Vancouver Squash League (Singles)

FALL PRE-SEASON SCHEDULE

• Oct. 25th – Winter 2022 VSL Player/Team Registration Opens
• Nov. 5th – Early Registration Deadline – 6 weeks of preseason matches starting Nov. 8th
• Nov. 8th  Pre-Season Begins
• Nov. 12  Pre-Season Registration Deadline  4 weeks of preseason matches starting Nov. 22nd
• Dec. 10th  Winter 2022 VSL Player/Team Registration Closes
• Jan. 10th  Winter 2022 VSL Begins – 12+ week Regular Season and Playoffs

SIGN-UP DETAILS Please follow the directions below.

Step 1: DIVISION Under Divisions select your affiliated club.  If you are not a member of a VSL club please select “unaffiliated”.

All players must register individually with their associated club.  Club teams will be created based on overall club registration and sorted in coordination with your club administrator or captain.

Step 2: PERSONAL DETAILS Fill in your personal details.  Please ensure your email and phone are accurate and provide your shirt/top size.

Step 3: FEES Regular Entry: $20 This is a one-time annual fee required to play VSL.  There will be three separate VSL sessions in 2022 including this winter program, a summer league as well as a fall league.

Patron Entry: $125 If you wish to support the development of the VSL we encourage you to become a Patron.  Patron support is used to enhance social events and league experience for all players.

Additional Offers: $20 Each As a VSL member or Patron you may select and play in multiple VSL leagues.  Each league requires a $20 registration fee. Some restrictions apply in terms of age, please see league details below.

Buy Membership: All VSL players require an active Squash BC membership to participate in league.  This is a one-time annual charge that is required of every individual.

Payment: Fill in your payment details to confirm your registration with VSL.

SPORTY HQ – CLUB LOCKER UPDATE There have been some significant changes to the squash landscape in BC with the transition from Sporty HQ to Club Locker.  For a number of years all of Squash BC sanctioned leagues and tournaments have been running off the Sporty HQ system but that is no more.

Effective now, Squash BC has transitioned to CLUB LOCKER which will now be our standard for player ratings for teams, divisions and overall league structure.

CLUB LOCKER ACCOUNTS All members/players should have been migrated to Club Locker as part of Squash BC’s transition HOWEVER I know many of my members have note consented to their personal information including email addresses in this process.

Every player will need to activate their Club Locker account in order to return to VSL squash and ensure that personal information is up to date for communication purposes.  Please ensure your email/phone information is correct otherwise you may not receive VSL communications.

Some players may have created duplicate accounts which will need to be flagged and updated.

We anticipate the fall season to have some initial frustrations with this transition.  We will work with our clubs professionals and administrators as well as the captains to support this process as best we can.

NEW PLAYERS / NEW DIVISIONS Below are details on a new vision for VSL.

Monday Night VSL league will move forward as our competitive program open to Men, Women and HP Juniors (12+) from the Open, A and B level.  Divisions will be redefined based on club locker ratings determined by registration pool.

Rationale: Many clubs are over subscribed on Monday Nights for court time and there has been a log jam of matches on Monday night, as such we are trying to realign some of the divisions and moving “Masters” aged players primarily to Tuesday evenings.  Masters players will still be able to participate in Monday nights (and Tuesday) if they wish.

We hope to transition a large portion of DIV5/DIV6 players to Tuesday evening to participate in Masters divisions.  Traditional DIV6/DIV7 teams have primarily been comprised of “Masters” players who create larger rosters and share spaces on Monday nights.  This has prevented new/younger players from gaining regular access to match play and integration into our league.  VSL needs to create more opportunities for players aged 20-40 to play regularly in VSL.

Tuesday Night VSL league will move forward as Ladies and Masters Divisions (A/B, B/C & Womens) will be targeting 50+ age categories while traditional Womens Competitive division running with a minimum age of 12+.

Rationale: For clubs, there is more court time available on Tuesday evenings to spread the load of Monday night bookings.  We hope that some clubs will be able to alleviate some of their court capacity and have more open courts for non-league member bookings from time to time.

