Working…
Industrial League Charter
Indianapolis Industrial
League
Rules of Play
REVISED TUESDAY , MAY 16, 2023
FORMAT
The Indianapolis Industrial League is a competitive league for high school aged players through adults playing at a NTRP 3.5 level or above. The league consists of seven teams of 22-rostered players: the Allison-Roevers, the Delinquents, the Kickserves, the Raiders, the Volley-Llamas, the Royals, and the Outlaws. Each week, six of the seven teams will compete while one team has a bye.
League matches are a triple round robin format consisting of three singles (1S, 2S, and 3S) and three doubles (1D, 2D, and 3D) matches per session each week. Each session includes 10- minutes of warm-up followed by 80 minutes of play. The sessions run on Saturdays from September through April at 8:30 AM, 10:00 AM, and 11:30 AM. The regular 21-week season is followed by a 3-week playoff. Schedules will be administered to the team captains before the start of the season.
PAYMENT & REGISTRATION
Each player on the weekly line-up is responsible for paying for their individual participation in the IIL match each week. All rostered players will be required to keep a credit card on file at WIRC. Players who do not have their card on file by the Friday before the opening match of the season, regardless if they are playing that match, cannot earn points for their team until their card is successfully on file. A league fee of $7 per player will be assessed at the start of the season.
Players who neglect to pay the league fee will not be permitted to play as a rostered player. The weekly payment schedule for matches consists of two tiers: the member tier and the non-member tier. Members of West Indy Racquet Club will pay $15/person/play OR buy a $70 pass of 5 plays ($14/play). Member passes expire at the conclusion of the season after the second anniversary of the purchase date of the pass, and all remaining unused plays will be lost.
In other words, if a pass was purchased on October 7, 2017, the pass would expire at the conclusion of the 2019-2020 season. (The second anniversary would be October 7, 2019; and the pass would last through the end of that season of play, which would be the 2019-2020season.) Passes may be shared among members of the same household; however, use of a shared pass does not override the playoff eligibility rule. Captains may also choose to use one of their personal pass plays to cover a player’s payment. Repayment may be worked out between the captain and that player at a later date.
Non-Members will pay $18/person/play for singles or $16/person/play for doubles OR buy an $80 pass of 5 plays of doubles or $90 pass of 5 plays of singles. Passes will expire at the end of the season of the two-year anniversary of the purchase date, and all remaining unused plays will be lost. In other words, if a pass was purchased on October 7, 2017, the pass would expire at the conclusion of the 2019-2020 season. (The second anniversary would be October 7, 2019; and the pass would last through the end of that season of play, which would be the 2019-2020 season.)
All Industrial League captains and players must have an up-to-date membership form or guest form on file with WIRC prior to their first match. Players who have not completed their registration forms will not be permitted to play or score points for their team.
CAPTAINING A TEAM
Persons who elect to captain an Industrial League team must fulfill obligations including but not
limited to the following: (1) building the team roster prior to the start of the season; (2)
organizing and submitting the team line-up each week by the deadline; (3) communicating
regularly with team members; and (4) attending the captains’ meetings and/or Indianapolis
Industrial League Draft prior to the start of the season and prior to play-offs.
Beginning in the 2018-2019 season, one (1) free membership will be awarded to each team for
the team captain. T eams who elect to share captaining responsibilities between two individuals
can split the cost of the second membership between the two captains.
A captain will also earn the benefit of a 24-play pass at the start of each season. T eams who
elect to split the captain’s responsibilities will split their 24-plays equally between the two
individuals. The pass and individual plays on each pass is non-transferable except in the
instances of captains choosing to utilize a pass-play for a last minute substitute player, to
cover the cost of play for one of their rostered players, and/or to cover the cost of a court in
order for their team to earn points for a defaulted match. Captains may not transfer their
captain’s pass to another player for that player to use at their discretion.
ROSTERS, LINE-UPS, WAIVER WIRE,
and PLAYER ELIGIBILITY
Rosters.
Each team shall submit a roster of 22 players and their contact information to West Indy
Racquet Club by the Tuesday that precedes the week that the league is set to start. (In other
words, two Tuesdays before the first Saturday of play.) Rosters should include all players’
preferred email address, telephone number, and NTRP/USTA Rating. If a player does not havea current NTRP , captains, with the assistance of a WIRC teaching pro, shall estimate players’
ratings and indicate the rating as an estimate. Prior to the start of the season, the IIL
Commissioner will alert captains to players from the previous season who were rostered but
played fewer than two (2) times.
