NCHSTCA Minutes 6/16/10

NCHSTCA Summer Meeting Notes

June 16, 2010

NCTA Office, Greensboro, NC

Present were Donald Clark (Greene Central), Brad Fisher (RJ Reynolds), Lindsey Linker (East Chapel Hill), Gene Thomas (Athens Drive), Ken Hazen (Charlotte Catholic), Linney Teague (Hickory), Scott Kniskern (Mt. Airy), and Wayne Geise (Freedom).

I.          Presentation by “MyTennisNetwork..com”.  Kelly Gaines introduced Jonathan Fralick and Louise Fahys, who discussed their desire to create a high school site similar to what they already use with the NCTA and STA.  They proposed this as a solution for keeping up with results and information about high school tennis.  Included in their site offerings:

a.  Player and team acknowledgment

b.  Public access to keep up with teams and players

c.  Help with college recruiting

d.  The ability to follow the season with real-time results

e.  Providing a revenue stream for the NCHSTCA and the NCTA (they could receive 10% of new member subscriptions)

Coaches would be given memberships at a cost of $50 per team per year, which would   include administrative responsibilities, generating schedules, and monitoring participation on the website.  The site would be free to players and to the press.

II.         Treasurer's Report.  Eric Rodgman was not present, but emailed his report to Don Clark.  Deposits made were discussed, with the ending balance showing $939.61.

                  III.       Discussion with Carolyn Shannonhouse.  Carolyn wanted input from us about the new doubles rule:  is it working, do we want to change it, etc.?  We all agreed that we

                        want to stay with it for at least one more year, but that some clarification as to the             substitution rule was necessary.  In particular, we wanted to remove the                                       “Injury/Sickness” clause on page 90 of the handbook.  On page 91, for singles the rule               should read “In case a player is not available, all players move up.”  In doubles, the rule             should read “A coach is permitted to substitute for any player in doubles as long as it is a             lower-ranking player and one not already in the doubles lineup.  The substituted player                          is not to be subject to the doubles pairing regulation.  All players not in the top 6 will                 count as a number 7 for the purpose of placement in doubles.”

     Clarification was also discussed in regard to the tie-breaker in doubles.  On page 89, it should read “A set (7-pt.) tie-breaker is played at 10-10.”

     Carolyn also gave us the dates for women's and men's individuals and duals, for 2010/2011, and we discussed requiring schools to come to the NC Coaches' Meeting, and that Athletic Directors should mandate it.

IV.       Presentation by David Bolick, from the Team Connection.  David discussed the          Team Connection's desire to purchase uniforms for a needy team, and sought input from        us on how best to implement this.  We decided to post a form on our website for                  nominations, and ask open-ended questions re Why does your team deserve to be          selected the Team Connection's Women's/Men's Team of the Year?  A deadline date of            Friday, July 23 (after the Greensboro Clinic) was selected, so that we can advertise this              at the clinic.  January 15 will be the deadline for the boys' season, so that we can decide           the team winner at Pinehurst.  We may even put the team's picture on the website                 wearing their uniforms.

                   V.       Discussion with Jeff Trivette, from UNCG, in regards to Coaches' Clinic.  Jeff              says that the strength coach from UNCG, Carolyn Shannonhouse, Paul Lubbers, and              Mike Leonard are all scheduled to present.  We discussed ideas for future clinics,                           including breakout sessions for beginning coaches, separate from those for experienced              coaches.  Also, possibly running track sessions or round-tables for all coaches.

                   VI.      Update with Kelly Gaines, NCTA.  Kelly asked if the NCTF's donation of $1,000 to highschooltenniscoach.com is still worthwhile, are we using it.  We all agreed we were.  She also reminded us about the $5,000 that NCTA pays to NCHSAA to run high school tournaments.  In addition, she described the Emily Preyer Family Endowment Fund, which divides $10,000 among camp scholarships, college scholarships, and program and junior development grants.  She told us the “Quick Start” format is increasing the number of high school players in the future, and reminded us that grants are available for this from NCTA.  Kelly closed by asking other ways that the NCTA can help us.

                   VII.      Proposal from TennisCrunch.com.  This is a parent wanting to sponsor us to advertise his site.  We see no problem with putting it on our site, but can't officially endorse it.

                   VIII.     Proposal to amend bylaws in regards to Board of Directors' term of service. Motion was made to elect board members every four years, with the election to be held in the summer before the new alignment.  Also, a motion was made to add the “Technologist” position to the board of directors.

                    IX.      Update on website.  Brad Fisher gave us the stats on website hits during the boys' season.  Tracking this helps to give advertisers information on who uses our website and how much.  We discussed that Googlegroups may not be as user-friendly as we'd like, but our challenge is what else to use.

                    X.       Continuation of discussion of the presentation by MyTennisNetwork.com.  We discussed whether this program would hurt or help us, and decided that Don Clark and Kelly would have a conference call with other board members to answer questions and get more information.

Respectfully submitted.

Lindsey J. Linker

Board Secretary, NCHSTCA