RULES

USTA League Rules

            Play will be governed by USTA rules. All players must abide by the Southern California Tennis Association "Code of Ethics." A 15-minute default time may be enforced.

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2009 Orange CountyLOCAL LEAGUE RULES

Welcome!!

Our Local League is just that. It’s local, and it incorporates many of the

same teams, captains and players, year-after-year. Let’s keep in mind

that we want to maintain a cooperative, fair, friendly and fun environment for all of us. These Local League Rules may be revised after the captains meeting. The most current version will always be posted on the website:

www.orangecountyusta.com

Objective

The objective of the local league is two-fold. We hope to provide a competitive, fair, and friendly tennis environment for local players. We also keep track of the scores of the matches in order to determine the best team in the flight who then goes on to be the representative at the next level of competition.

Below are the policies, guidelines and rules which govern our local league. When reading these over, please remember that a key objective is to try to make sure all matches are played. Circumstances are not always going to be perfect and ideal. You want to avoid

defaults whenever possible. Defaults skew what the true results would be. They provide an artificial win for a team.

In applying the information below, please use as much flexibility and common sense as you can. Please always ask me if you need any clarification regarding these local league rules.

Participation Clarification for our Local League

Orange County is separated into two different Areas for the Women’s Leagues, Weekday and Weekend. The men’s and Mixed Doubles Leagues play only on the Weekends. Players may not play on multiple teams at the same level in the same area. If they are at the same

level, they must be in different areas. Therefore, playing on a 3.5 Friday, and 3.5 Weekend would be ok ~ Two 3.5 weekend teams…. not ok.

Rosters will not be limited this season. (The SCTA discourages teams that have too many players, where they do not have the opportunity to play at least twice)

Captain

Each captain will be responsible for providing at least one e-mail address through which to receive correspondence from the Area League Coordinator.

I need you to be able to receive e-mails from Constant Contact, which is my e-mail managing service. I have a group e-mail that should have all your names on it. If you are not receiving the group e-mails, please let me know.

Captain’s Registration

The captain of a team may have their $18 league fee waived IF they register on the captain’s-only team, which will cost them only $3.

Team Information Sheet

Make sure you fax this in by the deadline. After you’ve faxed it in, if you need to make changes, make them on your original sheet and refax it to me and write “REVISION #“ on the top of the form. I don’t take any changes or additional information to these forms via email. The entire form must be resubmitted.

Make sure to meet with your facility director and find out what dates are not available at your facility, and list the dates as well as whatever that event is in the space provided.

Make sure to list all dates for the event, even if you are a Saturday team and the event is also on the Sunday. List the dates in their entirety.

Where it says “How many courts are available at your time slot ____” If I can schedule one team at home during your time slot, you would write 3, for three courts. If your facility can handle two teams at home in your time slot, then tell me 6 in that space.

List the team byes you are requesting. If I can accommodate these when scheduling I will.

However, most teams will need to reschedule their own byes with their opponent, but this MUST be done during the 1

st week of the season. After that, captains are not obligated to reschedule matches at the other captains request.

Please check your preference as to whether you’d rather play in a large flight, where you play each team once, for 7 – 10 matches, or a small flight, where you play each team twice, for 8 or 10 matches.

Let me know anything else you would like to tell me about your team’s preferences on this sheet. Again, please don’t e-mail me requests. This is the only form I look at when scheduling.

!!!!!!!!!!!Please remember that requests on your

Team Information Sheet

are exactly that.

They are requests and I’ll do my best, but not all will be granted!!!!!!!!!!!!

Team Deletion Deadline

***Each league will have a deadline date which is the last day to request your entire team be removed from the league.

If you have a team online, with registered players, and it turns out you can’t have one, there will be no refunds issued for anyone registered on your team unless you request that your entire team be deleted by the deadline date which is the date the Team Information sheet is due. (Unless other arrangements are made ahead of time with me.)

Roster Additions/Deletions

Players added between the add and delete deadlines will not be able to receive a refund, (or be moved to a different division,) no matter what the reason. Captains, make SURE your players know these refund deadline dates. Sometimes they e-mail me looking for a

refund because they did not know there was a deadline to request one.

Mixed: Refund Deadline: January 31 Add Deadline: February 28

Adult League: Refund Deadline: April 30 Add Deadline: May 31

Senior league: Refund Deadline: June 30 Add Deadline: July 31

SCTA Doubles: Refund Deadline: September 30 Add Deadline: October 31

Remember that players must usually play a minimum number of matches to qualify for Sectionals and Nationals. Check the chart at the end of the Sectional Regulations for these requirements.

