By Greg McAfee, Men’s League Vice President
I hope you are spending your offseason by playing ALTA Mixed Doubles or maybe even some pickleball. Either way, be sure to stay conditioned and ready to play in the spring league. One of the best ways to stay competitive for the upcoming season is to keep playing tennis during the winter months. This helps keep the “rust” off and avoids injuries which lead to defaults during the season. That, in turn, leads to frustrating your captain as he screams, “This was going to be the season we get the plate!” Too dramatic? No problem … just get out there and do something.
Registration for the spring season opened on Dec. 29, 2022. Can you believe it? When you’re making those New Year’s resolutions, how about adding one more? Renew your ALTA membership before the roster deadline so that you won’t be left off the spring roster! You’ll thank me later.
Here are three reminders before you submit your roster:
1. As mentioned above, captains, be sure to get your players to renew their membership before the roster deadline. Oftentimes, players fail to renew, and the roster is submitted, and a team moves down a level making it difficult to get the player added back to the roster.
2. Having a healthy roster size of 17-20 players is needed to avoid defaults during the season. If you are having trouble getting additional players, you can check the ALTA website under your Member Portal > My Resources. Click on the first box > Find Players and Teams. You can filter and locate players who are looking to join a team. Likewise, if you are a player who needs a team, this is a good resource to find those teams in need of players.
3. If your team wishes to move up or down, when submitting your roster, please be sure to click the “Request for Review” box and provide a reason for the move. This is the best way for someone to put eyes on your requested level.
Lastly, we all love to win and enjoy the competitive spirit of tennis but remember, this is a recreational league and is meant to be fun. Things like “sandbagging” and not giving the opponent the benefit of the doubt on close line calls can stir up emotions on court, which can lead to poor sportsmanship. Please be courteous to your opponents and enjoy the challenge of competition when you win and when you lose.
