League Mailing of July 29th

Subject: VDSL 214-15 Season Proposal

Good afternoon all,

Push has come to shove, and it is time to make some decisions. None of them easy.

Court Availability

We currently believe that the Van Lawn doubles court will be available at least through December. And, we are being told by some of the members that the plan is to keep the court open through the 2014-15 season. As such we will produce two alternative schedules. One with the Lawn court available for the season, and a second for the case where it is taken out of service in the new year.

Update as of 2014.07.30 11:39

We have just been advised by Justin Todd, via Natasah Doucas, that the VLT doubles court will not be available in the New Year. Schedules will be developed accordingly. And, as best we know at this time, there will be no VLT teams playing in the 2nd half of the season.

Promotion/Demotion

For the coming season, it was decided to promote VRC Tallman to Div 1, and EVE Johanson (was Henwood) to Div 2. And, to demote EVE Stiphout (was Sibley) to Div 3.

Though a team was promoted, this does not imply all the players from last season should also be promoted. It is incumbent upon the club and team captain to ensure that the promoted teams will be competitive in their new division. That may mean some player recruitment. And, unfortunately, you may need to let some players know they should look to play on a team in a lower division this season.

For example, in the case of Evergreen team Johanson would likely be able to recruit some of the top players from last season's Sibley crew to strengthen their competitiveness this coming season. While the lower echelon players from last season could look to play for team Stiphout — which could need players to ensure its viability.

How Many Divisions?

But, the much tougher decision we had to make is regarding the league's make-up. Most specifically, what to do about Division 4. It seems fairly certain that there will be no returning Division 4 team from Van Lawn. Nor, a new one from Hollyburn. That will leave only 3 teams in Division 4. Past experience says that a 3 team division is catastrophic — bordedom as the season progresses, a lack of player support, difficulty finding spares, players not wanting to play away games, etc.

If we combine the 3 remaining teams with lowest ranking Division 3 teams from last season, we are faced with the fact that matches will not be competitive. This creates its own set of problems. Possibly even having one of the 'demoted' teams from Division 3 last season dropping out.

Consequently, the league has taken the extremely difficult decision to drop Division 4 for the coming season. Hopefully, we will be able to generate interest in a Division 4 team at Hollyburn and/or Van Lawn for the 2015-16 season.

Update as of 2014.08.02 09:54

We were informed yesterday that someone may have stepped up to organize/captain a Div 4 team at Van Lawn. We are waiting for confirmation or denial before continuing with plans for the coming season.

We will advise once we have gotten the final word from the potential captain. Hopefully shortly after the long weekend. If confirmed, we will then need to see if Van Lawn and VRC can field 3 teams between them to make a 4 team division (with one team from Evergreen).

N.B. Should Div 4 be re-instated for the coming season, this will affect, likely negatively, plans for potential new teams in Div 2 and 3.

League Make-up

That currently leaves us with the following divisions for the coming season:

Division 1

Evergreen — Bleay (was Kerluke): to be determined (Captain)
Hollyburn — Kevin Johnson: Kevin Johnson (Captain)
Van Lawn — Brian MacFarlane: Brian MacFarlane (Captain)
VRC — Gerry's Kids (promoted): Peter Tallman (Captain)
VRC — Williams (was Jinks): Geoff Williams (Captain)

Division 2

Evergreen — Johanson (promoted): Annette Johanson (Captain)
Hollyburn — James: Bill James (Captain)
Van Lawn — Gray: Paul Gray (Captain)
VRC — Mottus/Pybus: Randy Mottus (co-Captain); Gord Pybus (co-Captain)

Division 3

Evergreen — Broman/Berwick: Lynn Broman (co-Captain); Ed Berwick (co-Captain)
Evergreen — Gaffney: Brian Gaffney (Captain)
Evergreen — Stiphout (demoted, was Sibley): Will Stiphout (Captain)
Hollyburn — Kaffka: Sue Kaffka (Captain)
VRC — Los Burritos (was Maddison): Ed McCorkell (co-Captain); Rick Kochanski (co-Captain)

Opportunity

The above certainly leaves room for the possibility for an extra team in Division 2. Perhaps even Divisions 1 and/or 3. (As the decision to drop Division 4 has just been made, we have not yet had time to adequately assess the impacts on available court times.) But, and this is a very serious but, any new teams wanting to play in any of those divisions must convince the league that they would be competitive playing in that division.

It has been made abundantly clear to the league that competitive matches is the primary want of all the league's participants. And, so, if the league does not believe a new entry would be competitive in their selected division, we will deny any such request.

That said we whole-heartedly welcome all requests for new teams in any of the above divisions.

Update as of 2014.07.30 11:39

We have been advised that Wayne Maunder will be seeking to place another VRC team in Div 3.

Now or Never

We ask for all of last year's participants, if you believe you have a better solution please let us know now. For those who think they have a 'new' team that can compete in any of the above divisions, please let us know.

One option that is not up for consideration is teams with membership from multiple clubs. The Vancouver Doubles Squash League has always been an inter-club league, with inter-club rivallry a big part of it. And, we believe is should stay that way.

Furthermore, we do not have permission from any of the clubs for non-member participation on any of their VDSL teams. (The occasional spare being the unspoken exception.) Nor do we plan to ask for any such permissions. we are pretty sure that with the number of potential league players at Evergreen and VRC that such an option would not be viable or accepted at either club. And, I expect Hollyburn and Lawn would, for their own reasons, not accept such a league format.

We will in the interim begin looking at scheduling options for the above league structure. And, where feasible some alternatives. But, unless you can by August 15th convince us to make changes, this proposal will define the coming season.

So, please step up and be heard!

Lynn Broman & Rick Kochanski for VDSL