Celina Pickleball Men's League

Paul Puttonen, Brenda Graves, Barrett Kincheloe, Jeremy Puckett, and Matt Ervine are running an advanced men's pickleball league for players in the Celina, TX and surrounding area.

We had 52 players (4 teams + subs) participate in the Spring 2021 season.
We had 42 players participate in the Fall 2021 Men's Ladder League.
We had 65 players (5 teams + subs) participate in the Spring 2022 season.

For the Spring 2022 season we went back to a team-based format and introduced a pre-season round-robin player draft to balance the teams. The 55-player draft was completed on February 27. The five 11-player teams started the Spring 2022 season on March 28, 2022.

Video	Description
	Celina Pickleball Men's League
	Celina Pickleball Men's League - promo 1
	Celina Pickleball Men's League - promo 2
	Full Metal Whack It

Quick Links to League Documents

Celina Pickleball Men's League liability waiver
Celina Pickleball Men's League score sheet

League Teams

Each league team consists of 11 players - including the team captain. Each week the team captains decide which 8 of the 11 players on their team will play that week's match.

At the beginning of the season, all eligible players (except team captains) are included in the pool of draftable players. On draft day we do a serpentine/snake draft where each team captain in turn selects a player from the pool until either all players have been selected or all teams are full.

All undrafted players are given the option of being placed in a substitute queue. When a team is in need of a replacement player due to a player's unavailability, injury, etc., the next available substitute player in the queue is given the opportunity to play instead.

Team captains are responsible for keeping their team organized, forfeit-free, and for providing nets and balls for their events.

If a team player needs to leave a team for any reason, the player has the following two options:

1. A player may request to quit their team and be moved to the sub pool. If this is approved by the board, the player forfeits their league fee.

2. A player may quit their team and the season at any time. The player forfeits their league fee.

Regardless of how a player vacates a spot on a team, the affected team's captain has these options:

1. Leave the player's spot vacant.

2. Call up a willing and like player from the sub pool (requires board approval).

3. Find a like player on their own (requires board approval).

Trading players between teams while a season is in progress is strictly prohibited.

League Schedule

The Celina Pickleball Men's League started its third season (Spring 2022) on Monday, March 28, 2022 and finished on Saturday, June 18, 2022.

For each match there is a designated "home" team and an "away" team. Note that the "home" team has some extra responsibilities for their matches (see League Matches below).

Since we only had the one 4-court venue in Celina reserved for league play, matches were played on Monday and Thursday nights at 7:30pm in Celina.

League Fee

The league fee is $30 per player per season. All proceeds go to Celina Pickleball. Proceeds are used for Celina Pickleball expenses, including hosting of the annual Celina Pickleball Bang Bang tournament.

League Match Venues

132 N Louisiana Dr, Celina, TX 75009

League Matches

Each of the 4 pairs of players will play each other in a round-robin format 2 games to 11, win by 1. Thus, players will play a total of 8 league games per event. This requires 2 to 2.5 hours to complete the event. League events typically finish around 9:30pm.

If a team is unable to bring 8 players total (including substitutes) and a minimum of 5 registered team players (non-substitutes) to an event, that team forfeits the entire event as if the opposing team had won all games 11-0, 11-0 and is thus awarded the maximum of 80 league points. Team captains are expected to notify the league administrator of their team's forfeit at least 4 hours before the event starts so that all players can be notified that the event has been cancelled.

All games must be played 2v2. No 2v1 or 1v1 games are allowed.

All games will be played according to the 2022 USA Pickleball rulebook.

Each side may take one 1-minute timeout per game.

There will be no referees or lines people. All calls must be made according to 2022 USA Pickleball rules by the 4 players on the court only. Please bear in mind that this league is intended to be challenging, but fun. We have no desire to penalize any individual player or team for unacceptable behavior, but we will if necessary.

To keep the round-robin format simple, the "home" team should not rotate courts, but the "away" team should. Thus, each "away" team plays 2 games on each of the 4 courts.

Each week the "home" team must supply at least 12 pickleballs for the match. For the first home match of the team's season, the pickleballs must be brand new. After that the team only needs to replace the unplayable ones with new ones for their next home match. Thus not all pickleballs for a given match will be brand new, but they must be in reasonably good condition - no obvious cracks, significant wobbles, or other issues that would negatively impact play. Events should generally use Dura Fast 40 Yellow or Neon Green pickleballs, but if a match is expected to be played near or below 50 degrees F, Franklin X-40 Yellow pickleballs may be substituted.

Every team (both "home" and "away") is required to provide two (2) regulation size portable pickleball nets for each week's event.

League Score Sheets

The "home" team must print and bring at least four (4) copies of the League Score Sheet to each match. One (1) score sheet will be used per court to record the scores for all 8 games on that court. The "home" team players must record the results of each game on that court's score sheet and turn in all of the score sheets to their team captain at the end of the match.

League Points

League team points will be awarded as follows:

Match win; highest total game points for the 2-game match; not awarded for a tie	1 point
Game win with 11 points	2 points
Game loss with 6-10 points	1 point

If a team fails to appear for an event within 10 minutes of the scheduled event start time, the opposing team records four match wins of 11-0, 11-0 and is thus awarded the maximum of 20 league points.

The winning team for an event is the team with the greater number of match wins out of the 16 matches played. A match win is awarded to the team with the greater number of total game points for both games of the match. If both teams win the same number of matches, the winner of the event is decided by the team that earned the greater number of league points. If that is also a tie, then the event is a tie.

If a player becomes injured and is unable to complete a game or match, the current game and all subsequent games involving the injured player are scored as if the opposing team won every point from that point on.

End of Season Tournament

Since we could not find a way to get enough team players on either Saturday, June 18 or 25 to execute a reasonable playoffs, we decided to turn that day into a season-ending Celina Men's League-only doubles tournament instead.
The tournament was held on Saturday, June 18, with the first round of matches starting at 8:30am.
This was a double-elimination tournament. Thus all players were guaranteed at least 4 games.
All matches were 2 games to 11, win by 1 except for the finals which was best of 3 games to 11, win by 2.
In the event of a tie (e.g. 11-7, 7-11), a tie-breaker game to 7, win by 1 was played.

Inclement Weather

If the weather conditions for an event would severely impact the result or compromise the safety of the players, the event should be cancelled. The captains of the respective teams are responsible for making this decision and communicating the cancellation to their players.

Recommended guidelines that justify cancelling an event:

• Rain - any amount that makes the courts slick/dangerous
• Snow/sleet - any amount
• Temperature below 40°F
• Wind - sustained wind speed over 20mph

Please communicate event cancellations to league management so that the event can be promptly re-scheduled.

League Organization and Communication

We use the free TeamLinkt ( https://www.teamlinkt.com) online software and mobile app to organize, schedule, communicate, and track league play results.

Once the teams are formed for a season, we use TeamLinkt to send every player an email that details how to install the TeamLinkt app on mobile devices.
Teams/players are not required to use TeamLinkt, but it is highly recommended.

League Liability Release Form

All players are required to agree to and sign the Celina Pickleball Men's League waiver. If you have previously signed and submitted this same version of the waiver there is no need to do so again.