2008 Local League Rules

 

USTA LAFAYETTE REGULATIONS For USA League Tennis
Women's Adult and Senior Divisions - League Year 2008

The USA League Tennis National, Southern, Louisiana, and Lafayette League Regulations have full force and applicability at all levels of play in USA League Tennis in Lafayette and there is no authorization to modify, amplify or change them by local coordinators, grievance, or grievance appeals committees. The Local League Coordinator, in conjunction with the Acadiana Community Tennis Association shall have the authority to interpret the USA League Tennis Lafayette Regulations. USA League Tennis Regulations (National, Southern Section, State, Local) are available at www.acadianacta.com. Printed below are the USTA Lafayette League Regulations as authorized by the USA League Tennis National Regulations, USTA Southern Section Regulations, and USTA Louisiana Regulations. (Note: Paragraphs included herein are numbered according to pertinent paragraphs of the 2008 USTA League Tennis Regulations.)

1.00 GENERAL
1.02 APPLICABILITY.
The USA League Tennis Regulations shall apply to the USA League Program. The Rules of Tennis and Tournament regulations shall apply to all matches played in the USA League Tennis Program except as modified herein. In all matches played without officials, the USTA official publication "The Code" shall be observed. The USTA Point Penalty System shall be used at all championship levels.

1.04 OFFICIAL LEAGUE REGISTRATION.
1.04A Teams may register on TennisLink beginning
11/26/07. Deadline for registering a team (enough players to field a match) is 12/28/07 for Adult League and 1/06/08 for Seniors. Any player advancing to the State Championship must have played 2 matches with the team. All players must be added to the team through TennisLink PRIOR to playing their first match with the team. A player who is played BEFORE being added through TennisLink will be considered an illegal player, and that court (as well as any courts below that one) will be a forfeit for the team playing the illegal player. Players shall not be added to the team roster during local league flight playoffs or at any championship.

1.04B Deadline to add players for Senior Teams is
3/31/08; deadline to add players for Adult Teams is 4/20/08.
Senior State is April 25-28, 2008 in Shreveport. Adult State is May 16-19 in Shreveport for the 3.0, 4.0 levels and May 23-26 in Mandeville for the 2.5, 3.5, 4.5, 5.0 levels.

1.09 AMENDMENTS. These Lafayette League Regulations may be amended by the Acadiana Community Tennis Association.

1.14 REGISTRATION
1.14.A Local Fees & Financial Statement
1.14A(1) The local Community Tennis Associations are responsible for making available a financial statement to the local team captains at the conclusion of each league year. Any fees paid to the local league coordinator, level coordinators, league assistants, and/or league secretary must be itemized on the financial report.
1.14A(2) The 2008
Lafayette league year enrollment fees are as follows: Adult League fee is $18.00 per player + the $3.00 USTA fee ($21.00 total). Senior League fee is $10.00 per player + the $3.00 USTA fee ($13.00 total).

1.20 LOCAL LEAGUE COORDINATORS. Local league administrators who include Local Coordinators and Board of Directors of the local Community Tennis Associations are responsible for administering and promoting the USA League Programs in their area.
1.20A League Code of Ethics. All league administrators will adhere to the USTA Southern Section League Tennis Officials Code of Ethics (http://www.southern.usta.com/usaleaguetennis/custom.sps?iType=987&icustompageid+9305)

2.00 GRIEVANCE PROCEDURES. The Regulations in 2.00 GRIEVANCE PROCEDURES shall apply to all USA League Tennis Divisions.
2.02A(3) Grievances shall be handled by USA League Tennis Grievance and Appeal Committees at the appropriate level (i.e. local, state, or sectional). Grievance actions may be moved to the next higher organizational level for action as deemed necessary by the appropriate governing body.
2.02C Local League Procedures.
SEE GRIEVANCES/APPEALS (below – following league rules) for procedure to follow in the Lafayette League, as well as for League Administrators/Grievance Committee members.

3.00 ADULT LEAGUE REGULATIONS.
All USTA League Tennis Regulations, Southern Section League Regulations, Louisiana Regulations, and Lafayette League Regulations in 1.00 GENERAL and 2.00 GRIEVANCE PROCEDURES and the following procedures shall apply to the USA League Tennis-Adult/Senior Division.

3.01 LOCAL LEAGUE
Each local league has the discretion to accept or deny entry to teams of which the majority of the players are comprised of team members from another area. A local league can not reject a player from another area.
3.01B Team. There is no limit on the number of players enrolled on a team. The minimum number of team members is set by the National League Regulations.

3.01D Entry. A player without a computer rating must self-rate to enter the program. A player with a current NTRP computer rating must use that rating to enter the program.

3.01D(1) Once a player is assigned a computer rating, it is valid for up to three years or until another computer rating is generated.

