The intent of this page is to aid current and future League Directors by describing how to run a VOTS League. On this page you will find general guidelines to follow when running league. This is a rather lengthy page. A quick and dirty checklist is also available.

Running League

Per Jim Tolar (experienced League Director), "This is really not a very hard job because most of the set-up/hard stuff has been pretty much taken care of by past directors. We have templates for pretty much everything (web-pages, registration, rules, whatever) and a large group of eager volunteers that just need to be told what they can do to help."

Basics

VOTS currently offers *adult* leagues twice per year. Spring League typically starts at the end of February and runs through April or May. Fall League typically begins in October and runs through mid-December. We've had difficulty running a Summer League due to the heat (110+).

Our adult leagues are open to all players 18 and over. Players under 16 are not permitted. Players 16-17 can play with a waiver signed by a parent or guardian and permission of the league director.

Our leagues are draft leagues. This means the captains get together before the first game and choose players one at a time from the list of registrants. Everybody will get picked for a team.

League Goals

There are two primary goals of VOTS League:

1. To introduce new players to the sport of Ultimate
2. To provide a fun and challenging game for players of all levels

League has proven to be an invaluable tool for recruiting new ultimate players. It provides existing players the perfect opportunity to say to friends and co-workers, "You always hear me talk about Ultimate. Now you can come and see what it's all about!"

While league is open to new players, it remains a competitive and strenuous game. We play by the Ultimate Players Association Eleventh Edition Rules of Ultimate. At least two-thirds of each team consists of intermediate to experienced players. League is fun for all.

League Budget

recommended 6 months in advance

The first step is to create a budget. This budget must be submitted to the President of VOTS for approval. It is recommended that you do this six months in advance (and prior to reserving fields). For a sample budget, go here.

Advertising

recommended 6 months in advance

No serious advertising has been done in the last few years to increase the participation in VOTS sponsored leagues. If advertising is done, it should be included in the budget. You must also consider the availability of fields given a larger number of participants. Tempe currently has limited field availability.

An easy way to increase participation is to e-mail a promotional league flyer to votsplayers@yahoogroups.com. This can be something as simple as a Word document informing people when league starts and how to register. Encourage recipients to post the flyer at work, church, their gym, school, etc. Here is a sample flyer (right click to download). Feel free to modify this flyer to fit your needs.

Field Reservations

recommended 6 months in advance

Keith Aspinall is currently in charge of field/group reservations for Tempe. You should contact Keith to determine whether fields have already been reserved. If not, fields should be requested as early as possible.

Fields must be reserved prior to announcing league. The number of fields you are able to reserve and the time slots you are able to get may be limited by Tempe. This may negatively affect the number of teams you are able to accomodate.

Tempe is currently unable to give us more than two soccer fields (four ultimate fields) in one time slot. Tempe is able to give us additional fields in different time slots (e.g., two fields from 6-8 and one field from 8-10).

If the unavailability of fields begins to hinder the growth of league, the League Director may need to consider locating lighted fields elsewhere in the Phoenix Metropolitan area.

VOTS tries to offer League on Thursday nights whenever possible. This allows participants to plan around Thursdays far in advance of league announcements. Unless there is a good reason to change this, please try to stick to Thursday nights.

Be aware that Tempe will NOT allow us to play on the fields when they are soaked due to rain. If possible, you should plan an extra night into the schedule in order to make up for rainouts. Tempe will notify the person who made the registration when the fields are closed.

League Sponsorship

recommended 3 months in advance

League Sponsorship is wonderful bonus that can help VOTS League in a number of ways. The ideal sponsor for VOTS League is a local bar/restaurant that is willing to donate cash in exchange for being the post-game destination spot. This provides a mutual benefit to the bar/restaurant and to VOTS League. The bar/restaurant gets numerous hungry and thirsty patrons every week. VOTS League gets cash to offset the expenses of League. This allows us to reduce the registration fees paid by players.

As a special thanks, we always make sure to place the name of our sponsor somewhere on our t-shirts.

Approximately three months prior to the start of league, the League Director should send a letter to a potential or repeat sponsor. requesting sponsorship. The letter should contain:

• thanks for previous sponsorship (if applicable)
• specific level of sponsorship requested for this league
• our commitment to patronize said sponsor after every game
• list of league dates (indicate double header nights which reduce turnout)

Registration

recommended starting 1-3 months in advance

VOTS has a standard registration form created for the web page. Contact the webmaster to update this registration form and have it posted on the web.

