Santa Barbara Super Seniors Spring League

Santa Barbara, CA United States

Commissioner: Walt Seemann

Type: men doubles

Level: B

Format: Round Robin

Season: 2023/24

Each Super Senior team shall consist of approved members as describe below. Matches shall play on Wednesday afternoons at noon.  As of the 2024 Season, there are six approved teams.

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 have a two-year term and shall be elected by majority vote of the Team Captains.

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 (65) years or older are eligible to play in the Men’s Super Seniors League. For clarity, a player can be on a team roster and play if they if fact will be 65 any time during the start of the Fall League up to the end of the following Spring League (June of the next 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.

All Players must 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.

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 playoffs 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.

Each team will play every other team (at least) twice, 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 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.

[Omit from text on Oballo, but an interesting point is that it used to be that the team that reversed their out call could play the point as a let if that team returned the ball successfully before calling the ball out.  Jack Sanford told me about this seemingly unfair rule years ago, but I see now that  Rule 12 was changed in the USTA Code in 2011 to the simpler, fairer form above.]

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.

So that all Super Senior team players are familiar with the all rules, it is recommended that each captain read these rules out loud to their players prior to the start of the season.

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. At 12:15 any teams not on the court shall be considered in default.

The current scoring rules for play is as follows:  (1) regular scoring for winning a game,  but when at the second duce, players will play a sudden death (i.e. one point for the win), (2) at five games all, a seven-point tie breaker will be played for the first two rounds, (3) in the third round matches, however, the tie breaker will be invoked at a 6-6 score, (4) and on the third round matches, if all players on a court want they can play a ten point tie-break for the decision, unless one player disagrees, then the seven-point tie breaker will be enforced as stated above.

If opposing captains agree ahead of time, they may play a sort of USTA non-round-robin format, with # 1 seeds playing each other in three sets (and, likewise the #2 and #3 seeds). If one team has won both of the first two sets, the teams could, by agreement, just play a 10-point tiebreak for the third set, so that there will be 9 total scores to enter into the Oballo score sheet for the overall match. Captains should put their top doubles team at #1, then #2, then #3. Every effort should be made to avoid "stacking". Blatant stacking will result in a default of the entire match. If a captain feels that stacking occurred, he should immediately submit a formal claim to the league commissioner for a ruling. The factors that will be considered include the scores of the matches, the history of the lines played, the actual lineup positions played and also the relative lineup positions played compared with the rest of the teammates. The ruling from the commissioner will be final, subject to potential appeal as defined in paragraph 3.

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.  Super Senior 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 (NO PHONE MESSAGES). For each match 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.

At the conclusion of the regular Season, the Commissioner will set up a Playoff calendar, including a back draw. If any regular matches were not played due to rain, or God, then final week(s) of play will be baked into the schedule for such conclusion before Playoffs begin.

Women, who meet the age requirement, can play in the Men’s Super Seniors league effective Fall 2023, but with no more than two women in the lineup any given week.

Team Captains: Keep in touch with your team! Calling your players a few nights before a competition as a reminder really helps ensure you'll have a full team and avoid defaulting a match. It’s a tremendous let down and inconvenience for the opposing team when one of your team does not show up.