3.01D(2) Players who do not have a computer rating on file in TennisLink shall self-rate in accordance with the National Tennis Rating Program (NTRP) Guidelines and declare their self-rating on TennisLink when registering for a team. Individuals who have had a national or section ranking; played college tennis; have taught tennis; or played professional tennis must also complete a player history form and submit to the state and receive approval from the state to participate at their self-rated level before participating in a match. Failure to do so or omission of information regarding a player's tennis history will subject the player, the captain and/or others who condoned inaccurate self-rating to sanctions and disqualification.
3.01F Levels of Play. The Lafayette League offers team entry at 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, and 5.0.

3.01H Competition Format.
3.01H(2)Team Match and Scoring.

Adult League match will consist of 3 doubles courts and 2 singles courts, except at the 2.0 and
2.5 levels, where a team match will consist of 2 doubles courts and 1 singles court. Senior League match will consist of 3 doubles courts. Scoring is best of 3 sets, with the third set being a 10-point match tiebreak set rather than a full set. The match tiebreak set is first team to 10 points, winning by 2. Teams shall play on court surfaces as assigned by the club/park.

Team line-ups will be exchanged simultaneously by the team captains prior to the beginning of the team match. Team captains are encouraged to exchange line-ups 15 minutes prior to match time. Team line-ups are exchanged by the team captains completing their line-up on a score card (which is to be printed via the TennisLink system by each captain prior to each match) and trading score cards with the opposing team captain. Each team captain will then complete the exchanged score card by filling in their team's line-up, and scores will be recorded as matches are completed. Captains shall check scores with one another before leaving the courts.

Either captain must then enter the completed match scores into the TennisLink system within 24 hours of completion of the match. The other captain must then check TennisLink and verify or dispute the scores entered within 48 hours of completion of the match. If a dispute is entered, the disputing captain shall email the League Coordinator to advise of the dispute and its reason.

Substitutions are allowed in team line-ups after they have been exchanged if that individual match has not started and default time has not occurred. Substitutions are allowed for: injury, illness, disqualification, or no-show of a player, and when rain or inclement weather forces the canceling and rescheduling of a team match. A substitute is defined as any player who was NOT listed on the original line-up. An individual match is considered started when the first ball is actually put into play.

Players in the Lafayette Women's League will observe a 10-minute warm-up, which includes serves. Serves are to be taken SIMULTANEOUSLY by all players PRIOR TO the start of the match. Default is 15 minutes after the scheduled match time. When an individual match is defaulted, the lowest singles or doubles position must be defaulted first. If a higher position of singles or doubles is defaulted after the respective lower position has started play, the team defaulting the higher position(s) shall lose the lower position also. Ex: If missing one player, a team can default #2 singles or #3 doubles; if missing two players, a team may default #3 doubles, or #1 and #2 singles. No substitutions may be made after line-ups have been exchanged, except for injury, illness, disqualification, or no-show of a player prior to the start of her match. (The line-up can be changed if the match is postponed due to inclement weather for any matches that have not yet begun. Playing courts "in order" does not apply to rain-outs.)

Two players will play together in the higher position when both of their partners do not show, in order to avoid two defaults.

3.01H(2)a. Any team forfeiting the entire match (playing less than 3 courts, or less than 2 courts at the 2.0/2.5 and Seniors levels) twice during a local league season may continue to play, but points won or lost by this team will not count in the final standings. The Local Grievance Committee may impose sanctions against the team members by denying entry into the next year's league program, and/or such other sanctions at their discretion.

3.01H(4)c Interrupted & Canceled Matches/Rescheduling Matches.
Team matches must be played on scheduled courts at scheduled time unless rained out. Captains may not under any circumstance reschedule a match without prior approval from the League Coordinator. If rained out, team captains must set a date for the rescheduled match immediately and notify the League Coordinator by email that they have done so. If a match is interrupted because it runs over the allotted court time, players shall seek out an open court at the location of the match, and if ANY court is available at that time, shall move over to complete the match on an available court EVEN IF IT MEANS a change in playing surface (excluding indoor courts). All attempts to complete the match on the scheduled date shall be made BEFORE rescheduling. The indoor courts at Red's are to be used for rescheduled matches only if both captains are in agreement to the surface and the extra charge. If, 30 minutes prior to the scheduled match time, the club or park authorities are unable to determine whether the courts will be playable at match time, both teams shall show up as scheduled and attempt to play the match. If the club or park authorities subsequently determine the courts to be unplayable, captains shall reschedule the match before leaving the site, or exchange cards/line-ups and allow each court to reschedule individually. Matches are to be canceled ONLY by the club or park when inclement weather is involved, or should there be a conflict in their scheduling.

