Jay Clayton Wilson
A sensible, new Organized Play Using Scoring (OPUS) program for men has been launched by the Board of Directors and greeted with great enthusiasm. It provides better tennis by more efficiently arranging matches between similarly skilled players. The men’s 3.5 and 3.0 groups will be particularly pleased because that is where occasional mismatches have been reported in the past. Read more to see how OPUS works.
Chris Madsen and Liam Flynn were appointed to initiate the OPUS program beginning last July. They have already noted satisfactory improvements in our organized play games. STC can expect the goal of the program to be reached as more 3.5 and 3.0 players return to SaddleBrooke and join up this fall. Encourage your friends to join.
The best tennis always happens when all four players have roughly equal abilities. OPUS is realistically designed to reach that goal at every level of play as soon as the vast majority of players of all levels join. Players who agree to join will be doing their part to reach a goal that has always been the aim of the STC. To join, just call the office (825-2525) as soon as possible. Our coordinators will handle everything else for you.
Here is how the greatly simplified Men’s OPUS works. Men who have joined will sign up online as usual for Thursday organized play, although there will be no linking. For the time being regular organized play will happen on Tuesdays as usual.
Thursday OPUS will include both the 7:00 and 9:00 a.m. Organized Play sessions. If any courts are not used by OPUS, non-OPUS players may sign up for them as usual. It is anticipated that OPUS will use almost every court, so join soon.
Players will use ordinary scoring and rotate partners on their court after each set. They will keep a list of the total number of games won by each player during the entire match. The list of totals will be deposited in a locked box to be tallied by the facilitators. Tallies will not be made public.
Here is the cool part. On the following Thursday, and all subsequent Thursdays, the player with the highest number of wins on each court will be moved up. The player with the fewest wins will be moved down. Over a short period of time all players will be matched with similarly skilled players while meeting new players from other courts every week.
A computer program is utilized to assign courts based on data from the lists that have been submitted. So be sure to call the STC coordinators (825-0255) to notify them that you wish to join Men’s OPUS. Encourage your friends to join quickly.
Finally, and of great importance, let Chris and Liam know about any suggestions you may have to make the program work even better.
Men’s OPUS. What a great way for STC to project its dedication to the health and enjoyment of all SaddleBrooke residents.