Deadlines for Mixed Doubles:

Jan 2 - Team Information Sheet Due for Mixed Doubles. During this time, teams may

be deleted from the league if they fail to register the minimum number of players.

Registered players will not qualify for refunds.  

The captain of the team must be registered by this date as well.

Jan 9 - Six players must be registered on this date.

Jan 9 - Jan 16 - During this time, teams may be deleted from the league if they fail to

register the minimum number of players with no refunds for any registered players

Jan 11 - Schedules come out

Jan 16 - League Start Date

General 2009 Captaining Information

Captains may captain a maximum of two teams per Division (i.e. Mixed is one Division, Super Seniors is one division, etc...)

Teams with duplicate captains must have different co-captains designated.

Captains may not captain two teams at the same level in the same area. (i.e. Ok to captain a 3.5 and a 4.0 team, but not two 3.5 teams.) Exceptions may be made to this rule, but must be requested by the captain and such requests will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

Tennis Balls & Refreshments

The HOME  team provides the balls and refreshments. Penn is the official ball of the SCTA League Programs. Please use Penn balls for your matches.

Most teams provide refreshments after the match. Friday league teams usually provide less of a spread. When you get your schedule, feel free to contact the other captains in your division to find out what they plan to provide, and/or let them know what you will be planning to do.

Team Format

In our local league we play best 2 out of 3 sets.

Our local playoffs will be the same format, unless we have a team playing more than one match in a day. In that case, the entire playoffs will use the format where we will play 2 sets and a Match Tie-Break in lieu of a 3rd set, if needed, first to 10 by 2. (This is a general policy, but specific information regarding each local league playoff will be sent

out directly to those captains involved.)

Confirming Matches

VISITING captains 

need to call or e-mail the hosting captain at least three days prior to the match to confirm that both captains are on the same page regarding the time and day the match is to be played. If the hosting captain does not hear from them, they will need

to make contact. This is SO important, with all the schedule changes that go on, and the potential for a captain not to receive an e-mail sent out about a change.

Captains…Make Contact Prior to the Match!! If you don’t confirm the match in advance and the other team is a no-show due to teams thinking the match is at different times/days, the match

will be rescheduled, and penalties for the no-show team may not be assessed. If you are trying to reach a team and can’t contact them, let me know. I have contact information for everyone on the team, so I can almost always reach one of them for you.

Exchanging Line-Ups and Recording Scores

Before each of your matches, print off a score card for each match by putting in the match number and clicking on 'print a blank score card'. All the players will be listed below. Captains should not fill in their line-ups until prior to the match and when all players are present and ready to play. Then, if the #1 or #2 team is not there, they move them to the bottom of the line-up…. before they exchange scorecards. Once you exchange lineups, substitutions may only be made in accordance with National rules, or if both captains agree to the change. Once you exchange lineups, you keep that one, and record scores. Compare it with your opponent's when all the matches are finished to make sure everyone agrees as to the scores. Each captain should sign the score cards indicating they agree with what is written.

Then you can enter the scores as soon as you are able, and the second person who goes to enter has 48 hours from that time to either confirm or deny what the first captain has entered. That is the window for captains to dispute scores entered for matches played.

Post Local League Play

Winning teams of each flight will proceed to either Local League Playoffs, Area Playoffs, or directly into Sectionals. No Team will be allowed to win their division by receiving an

entire team default from another team. Sectional regulations will be followed regarding full-team defaults. Please make every effort to make up all rescheduled matches within two weeks of original match date, (if possible.)

Local League Playoffs

Where we have more than one flight at a certain level, we will hold Local League Playoffs.

Our Local League playoffs dates are always set before the season starts and will be posted on the website:

www.orangecountyusta.com

The team with the best percentage record will have the option to host the playoffs.

Percentage record is found by dividing a team’s total number of individual matches won, by the total number of individual matches for which they are scheduled. An exception to this will be if only one team completes their season undefeated. They will not be subjected to the percentage rule above, and will have the option to host.

(If a team does not finish playing all their scheduled

matches, they will end up with a lower percentage rate, which could possibly hurt their chances of securing home-court advantage.)

Occasionally, teams play right up until the day before playoffs. If this is the case for a flight, hosting will need to be determined ahead of time, and we will do what seems to make the most sense at the time based on the individual circumstances.

