With the first half of the season completed the new year looks to bring some new additions to WNYRA. Bally's has upgraded their courts and will be welcoming back the Men's A league and the Developmental League run by Greg Maliken during the second half. We appreciate their commitment to improving their facilities and promoting the sport of racquetball. The Men's A league will be moving to a new system to improve participation and encourage more movement throughout the league and ladder. It will be a singles-based league with 5-week round robin schedules between groups of 5 on the ladder. At the end of 5 weeks, the bottom and top of each grouping will move up or down based on points in their round robin schedule. This shake-up and experiment is something new and creative, developed by those in the league, to promote challenging matches and allow for more participation. We will evaluate it's effectiveness throughout the year and are always open to new ideas. Lastly, we have a new website coming soon. Jeff Murphy is busy transferring information and I will be setting up new areas for all of us to be kept up to date with our leagues and events. More information will be coming in the near future.

Many tournaments are being scheduled, both singles and doubles, and are always a great way to play in a competetive and social setting. The Christmas ShootOut at Omega was a big success with exciting matches and a mix of players enjoying the weekend. Mike McNerney will be dropping by your inboxes many times, do yourself a favor and promise yourself to come and play at least 1 tournament this year. WNYRA made generous donations to organizations and causes over the last year and these tournaments are a great way to help out those in need.

Greg Maliken will be starting up the Develpmental program at Bally's on Saturday mornings through April. Many of the participants joined in on the March Madness Tournament and had a great time. Make sure you talk to Greg about how you can help in the development of the many youth and adults that take part in the program.

We ask you once again to encourage your friends and neighbors to come out and discover, or rediscover, the exciting game of racquetball. Promotion of our sport comes from within and there is nothing better than bringing in a friendly face. Push your local clubs to maintain and repair their courts. Your membership to their club is just as important as the people who workout or swim and we can never have enough quality courts and times. We look forward to seeing you on the court.