Friday, November 2, 2012

New League Schedules/Formats for 2013 Posted

Some folks may have seen this already but the specifics for the new age based leagues are available.   Below is summary email from HTA, and I have highlighted the two men's leagues that would be of most interest to folks here below.  

I guess I am slightly confused over how this is going to work:

  1. Does the over 40 league feed into any sectional/national structure?  
  2. Can one play on two teams (if eligible)?
  3. Is there a specific age cut-off for the >40 league?  It just says "during 2013", I guess that means Dec 31?

Interesting to me that the young guy league is fewer lines (2S + 2D) and the old guy league is similar to the USTA format of 2S + 3D.

I believe it should be the other way around as it seems like the young guy league will have more people signed up for it.

Maybe we will finally get rid of this no-ad crap and can play our local leagues like the rest of the state does.... Is anyone listening?

Also, for those who play in the A division of the North Suburban league, this new USTA approach might erode the participation in the North Suburban league.




Hello Captains,

With the USTA League Restructure (for more info click here) going into effect in 2013, HTA has to make changes too.  After reviewing our membership’s ages and the survey results we found that 60% of men and 70% of women Houston league players are 40 and over.  Close to 70% who qualify showed interest in the new USTA 40 & Over league. 


USTA believes the 40+ league will be just as successful as 18+ in the coming years, HTA wants to set up the new league for success.  To do so we have to make room at the public and private facilities in the spring for the new 40 & Over USTA league.  To do this the format for HTA spring league must change.  See 2013 Spring League Flyer and 2013 League Calendar Grid attached. 

2013 Houston Tennis Association Spring League Calendar:

·         HTA Spring Adult League: Monday Night Men.  Format 2 doubles; 2 singles.  January 14-March 18
·         USTA 40 & Over League: Tuesday Night Ladies.  Format 3 doubles; 2 singles.  January 8-March 12
·         HTA Spring Adult League: Wednesday Night Ladies.  Format 2 doubles; 2 singles.  January 16-March 20
·         USTA 40 & Over League: Thursday Night Men.  Format 3 doubles, 2 singles.  January 10-March 21
·         USTA 40 & Over League: Thursday Morning Ladies.  Format 3 doubles; 2 singles.  January 10-March 14
·         HTA Spring Adult League: Friday Morning Ladies.  Format 4 lines doubles.  January 18-March 22
·         USTA 40 & Over Mixed League: Sunday Evening Mixed.  Format 3 doubles.  January 6-March 17   
·         HTA Spring Mixed League: Sunday Evening Mixed.  Format 4 doubles.  January 27-April 14
·         WTT Corporate Cup League: 3rd Saturday monthly play.  Format 2 doubles; 2 singles; 2 mixed.  January 19-August 17

Please prepare for the new season in the coming weeks, contact your players about who qualifies for what league.  Figure out what league(s) suits your team best.  Registration for all spring leagues will start after the 2012 End of Year Ratings are published in late November.  Check out the full Spring League Details here.  

I will be emailing league night captains individually with home court options/procedures.  Check the website for updates on league: Visit www.houstontennis.org, Hover over the ‘News’ link in the yellow row near the top of the page, Choose ‘Hot News’, Choose ‘2013 USTA League Restructure & Spring League Info’ for the official Spring League page. 

Here are the flyers:

http://tinyurl.com/SpringFlyer2013

http://tinyurl.com/SpringFlyer2013-Grid




18 comments:

  1. I believe the reasoning for the 2/2 YOungins and 2/3 oldies structure is statistically there are more 40+ players

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  2. Yeah. But will they all migrate over to the 40+ league when they're accustomed to playing the normal league? I doubt it.

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  3. good questions chris. this is the dumbest ideal from the usta. why have a separate age group if you have an ntrp rating system. just look at tournament registrations. majority of the players sign up to compete in the ntrp rating division, rather then the age division.

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  4. Yes, the USTA 40+ leagues feed into Sectionals and Nationals.

    Yes, you can play on an 18+ and a 40+.

    40+ age cutoff is just like the other age-division leagues: just need to turn 40 sometime during that year (in this case, 2013), so your guess is right.

    The 40+ league is 2+3 because Secs and Nats will be. The 18+ Spring league does not need to be because it doesn't feed into Secs or Nats. During the summer, there will be an 18+ 2+3 league that feeds into Secs and Nats.

    No-ad will always be hard to get rid of as long as leagues are played at night, and places like Memorial Park close too early.

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  5. For those of you that don't know, the USTA 40+ league allows two 5.0 players at 4.5 and two 4.5 players at 4.0. They have to play line one single or doubles. (HTA allows this to, but no one exploits this because there is no advancement.)

    USTA 4.5 league already has an incredibly wide range of competition. Now, some washed 4.0 bumps who barely get by in 4.5 (like me) will have the honor of being sacrificed to 5.0 ringers. Yeah, I think that I will pass on that "opportunity".

    I'm going to tank my way down to 4.0 and play in the 3.5 40+ league next year. Seriously.

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  6. I think part of that is correct and part isn't. The 40+ 4.5 league is indeed a "4.5+", and two 5.0s can play - one at #1 singles, and one at #1 doubles. The 4.0 league however is pure 4.0.

    Se rule 2.01A in the draft USTA 2013 Rules
    http://assets.usta.com/assets/1/15/2013_Regs_final_draft.pdf

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  7. what a mess created by the usta.

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  8. In the 4.5+ league can you have more than 2 5.0 players on the team, but only 2 in any lineup. Also can the 2 5.0 players play #1 doubles together.

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  9. Yes to the first question, no to the second.

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  10. As a "strong" 4.0 who was disqualified from league only 4 weeks in this summer thanks to poor captaining, I was 100% interested in playing Men's 40s 4.5 league until I read that 5.0s are allowed to play at line 1. I would never be a line 1 player on a good 4.5 team so line 1 really doe not affect me directly but if a 5.0 is playing at 1 then that means all the "real" 4.5s will be playing down at the other lines and there probably won't be much advantage of playing 40s 4.5s. Maybe I am wrong cause I sure would like to give this new USTA league offering a try.

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  11. after 7+ years of playing in summer league. i can definitely say that i wont be signing up this year. it's a total cluster f*ck

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  12. This is stupid alot of the 40 and overs are good and will want to play on both teams, so the format should be 2 singles 3 doubs like the over 40 league. They already eliminated one playing oppurtunity a week for under 40's and then two less players get to play in whats left. Doesn't make since. Being under 40 I am very dissapointed as we already struggle to get enough playing time in.

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  13. Houston needs more (not to mention better - a separate topic) public courts. In HTA's eyes, rightly or wrongly, that's the bottleneck to more leagues.

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  14. When do EOY rankings come out. I'm curious to know if my tanking worked.

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  15. Typically it is week after Thanksgiving for EOY.

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  16. So typical of the HTA. Another well thought out plan. They are changing the formats of HTA Leagues.

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    1. I believe the 40+ 4.5's are the toughest players in town, because the young 4.5's are a bunch of pusseys. Go 40+

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  17. Really wish HTA could get their act together. In the blog above it states Wed. nights is 2 lines singles, 2 lines doubles; states that over 40 mixed is on Sundays; states HTA mixed doubles is 4 lines. That does not match the info on the spring calendar you see when you click on the link for "check out spring schedule here". Don't you think they've confused everyone enough without the inconsistent information?

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