Team Responsibilities

Your team responsibilities vary depending on the league you’re playing in, and its format. For instance, REC league players, which we consider to be our “for fun” league where there is a mix of player skill levels, merely need to show up, play, and have fun! Tough job; we know.

Higher level players, however, sometimes have referee responsibilities. In all instances, it’s at least one person’s responsibility to call C.V.C. and let them know if your team is knowingly going to forfeit a match.  Here is a breakdown of what to expect.

Self-Ref leagues:

 We often have leagues wherein the team members on the court also act as referee. In this case, we have a “keep it fair” attitude. If you’re playing competitive, we expect you also know the rules, or are in the process of learning them, therefore, we expect players in a self-referee league to call themselves when they fault. Raise your hand, scream, jump and down, whatever works for you, just call yourself. If you don’t, we expect either a teammate or an opposing team member to call you. When this happens, and all agree that there was indeed a fault, play continues accordingly as if a referee had blown the whistle.  If both teams do not agree to the fault (and by the way, when necessary, please play out the volley and discuss the fault after the play), then there must be a replay called. If there is a question on ruling, and a C.V.C. officer is available to help, please ask, otherwise, you as teams must come to an agreement. Copies of the rules are always available.  Bottom line: keep it fair and be honest when you goof up. We all do it.

Refereed leagues:

Sand:  When playing in a league with referees, we evenly divide the responsibilities throughout all the teams in the league, meaning you don’t have to referee each week. Along side your schedule with match times, you’ll see a column specifying which team will referee each match. Please make this part of your schedule when making plans to play, go out before, or go out after your matches.

It will be your job to help decide which team will choose for “serve” or “side” by holding a number behind your back viewable by the non-calling team and having them guess “even” or “odd”. It’s your call on who calls. I usually choose the first person to step up once I’ve called, “Captains”. Everyone’s referee style is a little different: we just ask that you use a visible cue to actuate the server along with your whistle call in order to help them differentiate between you and another whistle. Please use hand signals alongside your whistle whenever possible.

When playing in sand, we have the added bonus of being able to see the lines “bounce” when the ball hits them, with the seldom exception of when a player is in the referees line of view.  Therefore, when a team has the responsibility to referee another match, only one (whistle wearing) person is required to referee. This person must have the basic understanding of the rules. We figure if you’re playing the game, you probably know the rules, eh? And yes, you must have a whistle. No singing, “tweet” instead. If you don’t bring a whistle, expect to pay $3 for one. We don’t expect you to be perfect however, so if you don’t know what you saw or just couldn’t see the play, just call a replay. Please remember to write down the scores.

Indoor/Hard Court:  In most indoor forums, we require one referee with a whistle, and two people to call “lines” at opposite corners of the court. If the referee could not make the call, or did not see the play end, it is up to the linesperson to update the referee by whatever means possible other than tossing their beverage of choice at them. (There is no sand to soak it up).

*Remember to have fun!