Yankee Volleyball Association
Rules and Policies
Edited and approved by the Yankee Executive
Board on December 2, 2008
Rules
of Play
In general,
except as specified below, the Yankee Volleyball Association follows the rules
of USA Volleyball (USAV).
Teams
and Players
Uniforms
Team uniforms do not need to be matching in
color or design. Numbers cannot be taped on, but may be written on with an
indelible marker. If a libero is being used, the libero's shirt must be
contrasting to the other team members' uniforms and legality of the libero's
uniforms is at the sole discretion of the head referee.
Teams may use their time outs in order to
obtain legal uniforms or use a ghost player if the other 5 players on the court
have a legal uniform.
Teams also may choose to play the round robin
or pool play with illegal uniforms (provided all shirts have some sort of
unique number), in which case they will be disqualified from the playoffs.
The tournament head referee has the final
decision on all uniform questions.
Ghost
Players
Teams may play with one ghost player. The ghost player must appear on the lineup and
must be maintained in the rotation. When
it is the ghost player’s turn to serve, the first referee will award an
immediate point/side-out to the receiving team. Teams playing with a ghost are
eligible for tournament playoffs.
A ghost player may be substituted for an
injured player with an abnormal substitution if and only if there are no other
players on the bench. The normal injury
time-out is allowed prior to substituting a ghost for the injured player. If a ghost player replaces an injured player,
the injured player may not re-enter the set.
A team may substitute a player from its
roster for the ghost at any time, if there were no other players on the bench
when the ghost entered the set.
If a player is expelled or disqualified, a
ghost player may not be substituted for that player. If the team has five players or fewer after
the sanction, they shall be considered an "Incomplete Team" as
defined by USAV.
The Yankee rating for a ghost is the same as
the level of the tournament (e.g., a C+ tournament will have C+ rated ghosts),
regardless of whether the ghost starts the day or is a replacement for a player
later in the day.
Team
Affiliations
Individuals in Yankee may play on as many
different teams as they desire during the season (but only one per tournament).Playing on teams in Yankee tournaments does not affect
eligibility for USAV-registered teams.
Individual
Ratings
All players participating in a Yankee Tournament
will be rated for their individual skill level, in a range from A+ (highest) to
D (lowest) and are subject to all standard Yankee Rules and Regulations. This rating includes JO players that have participated
in any Yankee Tournament.
An individual's overall rating evaluates
their ability relative to other players in
Initially, new members will rate themselves
when filling out their membership application.Team
Representatives are expected to help new members determine their appropriate
rating level and will be held responsible for the accuracy of the rating. Any player who has played in any Yankee/NERVA
tournament in the last five years (as a full or one-day member) must register
as a renewing member at their previous rating (or higher). Player ratings for the last five years are
available on the Yankee website. Players
that have questions should contact a Ratings Chairperson.
It is ultimately the player’s responsibility
for re-joining Yankee at the proper level.If a player joins
at the wrong level (e.g., played before at a higher level), when the error is
caught, the rating will be immediately corrected. If caught at a tournament, any change may
affect the team’s qualification for the tournament. New
members may be re-rated immediately if a Ratings Chairperson.
Any Yankee member can request a ratings
change for himself/herself or recommend a ratings change for other members. The Ratings Chairpersons or their designated
representatives will evaluate all requested or recommended ratings changes. If a ratings change is warranted the Ratings
Chairpersons will notify the member in writing, giving approximately two weeks
notice before the change is effective so that individuals and teams can adjust.
Ratings are frozen from March 1 until the
Yankee Championships conclude each season. Ratings change
notification letters will be postmarked by March 1 (although the new rating may
take effect later). The exceptions,
subject to immediate re-rating are:
1. Renewals
or new members joining on or after March 1.
2. Members
who join before March 1st but have not played in a tournament.
3. Previous
one-day members becoming full members on or after March 1.
4.
Players that have joined Yankee through a Club Membership.
Immediate
Re-rating At a Tournament
Any player designated as subject to immediate
re-rating can be immediately re-rated by a member of the Ratings Committee (who
is present and of the same gender as the player in question). If the re-rate causes a team’s total rating to
exceed the tournament maximum, the team will be disqualified from the playoffs.
Team
Ratings
For participation in tournaments, a team
rating will be calculated by totaling the individual ratings of the top six
players on each team's roster for that tournament.For
co-ed or reverse coed tournaments, the ratings of the top three men and the top
three women on the roster will be counted and the aggregate of either gender’s
rating cannot be more than 3 points above the tournament level.
