New Changes For Super Champs

At the recent USTA Texas Annual Meeting the Junior Tennis Council has made the following changes:

 

Effective immediately - All Super Champ Major Zone entry deadlines will be standardized to take place two Mondays prior to the start date of each tournament – at 11:59pm.

 

Singles

• Effective April 1, 2012 - Super Champ Major Zones will no longer use the all factors method for seeding and draw splits.  All seeding and draw splits for singles will be based on the most current Super Champ Standings List. 
• There will be no special consideration for younger players, Out of Section players, national rankings, significant wins or head-to-head wins.

 

Doubles

• Effective April 1, 2012 - The doubles seeding and draw splits at Super Champ Major Zones will be based upon the most current combined singles ranking on the Super Champ Standings List for each team.
• Effective April 1, 2012 - While it is still strongly encouraged to register together with a specific partner, players may now register for doubles individually.  Any player who registers individually will be paired with another individual entrant in descending order from the Super Champ Standings List.  Players may not make changes to this pairing unless a substitution is required from an original partner’s withdrawal.
• Effective April 1, 2012 - Doubles substitutions for withdrawals are now allowed anytime before the doubles team’s first round doubles match (the substitute player must still be entered in singles in that same age division). 

 

Out of Section Players

• Effective April 1, 2012 - Out of Section players will be seeded and placed into A or B draws based on the Super Champ Standing List (no special consideration towards draw splits or seeding).
• Effective September 1, 2012 – Out of Section players are limited to one Super Champ Major Zone per quarter.
• The schedule is as follows:
• 4^th Quarter 2012: October Super Champ Major Zone
• 1^st Quarter 2013: January Super Champ Major Zone
• 2^nd Quarter 2013: April Super Champ Major Zone
• 3^rd Quarter 2013: August Super Champ Major Zone
• 4^th Quarter 2013: October Super Champ Major Zone

 

Aging Up

• Effective April 1, 2012 - The Super Champ age up percentage will be 35% for all age divisions.  In order to age up into the Super Champ division, all Super Champ players must be within the top 35% of eligible players on the Super Champ Standings List for the month prior to their birth month.  In Super Champ Boys' and Girls' 12s, players may be ranked within the top 35 or be within the top 35% of eligible players.

 

 

MTOA Board Meeting

The MTOA Board of Directors met last night and took further steps to strengthen the training program of the association.  One of the most pressing issues facing our association is integrating new officials into the workforce and these new steps should greatly enhance that process.  Here are some of the steps being taken:

*  Each new official will be required to attend the Roving 101 class.  Upon certification, the new official will be contacted about the class and also be sent a class schedule so they can attend the training class of their choice.

*  Additional trainers will be added to the training program.  You can view the list of trainers at the bottom of this post.

*  Referees will be more involved in contacting new officials to work tournaments and events.

The board also reviewed and reaffirmed the current pay policies of the MTOA.  They confirmed the current pay scale of $18/hour for referees with an 8 hour minimum, and $15/hour for umpires with a 6 hour minimum.  They also reaffirmed the "meals policy" in which a tournament may either provide meals for their officials or allow the official to leave their site to go and obtain food for a reasonable period of time.

The board  adopted a new policy of assigning each new official to a more experienced official to help them navigate the beginnings of their officials career.  Upon certification, the new official will be sent an email notifying them of their mentor.

Here are the trainers for the MTOA:

Stephanie Burnam
Nancy Ebersole
Randall Edwards
Larry Gendron
Nancy King
Myron Krueger
Randy McDonald
Seande Pulley
Lee Thornburg
Roz Tuerk
Susan Wertenberger