Referee Clinics This Week!

Captains Meetings: Fri, May 23

The KVKL will hold its annual pre-seaon captains meeting on Friday evening, May 23rd.  The meeting will be held in the same location as last year, the meeting room on the main floor of the Lawrence Public Library.  A new wrinkle this year will be that captains of teams new to the league will meet first, at 6:30, then returning captains will meet at 7pm.  This is being done to address the differentsneeds, questions, and concerns of the two different groups.

It is mandatory that a representative of each team (captain or co-captain) attend one of this meeting.  Please contact me a kawvalleykickball@gmail.com if it will not be possible to attend.  Topics discussed at these meetings will include a welcome back, any new policies, the weekly kickball routine (equip, etc.), the new pre-season ref clinic, and–for returning captains–a review of the league rules.  With this in mind, a copy of last year’s rules is available on the site for review.

I look forward to seeing everyone and getting the season started.  Take care!

~Phil

A Message from New Commissioner Phil Mitchell

My fellow kickballers,

I’d like to welcome everyone to what is sure to be another glorious year of all that is Lawrence kickball. Like many of you, I have watched the level of passion, commitment, skill, and organization within our little league continue to grow year after year. Ever since the first kickball game in which I participated, I have always been impressed with the purpose and spirit of those who have played. I believe that the Kaw Valley Kickball League is a great example of what it so great about living in Lawrence.

As Josh Hunt mentioned in his previous letter, I am succeeding him in the position of commissioner of the KVKL this season. While this post is largely ceremonial, it does place me in a position to be not only the voice of the league, but also the ears. Although each member of the council has an equal say in league matters, I realize that many of you will come to me with your thoughts, questions, and concerns about the league, and I welcome your input. I am aware that one of the strengths of the league—its diversity—also tends to create a wide variety of opinions amongst its members, and I hope to get input from each of these camps throughout the year.

I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome three new members to the KVKL council: Blake Swenson, Adina Scanland, and Curtis McCoy. These folks will be filling the shoes of Jessica Miescher and Robert Coffman, who served the league admirably the past season. The third spot had been vacated before the start of last season. I look forward to working with each of these folks, and am confident that they will serve the league quite well.

Perhaps most importantly, I need to pass on some information about team registration. There have been some changes in the registration deadlines to allow some extra time to compile rosters and collect league fees. The registration deadlines are as follows:

Returning Teams: Rosters due April 1st, fees due April 15th.
New Teams: Rosters due April 15th, accepted teams fees due May 1st.

For more information about team registration, please contact Nick Lerner at NL@NicholasLerner.com or visit www.kawvalleykickball.com for more details.

Sincerely,

Phil Mitchell
Kaw Valley Kickball League

p.s. – keep an eye on www.kawvalleykickball.com for new features & a brand new look!

Farewell Address from Commissioner Josh Hunt

Commissioner Calls for Cooler Heads

Hello Kaw Kickball Community,

First off, I would like to say that this year has been a great time so far. The new scheduling system seems to have made for a lot of highly contested matches, the game of the week at Hobbs has been getting bigger every week and the new equipment seems to be working out well. This week at Hobbs Sunday Night Lights 8:30 game of the week we will witness what is sure to be a rivalry in the making. The RED HOT Wildman Vintage Team who recently on the www.kawvalleykickball.com forum message boards explained that they were changing their name to Papa Totinos (suggesting that you can call them “The Papa Totino’s Pizza Rolls, Papa Totino’s Ten-For-Ten-Dollars, Papa Totino’s Pizza Bones, Papa Totino’s-With the Slice as Big As Your Ass”) takes on the 6-0, Undefeated Powerhouse of Papa Kenos. This game should be a classic so please come down and show your support.