For purposes of calculating team ratings,
each rating level will have a numerical equivalent: A+ = 10, A = 9, A- = 8, B+
= 7, B = 6, B- = 5, C+ = 4, C = 3, C- = 2, D = 1
The maximum number of ratings points allowed
for each level of competition shall be:
Level A- B+ B B- C C C- D
Max. 51 45 39 33 27 21 15 9
Teams that are over the ratings limit for
that tournament will be permitted to participate in pool or round robin play
but will not be eligible for playoffs. Their
sets will count as wins/losses for their opponents. If the roster is changed to one that is
within the limit prior to the start of the first match then there is no penalty. If the ratings violation is determined after
a team has begun play and they decide to change to a legal roster, any sets
already played or started will be forfeited, unless the roster is changed by
deleting a player who has not played, in which case there is no penalty. The team will then be allowed to continue
play and be eligible for playoffs.
Forfeited sets can be completed,
but the team that forfeits only retains any points they had accumulated up
until the point of forfeiture. Any
forfeit that occurs before the set has begun results in the forfeited team’s
final score being equal to the lowest possible set score. (e.g.
4-25, 0-25, 0-21)
Individuals may not play in tournaments that
are more than three levels below their individual rating (e.g., "A-"
players may play in a "B-" tournament, but not in a "C+"
tournament).
For purposes of calculating team ratings
limits, women playing in men's tournaments have their ratings reduced by one level
(e.g. “A+” players will be calculated as “A” or worth 9 ratings points, “B-“
players will be calculated as “C+” or worth 4 ratings points).
Tournaments
Divisions
and Levels of Competition
Yankee tournaments will be sanctioned for
men’s, women’s, co-ed, and reverse co-ed categories.Levels
of competition are A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C and C-.
The specification of a category and level (i.e., Women's B) shall be a
division of play.
Women are allowed to play in men’s
tournaments (with a rating adjustment as described above), but men are not
allowed to play in women’s tournaments.
Junior Olympic (JO) teams may enter as adult
teams for any suitable tournament but must get the approval of the appropriate
Yankee Ratings Chairperson. Each year,
when they are initially entered, JO players are rated as a "J". JO players will be given an adult rating upon
signing up for their first adult tournament and can be re-rated immediately by
a member of the Ratings Committee.
Friendship
Tournaments
Friendship Tournaments shall be allowed
through December 31, concurrent with the regional USAV Friendship Season, in
order to promote early season competition.
Friendship tournaments must still be sanctioned and scheduled through
the Yankee Tournament Coordinator, all participants must be Yankee members, and
the ratings limits are in effect. The
differences from regular tournaments are that uniform regulations and
requirements for USAV-certified referees are waived for Friendship Tournaments. Tournament Directors may also decide to forego
prizes.
Sanctioning
& Scheduling Tournaments
All Yankee tournaments must be sanctioned and
scheduled by the Yankee Tournament Coordinator.
In order to qualify for sanctioning tournaments must comply with the
following conditions:
1) All participants must be members of Yankee
Volleyball Association and/or the USAV.
2) All referees, whether non-playing or playing,
must be USAV-certified referees, except at Friendship Tournaments as specified
below. The head referee must be a
non-playing referee.
3) The current Yankee ratings, as they appear
on the official Registrar's List, must be used for all individual and team
rating calculations.
4) All current Yankee rules must be adhered
to and enforced.
5) The Tournament Director is highly
encouraged to be present for the duration of the tournament and must be approved
by the Tournament Coordinator. New
Tournament Directors will run tournaments in their first draft under probation
by the Yankee Board and are limited to three tournament dates in that session.
Rosters
Team Representatives are responsible for
making sure an up-to-date team roster has been submitted to the Tournament
Director on the day of the tournament prior to the team’s first match of the
day. The roster is required to list team
members’ names, current Yankee ratings, and uniform numbers. Any change in uniform number may be made on
the roster at any time without penalty. Rosters
and team lineups are not required to be signed by the captain, coach, or team
representative.
If changes other than deletions must be made
to the roster after they are initially submitted (beyond the uniform number),
they must be made by the Tournament Director at his/her convenience or the
roster change will be disallowed.