A dedicated Masters program will allow Masters aged players to participate against Masters aged players.  We hope this will retain more players and invite previous participants to return to the VSL.  Masters players have the option of signing up for Monday night league as well.

Junior girls below the age of 13 will be able to play league through our new Junior league.

NEW PLAYER TEAMS The challenge has begin to form new teams and introduce new players to VSL.  Starting in Winter 2022 we will have new grassroots teams composed entirely of VSL rookies!  We want to make the VSL inclusive of all levels of play and provide opportunity for new players to have regular weekly match play.  Lets get more players involved at or clubs, encourage them to play more squash and build new friendships on and off the court.

Daytime League VSL Daytime League will be a new initiative for Women, Masters and Recreational (new) based players.  This will begin as an individual based league to start.  Players will be put onto teams however it will not be club based rather more of an informal mixed house league that you may experience at your own clubs.

The league will rotate from VSL clubs from week to week.  We hope this daytime initiate will provide regular daytime match play for members and create an opportunity to meet new players and develop into a more formal daytime (club based) league as the numbers grow.

Rationale: Many clubs have open court time during the day.  With COVID and more individuals moving to flexible work schedules we anticipate a demand for more daytime programming.  Many mothers and fathers are restricted from evening play based on child responsibilities.

Junior League VSL will create a junior based club league for recreational club and elite level juniors of all ages and skill level.  The grassroots junior program will include U13 and High School divisions for recreational club based players.

This will create a development pathway for juniors to compete with other club based juniors their level.  They will work towards becoming HP juniors and playing in our Elite Junior league.

Rationale: A dedicated Junior League will encourage more grassroots development in Vancouver.  We hope to provide more regular match play for Junior squash players competing in Squash BC sanctioned events as well as helping to improve the social experience of junior squash players.

We also want to see the younger juniors playing other juniors and not joining the adult leagues until at time when they are more socially developed.

FALL PRESEASON LEAGUE SCHEDULE We anticipate a fall VSL schedule to run based on early team registration deadline of Nov. 5th.  A tentative fall schedule will be created, similar to a club box ladder for teams to begin interclub play.  Teams will be added over the following two weeks until a fall preseason cut-off date of Nov. 12th locks the preseason schedule through to the Christmas holidays.

COVID has obviously caused a huge disruption for our league and we want to provide as much opportunity for players to play squash and get back into league.  We encourage all clubs to operate an in-house ladder or box league with Club Locker scoring to facilitate player rating and assessment.

Following the fall preseason we will begin “VSL Winter League 2022” in January to allow for new teams and players to join the league.

4 PLAYERS VS 5 PLAYERS We are moving to 4 player teams for the fall preseason and winter league as a trial basis.  The rationale here is that four matches will help keep the evenings a little shorter for participants and help with court time availability at clubs with multiple teams.  4 player teams mean that every match/game/point will count towards the overall team result.

5 player teams could return for playoffs.

TEAM ORDER RULE CHANGE Team order is no longer locked based on Sporty HQ points.  Captains will be able to manually post their lineups in Club Locker prior to team matches and will be able to position players outside of their rating order.  This may become an item of debate, and we are open to discuss regulation, including proof of head to head match results to validate order changes.  IE if player A has a lower Club Locker rating, but shows a recent head to head result [with points calculated] over player B who has a higher Club Locker rating, then player A may play ahead of player B in team order.

DIGITAL SCORING We will be mandating digital scoring for Winter league 2022. VSL will partner with Squash BC to promote this digital officiating transition and encourage more VSL players familiarize themselves with rules/scoring and to become certified officials for 2022.

FOOD AND BEVERAGE One of the highlights of VSL is the social component that exists following an evening of team match play.  We know that our players truly enjoy the comradery and friendships that are formed through squash and it is something that distinguishes us as squash players.

For the Fall Pre-season we encourage all teams to continue with the Beverage component après squash however we will not be requiring or enforcing any “Food” component.  Some clubs are limited with staffing and guest protocols at this time and we want to be as cooperative with our VSL clubs as possible.

Food and Beverage will be reviewed and reconsidered for January 2022. In the meantime drinks only!