Minutes of the USTA NorCal Junior Team Tennis ... - USTA.com

Minutes of the USTA NorCal Junior Team Tennis Committee Meeting Thursday, August 25th 2016 NOTE: All minutes are final after approval by the committee and all committee decisions are subject to final approval by the USTA NorCal Board Mark Fairchilds, chair of the JTT Committee called the meeting to order at 12:30pm and roll call was conducted. Committee Members Present: Mark Fairchilds (chair), Tan Truong, Tim Sunderland, Rosie Bareis, Caryn Cranston, Cris Bacharach, Nathan Ganesh, Bill Weber, Judy Newman USTA Staff Present: Darren Wenger, Junior Team Tennis Specialist; Summer Verhoeven, Manager of Junior Play. Committee Members Absent: None 1. JTT Summer Season Recap  The summer season was discussed and the following concerns were brought up to review on future calls:  There seemed to be more defaulted matches during the season and issues getting players enough official matches to qualify for Sectionals due to the defaults  Player registration seemed to be an issue as some teams did not register full rosters of teams after the schedules had been published. There is no rule in place to penalize this behavior  There were less teams competing overall in summer than in the 2015 season  Travel time/distance seems to be increasing in certain age divisions and areas due to the drop in number of teams competing. Travel time/distance is a concern of most coaches/players.  The Boys and Girls 12U division numbers were smaller than previous years  There were a lot of rescheduled matches by coaches after the schedules had been published. This lead to some communication issues and lack of consistency from the view of parents/players.  The JTT Section Championships feedback was all positive, especially regarding the decision to modify scoring formats at JTT Same Gender Sectionals due to heat/smoke  The 3 day tournament concept piloted for the JTT Coed Sectionals 18U Advanced division seemed to work very well for the advanced level players. The feedback was very positive. 2. USTA Youth Progression System and Junior Ratings  Committee discussed the upcoming changes on Sept. 1st regarding the launch of the Youth Progression System and the NTRP Junior Ratings and how it will affect JTT programming 3. 2017 JTT Section Rules / Regulations  There was a discussion regarding the conforming rule changes needed to be compliant with the new Youth Progression System and NTRP Junior Rating system  Committee did not change any of the 2017 JTT Section Rules/Regulations as presented  There will be future discussion about adding a regulation regarding the NTRP Junior Rating system and how the section will determine an Intermediate or Advanced player for Same Gender leagues  USTA NorCal will adopt the USTA JTT National Player Benchmark (Coed Divisions) on Jan. 1st 2017 as well as a new Same Gender division benchmark at that time

Minutes of the USTA NorCal Junior Team Tennis Committee Meeting Thursday, August 25th 2016 4. Fall Section Championships – Adding a 14U Division  Committee agreed to add a 14U division to the Fall Section Championships rather than qualifying 14U teams to the Summer Section Championships  Teams will not be able to advance to 2017 JTT Nationals from a fall season league  This change should increase the quality of local leagues by being able to run a more player friendly match format that encourages multiple match play opportunities for each player (as opposed to the JTT National Championship league formats) 5. 2017 Section Championship Dates  There was consensus to run the JTT Same Gender Section Championships on Aug. 5th – 6th 2017  The JTT National Championships have been moved up a month from October to September in 2017  This means the Coed JTT Section Championships must be completed by July 31st 2017  The Coed Section Championships and Gar Glenney Cup dates were not agreed upon and will be discussed on future calls  There was discussion to change the qualification process for Coed Championships, in which would allow for Coed Sectionals to be run on an earlier date in July (compared to previous years) 6. Gar Glenney Cup Feedback  The NorCal coach feedback was mostly positive from the event, including the addition of a player party  The negative feedback expressed was regarding the start time chosen by the SoCal coordinator on Sunday which led to a late finish and NorCal teams getting stuck in LA traffic commuting back to NorCal  There were also concerns about the way SoCal qualifies their players/teams for the event, as there was at least one 13 year old SoCal player playing in the 12U Division

Call Ended at 1:30pm