Team rosters will be posted by the Yankee
Representative or Tournament Director for players to view during the day’s
competition.
Tournament
Director
The Tournament Director will be responsible for checking team rosters for memberships and ratings, collecting membership applications and fees, and ensuring that Yankee Rules & Policies are followed.
At the discretion of the Yankee Board and in accordance with USAV rules, Yankee Registered Club Teams and Tournament Directors who run unsanctioned indoor 6’s tournaments will be sanctioned.
If a Tournament Director has to cover expenses when they cancel a tournament mid-day for safety issues or ‘Acts of God’ they can appeal to the Board for their operating loss.
A Tournament Director may only hold one other position while running a Yankee tournament; either referee or player, but not both.
Tournament
Format
The Tournament Director is responsible for
determining the format, but these will usually be either pool play or round
robin followed by playoffs. Yankee Rules
and Policies do not specifically designate that there must be a playoff or any
formal playoff format, although there is a membership expectation of a playoff. If there is a playoff, the format must allow
for the following:
1) No team shall be eliminated from playoffs
by a tiebreaker procedure.
2) Teams qualifying for playoffs, but tied
for position, shall be assigned position by the following methods, in order of
priority: 1st- won-lost percentage between tied teams; 2nd - point differential
between tied teams; 3rd - total point differential in pool or round robin
competition; 4th- flip of a coin.
3) Participating teams are expected to
furnish support officials as requested, including a second referee,
scorekeeper, and two linespersons. Teams
are required to work the sets indicated by the Tournament Director.
4) Participating teams are not allowed to
intentionally forfeit their remaining set(s) of pool play and still be eligible
to advance to the playoffs.
5) Except for discriminatory practices based
on race, sex, or religious belief, Tournament Directors will have the right to
set their own policies for acceptance of teams in their tournaments. Some factors affecting acceptance might be
order of payment received, having been shut out of a previous tournament,
previous history of reliability or non-payment, etc.
6) A protest committee will be formed at the
beginning of each tournament to vote on any potential protest that might arise
during play for that day. This committee
should consist of the head referee, Tournament Director, and at least one team
representative.
7) Yankee follows the rules of the host
facility, including its policy on alcohol and drug usage. In most cases this means no consumption or
possession on the premises. Failure to
adhere to those rules is considered a serious breach of the code of conduct and
is subject to significant penalty.
8) The Tournament Director and/or Head
Referee will report all penalties, expulsions, disqualifications, and other
incidents at tournaments to the Yankee Executive Board for consideration of
further action.
9) The Tournament Director must get approval
from the Yankee Tournament Coordinator for any changes in tournament format or
fees after publication of the schedule.
Non-compliance may result in possible loss of sanctioned tournaments for
the remainder of the season.
10) Tournament Directors can run tournaments
with alternate formats or minor deviations from USAV rules if (a) they get
advance approval from the Yankee Tournament Coordinator and (b) all
participants are notified of the format in advance.
11) For a regular day tournament, the minimum
amount of play guaranteed to participants is 168 points. If the tourney will be less than this, it
must be advertised as “modified”. If a
modification to the format is made after the publication of the schedule and with
less than two weeks notice, then the Tournament Director must give a full
refund if any team chooses to withdraw.
Tournament Directors have the option to adjust the team fee with
approval of the Tournament Coordinator or Yankee President.
Fees
The individual Tournament Director,
commensurate with expenses incurred in running the tournament shall establish
fees for individual tournaments. Yankee
tournaments are not to be run for the excessive profit of any individual or
organization.
Tournament Directors are expected to provide
income and cost breakdowns for their tournament, or periodically for a typical
tournament, to assist the Yankee Executive Board in monitoring tournament costs
in the region.
Referees
1) All referees at Yankee-sanctioned
tournaments must be USAV-certified referees, except at Friendship tournaments.
2) The Head Referee must be a non-playing
referee. Other referees may be
player-referees.
3) The Referee Coordinator will assign all
non-playing referees. Tournament
Directors planning to use player-referees must inform the Referee Coordinator
of their plans and officiating requirements.
Yankee
Championships
At the end of each season the Yankee
Volleyball Association may organize and run Championships at each level of
competition that has had participation during the year and which draws
sufficient entries to justify a tournament.
Rules for Championships will be published annually.
Draft
Rules
The following rules have been established to
dictate the process of drafting tournaments for the upcoming Yankee season.