VOTS requires a Waiver of Liability for each player. This should be included on-line with the registration form. A player should not be considered registered until they have completed the registration form, the waiver, AND paid their registration fee.

It is recommended that the league registration begin no more than two months prior to the start of league. This reduces the number of 'over-committed' registrants who drop out prior to the start of league. It is also recommended that registration start as early as possible (though not prior to three months). Entering registrations and preparing the draft list is the most time consuming part of running league. By encouraging early registration, you will be able to do much of the work ahead of time and avoid a last minute crush of work.

League Directors may consider using incentives (such as discounts) to get people to sign up early and to encourage people sign-up their friends (buddy bonus).

League Directors should keep "free-league" offers to a minimum. Only the people who do the most time consuming work should be offered free league. These people might include the League Directors and the T-shirt coordinator.

In order to keep teams as fair/even as possible, it is suggested that no experienced players be permitted to sign up for league after the draft has taken place. Experienced/returning players should have no excuse for a late sign-up.

It is *highly* recommended that a spreadsheet be used to maintain league entries. This spreadsheet can then be used to create draft lists sorted by sex and rank for the captains on draft night. It can also be used to prepare the team lists for the web-page.

Estimate Number of Teams

The ideal draft number is 16 players per team (11 male, 5 female). This allows for additional late registrants to be added to teams. It also allows for players to drop out.

The minimum recommended number of draftees per team is 14 (including 4 women). The maximum number of draftees per team is 17.

It is also ideal to have an even number of teams. This eliminates the need for byes which force one team to sit on the sideline or stay home each week. It is typically preferable to have an odd number of teams (and hence a bye) than to have way too many or way too few players per team. This is, therefore, a judgment call.

Find Team Captains

recommended 1 month in advance

Whenever possible, the preference is to have one male and one female captain per team. Captains do NOT have to be the most experienced players available. The only requirement is that captains know the rules of ultimate and be willing to take charge of a team. Important skills for captains to possess is 1) knowledge of the local community so they can draft intelligently and 2) a positive/mature attitude regarding league and "spirit of the game". It is often difficult to find enough female captains - so start early.

League Shirts

recommended 1 month in advance

Each participant is provided with a team shirt. Each team must have a shirt color which can be distinguished from the other teams' shirts. The current local community has more than one red/green color-blind individual. If possible, keep this in mind when choosing shirt colors.

The shirt design is up to you but must be in good taste and should include the logos of any sponsors.

It is essential to have shirts made prior to the first game. It is helpful to have shirts made prior to the draft night (to the extent you know the number of teams). Order enough shirts for each member of each team (plus an extra three shirts per team) according to the following guidelines:

• 2 medium shirts
• appx 40% large
• remaining x-large

Note: In the past, we have waited until all registrations were in and the draft was completed before ordering shirts. Although this allowed us to order the exact sizes and numbers of shirts we needed for each team, it makes things much more complicated and puts you in much more of a time crunch. This is, therefore, no longer recommended.

Local Shirt Vendors
Excel Screen Printing does our NYF shirts 2105 S. Hardy Dr. #4 Tempe, AZ 85282 480-966-1158 mention Kathi Reichert	Diamond Screen Printing 480-921-9318	California Shirt Sales account under 'vots' 1505 W. 17th St. Tempe, AZ 85281 480-966-7751 shirt sales only - no screen printing

Mailing List

recommended 1 month in advance

VOTS maintains a moderated e-mail list on Yahoo Groups for all ultimate-related announcements.

All signups should also be added to this e-mail list (votsplayers@yahoogroups.com).

Contact the webmaster for help/instructions.

Tip-of-the-day: You can only directly add 10 people per day to a yahoogroup, but you can invite 50 people per day. It is probably easiest to invite players not yet on the email list. If they do not accept the invite, you can add them to the list later.

Web Page

recommended 3 months in advance

The VOTS webmaster can provide nuts & bolts updates and page setups using previous league templates. Hosting is completely taken care of by VOTS. Contact the webmaster for additional information.

League Rules and Guidelines

recommended 1 month in advance

It is important that you determine the league-specific rules and guidelines prior to the draft. At the draft, the captains should be given a list of the rules. This may or may not impact their draft choices.

