| Aurora Tennis and Swim Club (504) 392-3300 |
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| Aurora Tennis and Swim Club (504) 392-3300 |
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| ***Expired*** |
AMTA 2008 Spring League |
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| The Aurora Men’s Tennis Association or AMTA sponsors the popular
Thursday night men''''s doubles league. This league is suitable for all levels and is the recommended way to get started playing tennis at Aurora. We run this in-house league year round, offering ten weeks of play in the Fall, ten more in the Spring and as many weeks as possible during the Summer. The format is three 10 game pro-sets of no-ad doubles starting at 7pm. We swap partners after each set. You must be at least 19 to participate. You don’t need a partner, we rank players based on playing results and assign courts on a week-by-week basis. Suitable for all levels. It costs $10 a season for balls. No prizes, we play for bragging rights. To join now, click the participate button on the right side of this page. You''''ll be taken to the league signup sheet. When you sign up, the league organizer will be notified and will confirm your eligibility and assign an initial ranking to get you started. Once you are accepted into the league an entry under myAurora, in the main menu will take you directly to the league pages where you can see the league roster, maintain your schedule, check the calendar and see results and standings. We use email and the website to keep the league organized. Here''''s how it works. When you sign up for the league you''''ll provide email and phone numbers and indicate when you think you can play. This is your schedule. You can change your schedule online whenever you need to. On Sunday evenings, 4 days before we play, you''''ll receive an email reminder of what your schedule says for the upcoming Thursday. The email will have embedded links that you can click to change your status if you need to. You don''''t need to do anything if your plans are unchanged. On Tuesday evening, 2 days before we play, the schedules for that week are locked in and we send a second email notifying you of where and when you'll be playing. For this league it is always 7pm at Aurora. This email will contain a link to "Confirm" that you intend to participate. Clicking the confirm button is a courtesy that indicates you got the message and will either play yourself or arrange for a sub. Failure to confirm just leaves the league organizer in a bind. If he is conscientious he may follow up with a phone call to determine if you are playing. If you are scheduled to play and your plans change after receiving the confirming notice, you will have to arrange for a sub. If you try to change your status online after the schedule is locked the system will reject your change and remind you to get a sub and notify the league captain. On the confirming email you'll see who is playing, who was wait listed, who is possibly available and who is definitely unavailable. If you use that info to find a sub it works best. Start with the wait listed players, try the possibles and even other members you may know. The sub you find does not need to be at your same level of play as we will reorder the matches based on the rankings of the players present at game time. You should also notify the league organizer that a sub will be playing, so he'll be able to contact the sub directly should any further changes arise. In the event you cant find a sub, contact the organizer by phone to let him know. Sometimes when the sub list is short, the organizer will drop a court if players have to drop out. A final note on last minute changes: Don't expect to be able to get a sub or notify the organizer by email at the last minute. Although some of us are always connected, most are not. You need to use the phone. In the event we have to drop a court, the organizer will have the information he needs to notify those involved. Finally should bad weather threaten, don't assume league is canceled. We have a strong bias toward playing if at all possible, and weather in New Orleans is notoriously fickle. So unless it is actually raining at 7pm, or it is wet and more rain is threatening, we'll almost always try to play. We'll notify the front desk at the club if we are going to cancel on the day we are playing. You can call the front desk for an update after 6pm on game day. If the front desk does not know whether league has been canceled, you should assume we will play, even if they tell you the courts are wet. Finally, we get to scoring and rankings. Every player has a league ranking on a scale from 1 to 16. 1 is the best and 16 the worst. Each week we use the rankings to make the court assignments out of the pool of players present at game time. The four best play on court 1, the next four on court 2 and so on. Each week after we play, we enter the scores into a database accessible from the website. When all the scores are in, we post that week's results and update each player's ranking. If you had a score, your ranking will improve half a point for each game over 15 you won during your match. If you won fewer than 15 your ranking will drop half a point for each game below 15. The program limits the amount your ranking can change in a single week to 2.5 points, so scores under 10 or over 20 have no further effect on rankings. Rankings are carried over from season to season. New players joining the league start at the bottom and work their way up. New players with a USTA rating may be ranked higher to start. At the end of the Fall and Spring seasons we tally the scores and declare a winner based on the sum of the highest eight scores for each player. There are no formal prizes, but traditionally the winner's entry fee for the next league season will be waived. Over the years we've played lots of tennis and had many wacky circumstances arise. Following the procedure minimizes the work load of organizing the league and the aggravation of no-shows while maximizing the chances for enjoyable tennis. We've been using this procedure since 2003 and are always open to suggestions for improvements. Contact Bill Varney at 394-3471 if you need help signing up or more information. |
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