By Diane Royston, Sunday Women’s League Vice President
It is time to start thinking about your fall team rosters! Submission of rosters begins June 24 and runs through July 15.
It is important for players to understand the processes involved in leveling teams within a league, starting with the submission of rosters. Once the rosters are received, the ALTA system calculates team placement based on the level played by the top 8-10 players (depending on the league). This calculation determines the team’s initial placement. More information about this process can be found on the ALTA website under ALTA Documents >>League Placement Calculation. When submitting rosters, captains have the option to submit a Request for Review (RFR) to bring to light any extenuating circumstances they would like to have taken into consideration during the leveling process. The captain can explain why they think their team should be at a different level than what the system assigns.
When the Overall Coordinators and League Vice President begin the leveling process, they take a detailed look at every RFR — what level each player has played, what lines were played, whether they won or lost, etc. Additionally, they look at what players are no longer on the roster, what lines they played, and their win/loss record. Next, we look at the players that are new to the roster and look at the same information. This aids in deciding the impact the addition or loss of players could potentially have on the team.
Determination is then made if the request is valid and if the team should be placed at a level other than that original computer-generated placement. Reasons such as “I have three injured players” are not taken into consideration because that is not something we can or cannot prove. We must deal with facts, such as “We lost our top three players,” “We split our team and would like consideration that we are the lower-level players and have added players who are new to ALTA,” or “We want to be moved up for more challenges.” These are requests we can investigate and confirm.
Once the RFRs have been closely reviewed, teams are leveled. Then the volunteers look at where teams are located and try to limit the travel distance each team must travel for matches. While we try to keep it under 30 miles, it is not always possible when there are only a few teams in a given geographical area. Sometimes a team is moved up or down a level to make for less traveling.
It is a detailed process to level the teams, but we do our very best to place teams at a competitive level and limit travel times when possible.