An individual may be listed on only one team roster. Each player participating in a weekly team
match must be listed on his/her team’s official roster in order to score points for their team. If a
team has 22 rostered players, the team will need to move a player off the roster in order to add
a new team member. Players may be removed from and then later returned to a particular
team’s roster only once during a season. There is a limit of three (3) roster changes per
Industrial League season. Removing someone from the team roster and subsequently
re-adding them at a later date would count as two roster changes.
Players added after the initial roster submission must be confirmed in an email by a club staff
member as being officially on the team roster by 8:00 PM on the Tuesday prior to Saturday play
in order to score points for the team.
Rosters must be full and/or finalized by November 1 at the latest. Any additions made to rosters
after November 1 count as a roster-change. Additions only made prior to November 1 do not
count as roster-changes; this is simply part of building the finalized roster. A WIRC Staff Member
will lock the captains’ ability to edit rosters on November 1. All subsequent roster changes must
be submitted in writing to the WIRC Staff and all other captains.
Every seven weeks, the WIRC Staff will review the scoring of each player at their assigned
position(s) for each third of the regular season to determine whether or not a player’s IIL Rating
needs to be adjusted up or down. For example, if a 4.5 player is constantly shutting out their
opponent at 2S, they likely need an IIL rating of 5.0. If a 4.5 player is consistently being shut-out
by their opponent at 2S, their IIL rating may need to be adjusted down to a 4.0. WIRC Staff will
communicate first with the player’s captain to discuss and receive feedback. If ratings are
adjusted, all captains will be notified of the change.
In December of each season, the WIRC Staff will review any updated USTA ratings on the
USTA website in order to update the rosters accordingly. A summary email will be sent to all
captains noting any ratings changes on the rosters.
Waiver Wire.
WIRC will collect and maintain a running list of potential free agents for the Industrial League
Captains to add to their roster during the season or to use as subs. Similar to other sports, this
running list of players will be known as the “Waiver Wire”
. T eams with the lowest amount of
points based on the current league standings have first choice to add a player from the Waiver
Wire. Adding a player to the roster after the November 1 deadline, whether that player is
replacing another player or not, will count as a roster change.
Line-ups.
Line-ups shall include players from the team roster. If a captain cannot fill the line-up with
rostered players, the captain may use a free agent, another team’s rostered player, or a new
player from outside the league.
Players shall be assigned playing positions based on NTRP , proficiency at singles or
doubles play, and level of fitness. The guideline NTRP ratings for each position are asfollows:
1S - 4.5 and above 2S - 4.0-4.5 3S - 3.5-4.0 1D - 9.0+
2D - up to 8.5 combined rating
3D - up to 7.5 combined rating
Captains should not put a 5.0-rated player at 2 Doubles unless the team has rostered multiple
5.0-rated players at 1 Doubles already. The captain of this team should inform the captain of the
opposing team of this situation if it arises.
Line-up Submission.
Line-ups shall be submitted by 5:00 PM on Thursday before Saturday play. Captains are
responsible for filling all positions in their line-up. West Indy Racquet Club and its employees
will not be responsible for filling positions. WIRC will provide a list of subs and their level to
captains to aid in filling line-ups. WIRC will also work to connect new interested players with a
captain and/or place them on the free agent list.
Once line-ups are submitted, WIRC Staff must check the players’ ratings each week to make
sure they comply with the guidelines for playing position above. Ratings will also be noted on a
shared document with all captains so that each captain can see what rating has been fielded for
each position of play and make adjustments accordingly.
SCORING
Guest players from another team, free agents, and new players score NO points for the team on
which they are substituting. However, guest players from another team will score all the points
earned for their own team. The only exception to this rule is if a player, acting as a guest player
on another team, is playing against their own teammate. In this case, their team can earn full
points.
Game.
Each game is scored using traditional scoring (with advantage).
Match.
The winner of each match is determined by the total number of games won during the timed
match. At the end of each 90-minute session, indicated by the sounding of a buzzer, all play
stops. Even if play is in midpoint, that point does NOT count. Games still in progress DO NOT
count in determining the winner of the match. If the match is “on serve,
” then the match ends in
a tie, and each team gets 1 point toward the team scoring. If a match is not “on serve,
” the
winner of the match is determined according to the match score at the end of the last
completed game.
Play shall be continuous with no more than 90 seconds between games and 25 secondsbetween points as dictated by Friend at Court regulations for changeovers.
