San Diego APA Masters Divisions will be starting back up on Saturday, July 25th. We are taking signups for new teams now. Masters is 3 to 5 person teams in a no handicap format. The Masters league is individual races to 7 (up to 5 games of 8 Ball and 8 games of 9 Ball) against your opponent. 3 players play in each team match and each game you win is a point for your team. With 3 matches, there are 21 points available in a team match. The 9 Ball game rules for Masters is all about making the 9 Ball, and push outs are allowed after the break. Contact the league office if you are interested in forming a team. Most of the teams competing in this format have been doing so for quite some time because they really enjoy the format. Many of the best players in the county are playing on teams. There is a National Championship in this format, just like the Ladies. League fees are $30 per team. The first place team won $1100 and entry into the National Championship ($150) in Las Vegas in August. Speaking of prize money, all prize money checks for the last Masters session will be sent out in week 1 of the new session.
The tentative date(s) for the Captains Meeting is August 2nd and/or 3rd. We are still hashing out a plan, but set aside those dates as we want full participation in this bi-yearly meeting.
We make a lot of announcements on our Facebook page, so if you have a Facebook account, make sure you check out the San Diego APA Facebook page and click on the like link. We try to reach out to our league members about rules, important dates and tournament announcements through as many means of communication as possible. This newsletter might say Captains Log, but it’s for all members of the league to read. The online version of the Captains Logs on our web site provides links to even more information. As a captain, you are expected to share all league related news that we send to you with all of your teammates. On a semi-related note, the San Diego APA was recently featured on San Diego ABC Channel 10’s local news and we have a link to the news feature posted on our Facebook page. Please check it out! We are only a handful of “likes” away from 1,000.
We are approaching 20 years of running the APA in San Diego, and I never stop being amazed by people’s passion for our league. I have that same passion after so many years later, both as a player and league manager. It’s really neat to see players showing up early for league to practice, because they want to be ready to play their best if they get called into action for a match later on. It’s also neat to see someone playing the first match and still sitting there when the last 8 ball or 9 Ball falls for the evening because they want to be there for every moment of their team’s highs and lows of a session. It’s really awesome to see a player reach out and shake the hand of their opponent, win or lose, and REALLY mean it. It really amazes me when I run into a player who doesn’t realize the magnitude of the league beyond their in house division that they play in once a week. Some have made it to the City Championships and seen 24 teams playing a 1pm round and thought to themselves how crazy it is to have that many people playing in the league, but to realize that’s just one round of many that played in the City Championships over two weekends, and only the best teams from each division throughout the county were represented. The Tricup tournaments (Blast) at the end of each session help us filter down the size of the City Championships into something much more manageable. The league has grown considerably over the years, but we still believe it’s one of San Diego’s best kept secrets. The enjoyment that comes from a night of league with your favorite people is one that many San Diego residents still don’t have a clue about. It’s not supposed to be a secret. If you see someone expressing interest in your match, ask them if they want to play. Direct them to our league office. Maybe you don’t have room on your team, but maybe someone else does or maybe the person expressing interest has enough friends to form their own team.
We thank you all for being long time loyal APA members. But, we also thank you for helping us spread the word about how awesome this league really can be when you get the right combination of team members and everyone shows up and everyone takes turns keeping score and coaching and buying a drink or snack for your team. We also thank our APA host locations that allow us to be able to run leagues here in San Diego. We can’t play in the street! As a courtesy for letting you have your team play out of their location, be sure you and your teammates are making it worth their while.