Another exception is when we have four flights at a level, meaning four teams in the playoffs. When this happens, we look for one site to be able to host all matches the first day, (6 courts for most divisions, 10 courts for Adult division,) when we play 3 rounds so this allows everyone to be at the same facility.

Local League Playoff Schedule:

(Dates are subject to change.)

Mixed Doubles: Sunday, April 5

Adult League: July 18, 19 & 20 or, if we have lots of rain during the season, we’ll vet them to July 24, 25 & 26

Seniors: No Local League Playoffs, unless we end up with multiple flights at the same

level Possible Area Playoffs

SCTA Doubles: Dec 4, 5 & 6 or, if we have lots of rain during the season… Dec 11, 12 &13

(Please note… these are different than Area/District Playoffs. We rarely have to go to those.

Dates for Area/District Playoffs are posted on the

SCTA website and are NOT the same dates for the Local League Playoffs.

Match Schedule

In attempts to get your schedules to you in a more timely manner, and with fewer errors, Captains will need to reschedule their own team byes requests. Team bye requests are those that you make because you know in advance that your players will not be available for a certain date. For example, your club is having a Calcutta, and all your players will be playing in it that weekend, or on a Grand Prix weekend, when you know you won’t have players. The team bye requests, (not facility bye requests,) are what typically make the scheduling more complicated and lengthy, therefore, causing your schedules to be delayed. Unless it’s a no-brainer, where I can move a match to the end of the season, without having you go late, I will leave your matches scheduled on your bye request dates. Many of you don’t have these and won’t be affected. It will be up to the captain who needs the bye to contact their opponent for that match,

(within the first week of the league,)

and reschedule the match by mutual agreement. E-mail me the new time/day and I will change the match in Tennis Link. This gives captains the flexibility to reschedule a problem match on a day other than the

normal league day, and in most cases, create a better schedule for themselves and their opponents than when I have to reschedule all the requested bye dates. All bye requests must be handled in the first week, AND need to be listed on your team information sheet.

After the first week of play, the schedules should be set and captains should not expect their opponents to reschedule matches during the season because “things come up.” Talk to your players and find out ahead of time all the dates when you will be unable to field a

team. For the mixed doubles, I should be able to handle the bye requests because there are fewer teams.

Your schedules will be posted on Tennis Link by the Sunday night before your first match. When you get your schedule, look it over, and 

take it to your facility director and ask them if they see any problems. Make sure to tell them it’s a PRELIMINARY schedule.

Let me know if there are any errors within 7 days of receiving your schedule. If there are errors, I will make the changes, update Tennis Link, and e-mail both captains of the change. Please respond to my e-mail, so I know you are aware of the change. After the 7 days, schedules will be final unless a facility later schedules an event on top of a USTA match, or if I’ve made a mistake that needs to be fixed later. Notify your facility of your first match, but please WAIT to get a copy of your complete schedule to your Facility until after initial changes have been made to it during this first week.

Scorecards

If you go to enter a scorecard, and one of the players is not on Tennis Link, DO NOT enter it using a substitute name!

E-mail me with the problem, and the person’s name AND the match number. Remember that both teams must report scores.

Postponement

If a match is rescheduled, please let me know immediately, via e-mail, and I will change the date in Tennis Link. Both captains need to reply to the e-mail, so I know that everyone is on the same page as far as date/time goes. Rescheduled matches need to be made up ASAP. We can’t wait to the end to see if it counts. This ends up inconveniencing others, and often does not allow matches to be played in time to determine flight winners, and creates a mess for playoffs. If two teams can not come up with a date to reschedule, I will assign a date.

The Code

Please make a copy of The Code, which is posted on the website, and distribute it to all of your players. (Please ask them to read it.)

Registration Problems

Some of you had legitimate problems registering players. We anticipate that there will again be the oddball problem situation (that hopefully will be rare.) If you are having registration problems, and need to play that player; please communicate with me the

nature of your problem. At that time I will either ok, or disallow your player to play. If I k it, then the scorecard will not be able to be entered immediately. If you are the team captain who has been granted the ok, then you need to inform the other captain that the

player will not be on the drop-down menu, and that they will have to wait until the registration gets straightened out to enter the scores. Please show them a copy of the e-mail I send you giving you the ok. As soon as the registration is straightened out, then you need to notify the other captain that you have registered the player and entered the

scores and that they can now go in and either confirm or dispute. We will avoid defaulting matches because players were not registered on time whenever possible.