All Yankee, friendship, and USAV/NERVA
tournaments must be drafted at the Yankee draft.
Scheduling
The Yankee season consists of two halves
(fall and spring) for which tournaments will be separately drafted at
(approximately) these two times: August (fall draft) and November (spring
draft). The date, time, and location of the draft shall be determined by the
Yankee board and will be announced no less than 14 days in advance. The fall draft handles dates from September
through mid-January. The spring draft
handles mid-January through March.
If held, Yankee championships and qualifiers
usually begin mid-March.
Friendship tournaments are only
allowed through December 31st.
Representation
Draft participation is limited by the number
of sites where tournaments will be held. Each site represented will be granted
one slot in the draft. In order for a site to be included in the draft, a site
representative must be present at the draft (or a proxy who will be present may
be designated by the site representative). One person may represent any number
of sites via proxy. If multiple organizations or Tournament Directors wish to
draft for the same site, they should decide among themselves who will use each
draft round pick. If they cannot agree, picks will alternate between the Tournament
Directors with the initial order drawn randomly.
Pre-draft
Certain significant and established annual
tournaments will be slotted into the schedule before the draft. These are currently the Yankee Scrambles, Rick
Pierce, Bean Pot, Baby Emily and Brenda Freese Tournaments. The list of such special tournaments can only
be added to or deleted from via a vote of the Yankee Executive Board. Such a
vote should take place before the draft date.
Pre-draft Requested Dates
Before the draft, Tournament Directors
that are only drafting one date can have that date put on the drafting calendar
so other Tournament Directors are aware of the date, size, and level of the
tournament they are hoping to run. The
Tournament Coordinator must be notified of this in advance of the draft and
will still need to participate in the draft.
They will not be guaranteed their requested tournament(s).
Draft
Draft order will be determined by random draw
among all represented sites. Any person that is drafting for multiple sites may
have multiple picks per round.
A skeleton (minimum number of team spots for
each tournament level, and type (M,W,CR,CO) for the entire season) will be set
by the Tournament Coordinator in advance of the draft based on the number of
weekends to be drafted and historical data (past tournament cancellations, etc.).
For example, if men's C+ receives a quota of 40 team slots, then the total of
all team slots for all men's C+ tournaments for the season being drafted must
be 40 or greater. All skeleton quotas
for all levels/types must be met before any other tournaments at any level/type
beyond the quota can be drafted. If the
skeleton has not been fulfilled and a representative whose turn has arrived
does not wish to draft a tournament from those levels/types still available in
the skeleton, s/he must pass his/her turn for the round.
The following quotas are the maximum number
of teams per consecutive level that can be drafted on any given weekend:
·
men's C
and C+ = 21
·
all B+
and above = 10
·
all
others = 16
For example, the quota for men's C+ is 21. Thus, a men's C+ can only be drafted if the
combined number of teams already drafted at either a C/C+ or C+/B-, plus the
number of team in the tournament to be drafted, is no more than 21.
Note: If a single tourney consumes the entire
quota at a given level (there is no other site with a competing tournament),
that site is welcome to make the tournament larger than the quota. However, this is not recommended, as it most
likely will be difficult to draw that many teams. For example, a site can run a
15 team B+ tournament if no other B or above tournaments are already scheduled
that weekend. But if a competing tournament is already scheduled, the B+ would
be limited to 10 (minus the team count of the competing tournaments).
For coed/reverse-coed tournaments, 1/2 the
tournament size (rounded down) will count against the women's quota and against
the men's quota. (e.g., A 10 team CR C+ will count as a 5 team women's C+ and 5
team men's C+.)
A site representative may fill their site
(only one facility/building) for a single day when their turn in the draft
arises, even if it requires slotting multiple tournaments. (This applies to
large sites and back-to-back half-day tournaments.)
No tournament may be drafted with more than
five (5) teams per court.
The Tournament Coordinator has the right to
close out any weekend that s/he feels is saturated.
Post-draft
Tournament directors needing to cancel a
tournament, for whatever reason, should notify the tournament coordinator as
soon as cancellation is certain. If a Tournament Director wishes to change an
already drafted tournament (e.g., change size or level) or add a new tournament
to the schedule after the draft, s/he should contact the Tournament Coordinator
who has final say on all such changes.
Tournament Directors will not deposit a check
for any tournament earlier than the Thursday before the tournament and no later
than thirty (30) days afterwards.