Castle Group has authorized The Solivita Smashers Pickleball Club to assist in the management of the 17 pickleball courts at Solivita located at Freedom Park and The Palms. The Smashers Board of Directors is tasked with management of all the scheduled activities using the courts.  The director serving in the role of Scheduler produces and publishes the schedule and communicates to the director serving as Webmaster any unique calendar events. The “scheduled” activities include, but are not limited to, team reservations, open play time, Ladders, social events, tournaments, and training.

All Resident Courts

Castle Group has required we set aside time for “All Resident” play.  These courts are court 10 at Freedom Park and court 17 at The Palms from 7:30 am to 7:30 pm and then courts 8 – 10 and 16 & 17, from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm.  Anyone, including non-Smashers members may play on these courts, and everyone must follow the procedures for Open Play and use the Paddle Queue system.  These courts are not available for reservation in the Solivita HOA reservation system.

Teams, Ladders, and Training with scheduled courts must use their own courts first before any overflow extends to these All Resident courts. If any scheduled activity, including members of a team, wants to use these courts must comply with Open Play and Paddle Queue guidelines; queueing with other players.  If you are using the courts for practice, limit yourself to 15 minutes, then give up the courts if anyone is waiting. 

Court Schedule

Once a month a court schedule is published and posted at the courts and on the website.  It is also provided to Castle Group, who currently manages court reservations for any available courts indicated on the schedule. Castle Group will update the Solivita HOA reservation system so that any available courts are able to be reserved by residents up to 3 days in advance of the day someone wants to use the court.  Please see the Court Reservations page on the Smashers website for completing an online court reservation 

The court schedule is a weekly snapshot of all the static reservations for a given month.  Due to the limitation of the schedule being published monthly, but in a “single week” format, some activities such as tournaments and special events, that are exceptions to the static schedule, cannot be reflected well on the schedule.  These activities are communicated to the Smashers members and Castle Group, and the courts used for these activities will not be available for reservations.

Open Play (formerly known as Members Only Open Play (MOO)) 

Organized Open Play appears on the court schedule in Blue, and sets of courts have designated levels of play.  Smashers members should play on the courts appropriate to their skill level and must comply with Open Play and Paddle Queue guidelines. Open Play courts are for Smashers members only.

Team Play 

Team Play, provides a way for affinity groups to play together at set times every week.  Teams are formed and managed by team captains, who manages a roster of players.  To ensure equitable play for all Smashers members, several rules and guidelines have been established for the management of teams.

Team Structure

A team needs a minimum of 8 players on their roster to reserve a court.  Subject to other restrictions outlined below, a team may request additional court(s) for each additional 8 players they have on their roster for a given time slot (2 courts for 16 players, etc.). 

Prime Time

Prime Time hours are from 7:30 to 12:00 7 days per week (1st, 2nd & 3rd time slots).  A team may only reserve a maximum of 4 Prime Time slots in a week.  Of these 4 time slots, only a maximum of 3 may be during the week, the other would need to be on the weekend.

Team Hiatus of Courts

If a team is comprised of some or mostly snowbirds, a team may put some or all of their courts on Hiatus. Courts may also be placed on hiatus for other reasons; for example, a training is not being offered or a team is going to have many members out due to holiday or injury.  

To place courts on hiatus the captain (or training leader) must communicate to the Scheduler, the days and courts they would like to place on hiatus.  This should be done with as much lead time as possible.

At the end of the hiatus period, the Scheduler will reallocate the courts back to the team/training.   If the hiatus period communicated to the Scheduler falls in the middle of a month, the Scheduler will add the team back on the schedule at the beginning of the month the court(s) come off hiatus, but the team will not be required to use these courts until the end of the hiatus period originally communicated to the Scheduler.

While the courts are on hiatus they may be repurposed, for Open Play, or given to other teams.  They may also remain as Available courts, which in turn are available for reservations. 