League-specific rules include, but are not limited to the following:

• Games played to...? (15 is recommended for a 1hr 45min game)
• Timeouts per game? (3 is recommended to give captains the opportunity to discuss the game with newer players)
• Mirrors? (not recommended)
• Half-time? (not recommended)
• Pull-rule? (recommended)
• Brick/middle
• Nightly time-schedule
• Softcap/Hardcap (don't forget about ties)
• Line-up rules (male to female ratio)
• What if a team can't produce 7 players?
• Late-registrants (no veterans after draft night)
• Can non-rostered players participate (not recommended)

Team Draft

recommended 2-7 days in advance

After all registrations have been received, the captains must get together and draft their players. The draft is hosted by the League Director(s). The draft typically includes refreshments for the team captains and directors. In the past this has included: bagels and coffee, homemade breakfast, beer, and pizza. This is a budget item.

Prior to the draft, the league director should have a list of available male and female players sorted by rank. This list should include name, rank, age, percentage of games the players will make, and any specific game nights the player will miss.

Male and female players are typically drafted separately.

A number of different methods can be used to draft players. The draft method chosen is up to the league director. Whichever method you choose must have the goal of keeping the teams as even in ability and ratio of men/women as possible.

Ideas for the draft include but are not limited to:

• Pick straws for draft order
  
  • This is not recommended when the captains have varying degrees of experience. It gives the experienced captains an advantage.
• Rank captains and draft in reverse order
  • This is *highly* recommended when the captains have varying degrees of experience. It involves ranking the female captains against each other and the male captains against each other. The team with the best female captain then gets last pick for female players. The team with the best male captain gets last pick for male players.
• Snake draft
• This is not recommended when the captains have been ranked. Snaking involves reversing the draft order for each round (e.g. 1-16 then 16-1 then 1-16 then 16-1). It eliminates the drafting advantage of the least experienced team because while they get the first pick, they don't get another pick until the 32nd pick (for a 16-team league).
• This is *highly* recommended when the captains have not been ranked because it eliminates drafting order advantage.
• Continuous draft
• This is *highly* recommended when the captains have been ranked. It gives the least experienced captains first pick in each round. This helps to reduce the advantage of teams with the most experienced captains.
• Post-draft trades
• Post-draft trading occurs AFTER the draft is completed. Captains are permitted to trade one or more players for one or more players on another team While this has never been implemented in a VOTS league, it is often considered.

Other issues that might need to be considered by the captains on draft night is time slot scheduling and playoff format and scheduling. These issues often get overlooked.

Volunteers

weekly

It is highly recommended that you get volunteers to take care of some of the weekly tasks. This will make your job much easier. The primary tasks are field setup, disc bag, and first aid kit. Since the cones are usually in the disc bag, it makes sense for one person to be responsible for bring the discs/cones and setting up the fields. The person in charge of the first aid kit should ensure that there is always ice available at the fields for injuries.

Playoffs

recommended 1 month in advance

The playoff format/schedule must be determined. While the exact format is up to the League Director, it is ideal to allow each to team to play two games before being eliminated. If at all possible, please try to stick to this. It is also a good idea to consult with the team captains when determining the format.

You may find the UPA Manual of Formats helpful.

League Prizes (optional)

recommended 0-6 months in advance

Prizes may be given to the members of the team which wins the league playoffs. Prizes are optional. Past prizes have included t-shirts, discs filled with goodies, and Diamondbacks tickets. Prizes can include almost anything in good taste. If you plan to award prizes, this should be included in the budget.

Playoff Party

recommended 1 month prior to league playoffs

We like to provide a playoff party. This is not required, but it has become a tradition and it would be nice to continue the tradition. At a minimum, the party has included a keg. History has shown that an 8-9 team league will consume 2 kegs during playoffs.

Other previous parties have included:

• Food: hot dogs, sodas, chips, etc
• Children's pinata: filled with candy for the kids; usually broken before finals begin
• Adult's pinata: filled with candy and liquor bottles and other adult items; usually broken before finals; broken by hitting it with ultimate discs

Playoff Video

It is a nice extra to have a tape of playoffs. This requires one or two people who are not playing in finals, a video camera (loaned by a player), a ladder, and video tapes. Usually one person video tapes while another person announces. A ladder is helpful to allow the taper to get higher off the ground. The person supplying the tapes should be reimbursed. This is a budget item.

Make sure there is plenty of battery power. We have run out of batteries during finals more than once!