Minutes of the USTA NorCal Junior Team Tennis Committee Meeting ...

Minutes of the USTA NorCal Junior Team Tennis Committee Meeting Friday, March 20th 2015 Mark Fairchilds, chair of the Junior Team Tennis Committee called the meeting to order at 12:35pm and roll call was conducted. Committee Members Present: Mark Fairchilds (chair), Tan Truong, Tim Sunderland, Judy Newman, Nathan Ganesh, Rosie Bareis, Cris Bacharach, Bill Weber, Caryn Cranston USTA Staff Present: Darren Wenger, Summer Verhoeven, Sofia Donlevy Committee Members Absent: Cris Bacharach 1. 2015 JTT Section Regulations Discussion a. Current 11 and 12 year old players – Playing in two ball color levels during one season 1. Committee discussed the rule regarding players playing out of level in JTT seasons (Rule 2d – Page 6). A straw vote was taken and with unanimous agreement, committee supported to draft a proposal that allows 11 and 12 year old players to compete in two different ball color levels during any season of USTA NorCal Junior Team Tennis. This would make a player eligible to play in both a green ball and yellow ball division during the same season. The final proposal will be discussed during the next meeting. b. Allow players 10 and under the ability to play “out of level” during the JTT summer season 1. Committee discussed the rule (Rule 2d – Page 6) that does not allow players to play out of their current level in the Junior Development Pathway if they are 10 and under. After a straw vote with 3 in favor of letting players play out of level during the summer season, and 4 abstaining, Mark Fairchilds is going to discuss this potential rule change with the R.O.G.Y Committee Chair before moving forward with a formal proposal. 2. Incentive Program Discussion a. Committee discussed numerous new incentive proposals and via a straw vote, unanimously supported to draft proposals for the following incentives: 1. Local League Organizer – Add an additional season to the current incentive program to encourage more organizers to run leagues, as well as lower the minimum league requirements in order to help grow Orange ball and Green ball pathway leagues. 2. H.I.T.S. – Red Ball JTT Incentive – Create an incentive program, $200 per league, for the first 20 leagues that sign up and run the program. 3. New Championship JTT Teams – Create an incentive program to help grow new teams in areas that have never participated in JTT before. This will help grow areas that may have HS or MS teams, but the players do not participate in USTA leagues. This would be designed for the first 100 teams to register (must have 3 or more new players on a team in order to be eligible). Each team captain would receive $100 per new team created.

Minutes of the USTA NorCal Junior Team Tennis Committee Meeting Friday, March 20th 2015

3. 2015 World Team Tennis National Championships a. Committee discussed how to create a fair way to qualify/send a junior team to represent the USTA NorCal section at the 2015 WTT National Championships held at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego. A straw vote was taken and with unanimous agreement, committee supported to draft a proposal in which a team grant would be created to allow USTA NorCal to cover the entry fee ($530) for the Coed 18U Advanced team that finishes in 2nd place at the JTT Section Championships. Since this team would not automatically advance to the USTA JTT National Championships, they would be granted a free entry to play in the following year’s WTT National Championships. In the event that the 2nd place team receives a wildcard into the USTA JTT Nationals, the team grant will be awarded to the next highest finishing team at the JTT Section Championships that does not have opportunity to play in the USTA JTT National Championships