2016 Summer League
I have to admit, I was rather chuffed at how the Summer
League turned out this year. With necessity being the mother of invention, I
was forced to change the format of the league last year because of the court area
renovation, and even though I was skeptical it would work, it actually turned
out to be noticeably more successful the team versus team arrangement we are
all familiar with.
There were a few major differences. Firstly, the players
would still be grouped into teams, however, the players of each team were all
of a similar level. So, for example, Team 1 were all ‘A’ players, Team 2 were
all ‘B’ players, and so forth. The task of each team was to play as many
matches amongst themselves through
the season. Teams received 1 point for each completed match, and players could
play the same opponent as often as they wished – each result was counted. The
players on the team with the most matches completed would receive a prize.
Secondly, on an individual basis, the players on each team
were also playing against each other.
Points were awarded based on each result, so each team had an internal ranking.
Obviously the more matches one played, the more points one could accumulate. The
player on each team with the most points would receive a prize.
All matches were self-schedule so the flexibility was
helpful too. No longer did the players have the pressure of ‘make-up’ matches
from the previous week. Either you played a lot, or you didn’t. Teams took the
luxury of organizing mini-round-robins on some days and could knock-out many
matches at once. It’s the stats that always tell the tale, so check these out:
- We had 100 players in the league. That beat the previous summer league record of 90 set in 2014.
- Overall, there were 443 matches completed. Amazing. That worked out to be an average of 27.6 matches per week. (Total of 16 weeks.)
- The winning team - Team 7 - completed 97 matches. Also amazing.
- Team 5 played the least amount of matches with just 8. Not so amazing.
- Three of the teams made up 58% of the total matches.
- Only 2 of the teams had all 10 players complete a match.
- 11 players did not play any matches. That is especially disappointing considering there were 4 people who couldn’t get in because it was full.
- David Zack (Team 7) played the most matches – 43.
- Ryan MacVoy (Team 4) scored more points than any other player in the league – 164
- The 2 players who played each other most often were the MacVoy brothers. Ryan and Zac played each other 14 times. Ryan won 11 of them. Only three of the 14 results were 3-0, so it was clearly competitive.
Congratulations to this year’s winners:
1. Winning
Team 7: Jim Fair, Jason Trombley, John
Stelter, David Zack, Han Peng, Glen Milligan, Ted Mabley, Julie Vande Vusse,
Gus Ploss, Pat Hughes.
2. Winning
Players: Team 1 – JC Tibbitts; 2 – James
Van Dyke; 3 – Jerry Rock; 4 – Ryan MacVoy; 5 – Mike Cooney; 6 – Eric Scheible;
7 – Julie Vande Vusse; 8 – Howard Kaplan; 9 – Matthew Turnbull; 10 – Shaun
Dillon
This should encourage more participation next summer. The
format works, you can play as often as you please, and the incentive is there
to play for yourself as well as your team. Plus, it’s a great way to keep in
match shape. Otherwise, we’ll see you this fall and winter jam the courts up
like never before!
