be registered in Oballo for the Season of play so records of matches and history can be recorded for all to review. Any team caught playing a player not properly added to roster, can be defaulted for all matches that player played in, past and present. The captain of the player in question, must submit reasons for this infraction so that the Commissioner can rule as such.
Phoenix League rules are: (1) deciding point at 2nd deuce (receiving team decides which partner receives the serve) and (2) regular first-to-seven-win-by-two tie break at 5-5. These rules, are only for the first two rounds. The third round sets may be regular scoring and a regular 6-6 tie break. Captains may agree on match and scoring format and rule modifications, by mutual consent.
Current form of 4.5 rule:
Each week a team will be a limited to one 4.5 player. Each captain will
e-mail me a list of 4.5 players and strong 4.0-4.5 borderline players for
all captains to review for approval. Players with an official USTA rating
of 4.5 must be on the 4.5 list. Captains will suggest their recommended
rating for strong players who do not have an official USTA rating for the
other captains to approve. I see no need to put any limits on 3.5-4.0
players, nor for us to collect full team rosters. That will lighten the
load on captains and permit them to bring in occasional lower-end players not
on any roster to fill in when needed.
Maybe we'll have to go back and forth a few times see how consistent the lists
are across all teams. The lists will finally be subject to approval by a
majority of all captains.
(1) No captain can exceed the quota, except in rare instances and with
permission of that week's opposing captain, who might wish to negotiate some
modification of the quota for that week.
(2) No captain may recruit a new high 4.0 - 4.5 player to play some week who is
not on the roster of such players (the roster of both borderline
and 4.5 quota players), again with rare exceptions and with permission of
the opposing captain that week, as above.
(3) A captain may, at any point in the season, ask to modify his team's or
another team's roster, perhaps because of injuries, possible misjudgement in
the original lists, or a change (up or down) in player ability, or to add
new players to the list. Changes would not be immediate and would require a
vote of team captains.
Substitutions in middle of a match rules:
Only one player may substitute for another during a match because of injury
or because a player cannot arrive on time or has to leave early. If the
substitution must occur in the middle of a set, that set will be forfeited,
but other sets will count as usual. As always, captains may also work out
additional or alternative arrangements by mutual agreement.
A player must play at least two (2) matches (not to include any defaults) with a team in order to be eligible to participate in the top-four end-of-season quad match with that team. In the event a particular player does not show up at a match and a substitute is obtained at the last minute, and this player is not on the roster, the players and the captains can agree to have the match count. A player may switch teams once during the season provided the captain communicates the roster change to the Commissioner.
Quad matches at mid-season and at end of season:
Scoring will be done with the first quad amongst the bottom 4 teams not
counting in the league standings and the final quad amongst the top 4 teams
counting as shown below to try to break any ties.
The quad match winners will be determined by total number of sets won in
the overall match, then by games won if needed.
Each captain should seed his teams in proper 1-2-3 in order of strength so that
everyone has the closest, most competitive matches and in fairness for the
outcome.
Players in the final Spring quad must have played in at least 2 matches in the regular
season. For the Fall 'bottom four" quad, rules are less strict, with only 1 regular match required, especially for 4.5 players, and
captains may ask for an exception if struggling to get e team together.
Scoring for the quad:
1st place 1.5 pts
2nd place 0.75 pts
3rd place 1/8 pt
Each team will play every other team twice (Fall and Winter/Spring), once at home and once away. See league schedule for match location and which team is the “HOME” team.
Home teams must supply the tennis balls and refreshments (beer/soda/snacks). Captains should make sure this duty is properly taken care of by their players. It is recommended to include a reminder in each week’s email or phone contact with the players. The responsibility of bringing the snacks can be rotated amongst your players.
All Super Senior match competitions shall consist of three doubles Lines per team. Matches shall be three rounds of round-robin play, with all Lines playing each others Lines. It is recommended that Captains call and/or email the opposing captain a few days prior to the match to confirm that the opposing Captain will have three (3) doubles teams ready to play on the day of the match. Needless to say, each Captain should make calls/emails to his own team players to get a verbal/email confirmation that all of his players will be there on match day. If email confirmation is not received, then a personal phone call should be made to get confirmation. Poor communication can result in having the opposing team show up with no team to play. This is an unfortunate letdown and an inconvenience for the parties involved.
Rules of Conduct to be conveyed by Captains to the players:
All Super Seniors players should be aware of the accepted Rules of Conduct and should exhibit proper conduct and good sportsmanship, both on and off the courts at all times. The guiding principles applied by the USTA should be recognized.