Now on to less pleasant items of discussion.. Last weekend this league experienced an unacceptable showing of unsportsmanlike behavior at one of the games. This game was played in a west Lawrence neighborhood at “Dad” Perry Park between Papa Kenos and Yello Sub at 7pm. After much investigating it has been determined by the KVKL Commission that both of these teams were WAY out of line. There were MULTIPLE instances of players who are not the captain or co-captain disputing calls by the refs. There were several reports of name-calling, heckling, and other forms of school yard bully behavior, there was even one account of a player throwing his beer at the other team and exclaiming “do you wanna go!”, do I even need to mention the report of a player calling a referee a Bitch? This my friends is NOT GOING TO BE TOLERATED BY THIS LEAGUE.. PERIOD. The Commission has spent this week’s entire allotment of time discussing how to prevent these things from happening EVER again and what to do about the current situation. No we didn’t spend time discussing what other fundraisers we can do for the league or anything positive like that, we spent it cleaning up the mess of some folks that can’t seem to control themselves. Because there are conflicting reports of exactly what happened and there has not been any 1 player identified to be the problem in this game, we are not kicking anyone out of the league. However we are putting both teams on a very strict and public probation for 2 games. If during these 2 games either team has a player step out of line AT ALL they will be tossed from the game for sure and possibly from the league. THIS MEANS NO MORE WARNINGS!!! I think we all realize that sometimes referees make a bad call, it happens, its part of the game and its part of ANY game. A bad call will NEVER be an excuse for any player to break the rules of the league or to act in an unsportsmanlike way. We are going to go out of our way even further to have hand picked refs at the probation games of these two teams and if there is even the smallest issue, this email is a promise of severe punishment and that means potential PLAYER AND/OR TEAM EJECTION. Also because of this we have spent some time polishing up the disqualification section of the rulebook and would like to ask that all teams provide the best refs they can for the games you are responsible for refereeing. A good referee not only knows how to make the right call, they also know how to “police” a game if necessary and how not to get pushed around. Up until now the rules have been a little cloudy on what a ref can and cant do but these revisions should bring some clarity to that. If a ref thinks someone is out of line, they should tell them so and give them a warning. If they do it again after the warning, it is the refs call whether to eject the player from the game. Also notice in the new rules that it says that the commissioner (and the commission) can and will review all disqualifications. This is so that if a player feels they were unfairly ejected from a game they can appeal the decision and avoid further punishment from the league. Look, we all have played with people who get a little heated sometimes but I can tell you now that our stance from this point forward is that rules are rules and when broken there must be consequences.

Here are the rulebook revisions…

C.6
Only a team’s captain or co-captain may discuss calls with a referee. All other players are not permitted to dispute calls.

L. Disqualifications
1. If any referee feels threatened or insulted by any player, or is repeatedly questioned about calls by a non-captain (or co-captain), that referee should issue a warning to that player by notifying that team’s captain and all other referees. After a warning has been given to a player or players, any referee may eject that player or players from the game for any further un-sportsmanlike conduct. Ejected players must leave the game site immediately, or they forfeit their right to appeal their disqualification.
2. Fighting of any sort can result in an immediate ejection. The head referee has jurisdiction over what is considered fighting.
3. If a player is disqualified from a game, that player is then banned from all future participation in the Kaw Valley Kickball League. Disqualified players have the right to appeal their disqualification by requesting a Commissioner’s Review of the incident.
4. Any team who uses a disqualified player in a game will forfeit that game and is subject to further disciplinary actions from a Commissioner’s Review.
5. If two referees from different teams feel that a specific player or a team in general exhibited extremely poor sportsmanship in a game, they may register a complaint with the Commissioner within 24 hours of the game. The Commissioner will conduct a review of the incident and recommend any appropriate disciplinary actions for a specific player or team, including but not limited to player suspension, team probation, team forfeit, barring of team from post-season play, and ejection of player or team from the league.
6. The Commissioner’s recommended disciplinary actions must be approved by a majority of the other voting KVKL Board members.

Ok so thats enough of dealing with this negative non-sense. Lets go out this week and have a great time.

Thank you to all of the players that don’t have these problems and to those of you that move in that direction in the future.

-Josh