The home team captain is responsible for reserving courts for any rescheduled matches. Interrupted or canceled matches must be completed before the next team match. It is best to reschedule the match on an individual basis rather than finding a time for the entire team to play. If team captains can not agree on a date and time, the League Coordinator will choose a match time and location.

3.01H(5) Player Participation
3.01H(5)a. A player may play on one team in a NTRP level within this local league during the same season. In local leagues where NTRP levels are divided into flights, players may not play in more than one flight.
3.01H(5)b. A player may play in more than one NTRP level within this local league.
3.01H(5)c. A player may play on more than one team in this league season provided it is in separate local leagues, i.e. day league and night league.

3.02 PROGRESSION.
The team winning the majority of the 5 individual team matches, or 3 individual team matches for
Seniors and at the 2.0/2.5 Adult Levels, will be awarded one team point. The team with the most team points will be declared the local league winner. In case of a tie, the tie shall be broken by the first of the following procedures that does so: (a) Individual matches: Winner of the most individual matches (courts) in the entire local league competition; (b) Sets: Loser of the fewest number of sets; (c) Games: Loser of the fewest number of games; (d) Head-to-Head: Winner of head-to-head match; (e) Toss of a coin.

If a "team in contention" wins a match due to the opposing team forfeiting a total of 3 courts (2 courts at 2.0/
2.5) and thereby giving the contending team a win, then all matches played against the forfeiting team by "teams in contention" for the local league championship shall be thrown out. If, however, all "teams in contention" have already played the forfeiting team in good faith, the matches stand as played. [See 3.01H(2)]

When a level must be split into two divisions for scheduling purposes, each division will play a round robin to determine the top two teams from each division. The top two teams from each division will then play a round-robin playoff to determine which teams will advance to State and in what order, i.e. Lafayette #1, Lafayette #2, etc. If time constraints do not allow a playoff at the end of the local season, the top team from each division will advance to the State Championships, according to their end-of-season record (see PROGRESSION above). If a third spot is given to the State Championship, it will be awarded to whichever team has the next best record from amongst the two divisions for that level. In instances where a split into 3 or more flights is required at any level, the top team from each flight will enter the same round-robin situation as above.

SEE Grievances/Appeals (below) for procedure to file a grievance.

SEE Local League Administrators (below) for Grievance Committee members.

 

 

 

 

Grievances/Appeals

 

GRIEVANCE COMPLAINTS:

All complaints alleging a violation during local league competition shall be filed in writing with the Local or District Coordinator having jurisdiction prior to the commencement of the next team match involving such individual or team, or within twenty-four hours after the end of local league play, whichever occurs first.

Upon receipt of the complaint, the Local or District League Coordinator will immediately send a copy to the chairperson of the appropriate League Grievance Committee and to the party(ies) against whom the complaint has been filed.

A complaint regarding failure to meet eligibility requirements (under age or not a USTA member) may be filed by a team captain or league coordinator at any time. A
USA league coordinator may declare a player ineligible and disqualify that player without filing a grievance prior to the disqualification.

GRIEVANCE APPEALS:

Any party to the complaint may appeal the decision of the Grievance Committee within the time fixed by the Grievance Committee in its findings. Upon receipt of an appeal of the decision of the Grievance Committee, the Grievance Appeal Committee shall act promptly to resolve the appeal.

The party appealing shall file written notice of appeal with the Chairman of the appropriate Grievance Appeal Committee and shall, at the same time, send a copy to the Chairman of the Grievance Committee whose decision is being appealed, Local, District or Section League Coordinator, and to the other party(ies) involved in the complaint.

The parties appealing shall have an opportunity to submit in writing facts and arguments in support of their respective positions.

NTRP REVIEW PROCEDURES:

If the team captain or the player disqualified in the local league desires to appeal the NTRP disqualification, he/she must request, in writing to the section league coordinator or designee, a review before the NTRP Review Committee of the nearest jurisdiction within the deadline set by the administrator.
(NOTE: NTRP Disqualification Reviews are considered based SOLEY on missing or incorrect information.)

 

 

Local League Administrators

 

WOMEN'S ADULT/COMBO LEAGUES- Kathi Bordlee
kathibordlee@cox.net

SENIORS WOMEN ADULT/COMBO LEAGUES- Kathi Bordlee
kathibordlee@cox.net

GRIEVANCE, APPEALS & NTRP COMMITTEES:

*Grievance - Annette Arton(Chairperson)
aaja1@cox.net

Toni Benoit
egbenoit@cs.com

Gale Colvin
galecolvin@msn.com

*Grievance Appeals -
Diana Gary (Chairperson)
Diana@delmarus.com

Kay Chadwick
kchadwick@cox.net

April Fontana
acfontana@bellsouth.net

*NTRP Appeal & Complaint - Advise Local League Coordinator for submission to Southern Section