Default Times

The default penalties will be calculated from the MATCH TIME. The home team captain should be near the entry of the facility, and greet the players as they enter. The place of entry to the facility will be where the player must be present when the match time occurs. However, if players are present, and courts are not available, the home team will not have to default any games. You will need to wait for courts to become available. If courts are not available within 30 minutes of the match time, the match becomes a reschedule and follows the rescheduling rules in the Full-Team Default Section.

Individual Match default rules are found in the Sectional Handbook.

Defaults

If you are going to default and not bring players, you should call the other captain by 5:00 pm the day before the match. Once you call to default, the match may only be played if the other captain agrees.

******Captains and/or players may not take a default and then play the match “for fun”. If there is time to play the match, and people want to play, go ahead and play it. If you play the match, it will count towards the standings. Again, we want to minimize defaults in the league.

Full-Team Defaults

All teams in contention to advance to the next level of competition may not do so as a result of receiving an entire-team default. Refer to URL 3.03M in the Sectional Regulations. Any scheduled match which can not be made by one entire team must be played but with penalties as outlined below:

The match will need to be rescheduled, but thi will be done at the team’s convenience who would have received the default. The team who would have received the default will have the option to have the match played on their home courts whether they were originally scheduled to host or not. (Original host team is still responsible for balls and possibly refreshments depending on the home site.)

The team who would have caused the default will only be allowed to bring 4 players instead of 6 (Mixed, Senior, Super Senior, SCTA Doubles & Tri-Level,) or 6 players instead of 8 (Adult League.)

If it is found that a team does default an entire match, and it affects the outcome of the division, then all the teams in contention will receive the same default for that round of the round-robin, in accordance with our Sectional Rules. Teams who cause entire-team defaults risk possible sanctions including being prevented from participating in the league in the future.

Teams with Split Times

A few of our teams are required by their facility, (due to lack of available courts,) to play their matches with a split-time. Anyone who is in this situation needs to let me know about it on their Team Information Sheet.  If this is the case, the team who has the split time needs to communicate that immediately with all the teams in their fight. There must also be a set policy in the beginning of the league for how the matches will go on and this needs to be sent to me as well as communicated with the other teams in the flight.

Example…. Lines 1 & 2 at 9:00am and Line 3 at 11:00am. It must be designated which lines will go on first and which w ill follow and this will be the same for all the matches in the schedule. Again, a policy needs to be in place before the first match is played. Fully filled

out line-ups must be exchanged before 9:00 am and those names can not change. More about split times…… You will see match times on the schedules, and you will see times listed after each team’s name. Sometimes a team will have two times listed after it, or two different days. What this means is that they play their match sometimes at

one time, and sometimes at another. The time on the schedule on a specific date will be the time for that match. Captains…… when the schedules go out initially, check your times and see they are all correct. Once the schedules are set, the time on the schedule is the correct time.

Timed Matches

Our facilities designate court time for our matches. As we all know, sometimes our matches go beyond this designated time and we potentially hold up other matches which were designated to go on after ours. At a busy facility, there is no way we can expect to

be granted back-to-back time slots to guarantee we will have enough time to finish our matches. To help ensure our matches are played within our allotted times, our league will immediately adopt the following guidelines. These will pertain to any match played which

goes beyond the designated time allotted by the facility and there are players waiting to use the court:

TIMED MATCH PROCEDURES PER NATIONAL BUSINESS RULES:

Match must declare a winner Individual courts must declare a winner

PROCEDURE:

Where time is limited and section allows "timed matches" the following procedures will be followed by all. Fifteen minutes before time up -

OPTION 1)

Team A and Team B are in the 2nd set

Winner of 2nd set determined as follows:

When time is called...

If either team is up by two games - they are declared winner of that set

If either team is up by one game - play one more game...now up by two games:

(Team up by two games declared winner of that set)

or tied

(Play a set tie-break to determine winner of 2nd set)

and if they have now split sets Immediately play a match tie-break in lieu of the 3rd set

OPTION 2)

Team A and Team B have split sets

If the 3rd set is in progress refer to OPTION 1

If the 3rd set has not started at the 15-minute mark - play a match tiebreak to determine winner of 3rd set

SCORING

If 3rd set tie-break played - winner receives credit for 1 set and 1 game

If 3rd set is in progress, winner receives credit for a set and such games as are completed. (Example 1 set, 4-2 games credited)

STRAYING FROM THE RULES…

If two captains mutually agree to do something differently, than is outlined in the Local League Rules, that’s usually ok. However, you should always put ALL agreements in writing.

(e-mail is best.) If it’s not in writing, and there is a disagreement as to the agreement, we’ll follow the rules as posted.