Play shall be according to USTA rules:
https://www.usta.com/content/dam/usta/sections/pacific-northwest/pdfs/play/leaguenew/ITFRuleswheader.pdf
And, more to the point, according to the USTA Code of “unwritten rules”:
https://www.usta.com/content/dam/usta/pdfs/2015_Code.pdf
A summary of some common code issues:
Foot faults - If a player is committing flagrant foot faults, the player should be made aware that he/she has been foot faulting and then obvious foot faults may be called by the opposing team. If the players cannot resolve the matter themselves, players may request the team captains to provide a line judge to stand at the net post and call foot faults for the match for the players.
Line calls - Players are responsible for calling balls landing on their side of the net. Any opponent can question any call once directly to the person making the call and/or his partner. Both team members making the call must affirm the call. An opponent can ask, “Are you sure about the call?” If the person making the call and his partner reaffirms the call, then the call stands, and that is the end of the question. If the person making the call is not sure, or reconsiders the call, or his partner disagrees with his call, then the call shall be reversed.
When a player and his partner are unsure whether a ball on their side was in or out, the ball is considered in. It is not correct, in formal league play, to say “we are not sure; let’s play a let”.
Either partner may make a line call. If neither partner is sure, the opposing team partners may be asked to make an honest call if they can. Only the receiving team, however, may make the call on a first serve. So, if the server hits a first serve that is close, but out, and the receiving team returns it, giving benefit of the doubt on close calls, the serving team must continue play. Any player may call a let.
If a player makes an out line call, he or his partner may immediately reverse the call and award the point to the opposing team.
If it is the opinion of the opponents that a player on the other side of the net is making constant questionable calls, the league procedure is to call a time out, let your opponents know that you would like a linesperson, and summon the team captain(s) in order to obtain a person to stand at the net to act as linesperson. The linesperson is there to confirm calls in or out, but only when asked by the players playing the match, and should not be making all line calls.
Team captains shall come to each match prepared with a roster of three (3) doubles teams to play that day, Lines 1 through 3. Captains must have their line-ups written-up prior to arriving at the match location. It is recommended that captains, upon arrival at the venue, immediately locate the opposing captain, exchange lineups and determine which courts are being used for the match. As soon as this is done, players should be sent to their assigned courts so that they may begin their matches. There shall be a 15-minute grace period for late-coming players.
As the matches are concluded, the Captain shall record all match scores on the match score sheet, circling the winning teams. The HOME team captain is responsible for getting the score sheet entered into the Oballo system for the official records. League standings/results are then automatically updated weekly throughout the season, and at the conclusion of the season for all registered players.
In the event a captain cannot field three doubles teams for a competition, as a courtesy he should call and inform the opposing captain. Hopefully the match can be rescheduled, but, if not played, the opposing team will be awarded a victory.
When a captain would like to add a new player to the league after the Season has started, he should contact the Commissioner before any match play for recognition.
Every Coach should be at each weekly match or have a delegate if they cannot attend. It is incumbent on the captain to be responsible for their team members, member bad behavior, and work out all infractions or abuses with the opposing captain in real-time for corrections.
Some old rules that were adopted years ago, but have essentially not much been
needed:
I'd propose the following procedures for settling any scoring disputes:
1) I think we agree to settle disputes within the 3.5/4.0 group and
that our 3.5/4.0 league affairs will be settled by the team captains by
consensus and that I'll coordinate that and the scheduling.
2) I'd suggest that disputed scores be first
discussed between the two captains and then reported to me if a question
remains. I would try to talk to the captains and settle it with them if
it's easy. Otherwise I would appoint a 3-person committee to resolve it
from among other disinterested team captains, with approval of the
committee by both disputing captains. If I am a party to the dispute,
then I'd find another captain top act as referee in my stead. As a last
resort, we could bring in totally disinterested captains from the 4.5
and/or super seniors league as a committee. This procedure will hopefully
never need to be used. To help avoid disputes, I've got further suggested
rules below.
3) Standard score sheets will be used for all matches and signed by each
captain(or his designated capt for the day) at the end of the match. The
results of the scoring will be posted by the 'home' captain on Oballo.
4) Score sheets for an official alternate 8 person per team match format
will be distributed to all captains. The format I'll suggest, and have
used with some of you before, is a partial round robin of all 4
pairs in three sets instead of four, such that the bottom seeded
and top seeded of the four pairs don't play each other. It depends a
little on how the teams are seeded, so the team captains should seed
their four pairs as correctly as possible on the honor system.
5) Any departure from the two official score sheets and formats is
discouraged. Should there be any special agreements about the match
format, they should be clearly defined by the captains in a written
e-mail exchange, so there are no subsequent problems.
6) If a team captain is unable to find enough players from his team
roster on a particular scheduled date, he must notify the opposing captain
by Thursday before the match to cancel without a forfeiture. Within a
week that captain must establish a firm makeup date agreed with the other
captain at the earliest opportunity. Not being able to field as strong a
team as you like is not a basis for postponing a match except by mutual
agreement in written e-mail between the captains. The date for the
end-of-season quad match will be fixed and not changed except due to rain
or other acts of God.
