Announcement
The MMBL has a serious problem and WE NEED YOUR HELP.
Every year the league gets older. The players are also getting older. There are currently 34 players in Elite and Champions that are 48+ in age, which is the Masters minimum age requirement. This past season, Masters started the season with 54 players on six different teams. As the season progressed, several other players were lost due to various injuries.
This league was founded on the premise that we could enjoy playing the game that we all love for as long as possible. When we started losing players because they couldn’t keep up with the newer and younger players, we addressed this by forming a Masters Division. Now the Masters Division is in danger of collapsing due to the natural attrition caused by aging and because the players from the other two divisions are not moving up.
Why aren’t the players from Elite and Champions filling the open spots in Masters? The obvious reasons are comfort and pride. Players have become friends and they want to play with their friends. As well, it affects their pride because moving to Masters acknowledges their diminished skills.
Let’s address the friends thing first. I didn’t lose any of my friends when I moved to Masters. In fact, I expanded my friend circle. When we get the numbers we need in Masters, you’ll find that several of your current friends have migrated with you so you won’t be alone.
As for pride considerations, none of us are getting any younger. That doesn’t mean we’re not still good players because in many ways we are smarter and more experienced but our physical skills aren’t quite what they used to be. There is a core of good, skilled players in Masters and the competition is still strong; the pace of the game is just a little slower. A championship is a championship and I can say, from my own experience, that it’s good to feel relevant again.
The net result of this lack of movement between the divisions is that 1) the Masters are facing extinction and 2) Elite and Champions are creeping towards becoming their own Masters Division. We will be short close to 15 spots in the Masters this coming season, while every year we turn away new and younger players in the Elite and Champions divisions because their is little movement from older players.
SOLUTIONS
1) A passive solution
This can be done in two different ways. The first way is for those Elite and Champions players, who are of Masters age, to voluntarily move up to Masters. The second way is to spread the word to all and any friends who are of Masters age. Contact them, use Facebook, Twitter etc and help spread the word.
I need to know about which players are volunteering to move up before the September draft as well as the names of any new recruits . Please respond to me at
Filgiano@rogers.com
if you will commit to moving to Masters this coming season.
2) an active solution
If there is still a shortage of players in Masters by the time of the September draft, then any Masters aged players from Elite and Champions who have not been drafted in the first six rounds of the draft will be moved into the Masters Division draft and will not be eligible to play in either Elite or Champions.
Obviously, I prefer to be successful using the first option but this is a on-going problem caused by serious stagnation in the two younger divisions. The survival of the league as whole is paramount in my thinking.
Thanking you all in advance.
Gerry