In doubles play, players may switch sides once during the match after 8 games have been
played or after 45-minutes of play, whichever comes first. In switching sides, the player
originally receiving the serve from the deuce side may switch to the ad. side and the player
originally receiving the serve from the ad. side may switch to the deuce side. This may occur
only once during match play.
Tardiness.
A player who arrives late can be forced to forfeit his/her points for the match. The captains of
the opposing teams will discuss the situation and decide whether or not there was sufficient
time to complete a full match.
No-Show Players.
In the event of a default due to a no-show player, the defaulting team will suffer a penalty of -2
points. The team that did not default the match will earn +2 points for their team and the match
will count toward that player’s play-count in preparation for play-offs. Any no-show player will be
charged the full amount of the court. Failure to collect from a no-show player will result in a
player being charged against the captain’s free plays, and the captain and the no-show player
will resolve remaining payment issues.
If a no-show occurs during a play-off week, the same rules apply: the team with the no-show
player will automatically be penalized -2 points AND the team whose player showed up for the
match will be awarded +2 for their team.
Forfeiture.
If both teams agree to forfeit a court due to an inability to field players for that court, neither
team will score or lose points. Both captains must communicate with WIRC prior to Thursday at
5 PM before the Saturday match stating their agreement to default a court and win/lose zero
points.
If one team cannot field a player, but the other team can field a player and does not agree to
forfeit, the team who cannot field a player will lose 1 point for that match and the team who can
field the player will gain 1 point for the match. Additionally, the play will count toward the
player’s play-off eligibility.
Default by Injury (DBI).
If a player must default due to injury in the middle of a match, the defaulting team will score 0
points and the opponents will automatically be awarded +2. Both players will have this match
count toward their play-off eligibility.
Team Scoring
A team will be awarded two points for each individual match won each week based upon the
actual number of games won or as a result of a default by the opposing team, 1 point for a tie,
and 0 points for a loss. A team will receive -2 points for each match defaulted. The team taking
advantage of the default will receive 2 points and credit for an 11-0 match. Any points will be
evenly attributed to each of the players in doubles.
Team Standings.
The weekly and regular season team standings shall be determined on the basis of the total
number of points won during the weekly matches. In the event that two or more teams have the
same number of points won, the respective positions in the final standings shall be determined
based upon the least number of games lost during the season for all matches. In the event that
the foregoing rule does not break the tie, final positions shall be determined on the basis of the
head-to-head matches. If the teams have split head-to-head matches, the winner shall be
determined on the basis of the least total number of games lost in the head-to-head matches.
PLAYOFFS
Prior to the playoffs, a captains’ meeting will be held and run by the Indianapolis Industrial
League Commissioner and/or a member of the WIRC staff to establish correct player ratings
and make any clarifications prior to playoff play. At this meeting, play-off line-ups must be
submitted and the Commissioner must sign off that all players, positions, and levels are
appropriately placed for the safety and benefit of all Industrial League players and games.
In the playoffs, the winner will be determined by the team that earns the most points. In the
event of a tie, the number of games won by rostered players will be the first tiebreak, then, if
there is an additional tie, the winner will be determined by looking at the two team’s
head-to-head matches; the winningest team in those match-ups is the season winner. If this
also results in a tie, the winner shall be determined on the basis of the least total number of
games lost in the head-to-head matches. If the teams remain tied after three tie-breaking
measures are tried, both teams will be recognized as first place winners for the season.
Playoff Eligibility.
In order to score points for their team during playoff matches, players must have played five (5)
regular season matches as a rostered member of the team. If an ineligible player plays, he/she
will be considered a substitute player (free agent) for whichever team he/she plays for in a
playoff match. In addition, a player must have played three (3) times at the level (1, 2, or 3) to
be eligible to play at the same position in the playoffs.
Players may “play up” in the play-offs provided the captains of the two competing teams know in
advance and agree to the level being played up in the higher position. If a player “plays up,
” the
previously stated rule about playing 3 times at the level of 1, 2, or 3 does not apply.
PRIZES
At the end of the pre-season, the team in first place will earn a 3-play pass. This pass will be
usable immediately and will expire at the conclusion of the season after the second anniversary
of the issuance date of the pass.
At the end of the pre-season, the team in second place will earn a 1-play pass. This pass will
be usable immediately and will expire at the conclusion of the season after the second
anniversary of the issuance date of the pass.
The Champion of the Indianapolis Industrial League will be honored with their name on the IIL
plaque displayed in the WIRC lounge. All play-off eligible players from the roster of the
championship team will earn a free tennis membership for the following membership year.