Rules for Establishing and Maintaining a Team

Roster of Players

• All team players must be Smashers members, appearing on the current year’s Paid and Enrolled Members list found on the Member Portal page of the Smashers web site.
• The roster needs a minimum of 8 players for a day and time slot for one court (16 for 2 courts, etc.).  To clarify, if a team plays 3 days a week, but one of the players does not play on one of those days, then the team would need an additional player playing on that other day to be counted towards the required number of players for the day and time slot.
• A player can only be on one team’s roster for a given day / time slot.
• Only add players to a day / time slot if they play regularly (on average 3 out of every 4 times) with the team in that day / timeslot.  
• Do not add players who only play occasionally.  Of course, at your discretion, you can allow those players to play with your team on a drop-in basis.  But do not list them on your roster.
• The player Prime Time rule will be enforced – A player cannot be on more than 7 team time slots during prime time.  If a player is being added to a roster, making it their 8th Prime Time slot, the Roster Update page will not allow the player to be added to the roster / time slot.
• Members who are marked as inactive in the database; which might occur if they have moved from Solivita or passed away, cannot be added to a roster.

The Team Roster Update application will enforce these rules and a team roster will not be allowed to be saved as completed until in compliance.

Large Teams

• Teams that require more than three courts may be established during non-Prime Time hours only (5th -8th time slots).
• Large Teams may be formed when more than three (3) courts are needed. Large teams are identified as having a minimum of 32 players. Large Teams must meet the minimum of eight (8) different players per court per timeslot requirement.

Teams that want to change their assigned time and/or assigned court(s) must contact the Scheduler. Any change will be based on availability.  The scheduler may shift a team to other court(s) in the same time slot, to accommodate other teams or activities.

Responsibilities of the Team Captain

There are several things a Team Captain should do to fulfill their responsibilities both to the Club and to their team. Accepting the role of captain or co-captain of a team requires the individual to:

• Be familiar with these rules, agree to abide by them, and have their team members abide by them.
• Conform to all Solivita rules and regulations and Smashers Club Bylaws, Standing Rules and Guidelines.
• Read the email blasts for important information you may want to pass on to your team.  Follow-up with the Smashers Board if there is any confusion or concerns.
• Complete the Roster Re-verification twice a year.  This will be done using the web site Team Roster Update page.
  • In March following Membership Renew that is completed at the end of February
  • In September in advance of the upcoming winter season when most of our snowbird players are expected to be here in Solivita

Failure to complete a scheduled Roster Update will result in the team being removed from the schedule.

• On a regular basis, using the Team Roster Update page, maintain the following information:
  • Style of Play
  • Level of Play
  • Player Mix
  • Accepting New Players
  • Hiatus Dates (if applicable)

Teams are encouraged to be open to accepting new players.  The nature of Solivita is that there is a fair amount of resident turnover.  Which means, there is always a flow of new Smashers members with a wide variety of skillsets.  Some are new to pickleball, and some have been playing for years.  So even well-established teams should consider accepting new players so that new residents can find teams that best fit their desired level and style of play. 

• Update the captain and cocaptain data on the roster as soon as a change is known.
• Encourage players to:
  • Conduct themselves with good deportment
  • Arrive and depart at scheduled times on their designated courts
  • To be polite and respectful of other teams arriving or leaving
  • To read the Smashers Email Blasts
  • Attend Smashers General Membership Meetings
• Teams must begin playing on their court within 10 minutes of their scheduled start time.  If after 10 minutes there are an insufficient number of players from the team to take the court.  The court can be used by other Smashers members looking for a court to play on.  At this point, the court should be used as an Open Play court; following the procedures for Open Play and using the Paddle Queuesystem for the remainder of the time slot.  Note:  The court remains an Open Court, even if the team ultimately has enough players that show up after the 10-minute tardiness allowance.
• Teams must have at least 6 of their players per court on the court(s), (4 playing and 2 waiting to play).  If a team has less than 6 players on the court, any Smashers Member at the courts looking for a place to play, may play with the team for the duration of the time slot.  Note:  The additional Smashers member playing with the team, should be permitted to play, for the remainder of the time slot, even if the team ultimately has 6 players show up after the 10-minute tardiness allowance.  To ensure fair rotation of players for play, it is suggested teams use the paddle queue system.
• Teams should leave their courts promptly at the end of their time slot; unless the team with the time slot following allows the team to continue.  
• Guests may not take a member’s place on a team unless the captain and a majority of team members have approved. Said guests must be Smashers members or have a valid Castle Group Guest pass.
• When communicating to their team players by email, the captain/cocaptain should use blind copy for players, to respect the individual privacy of players.
• Attend the Captain’s meeting(s). If you cannot attend, designate a member of the team to attend. Assigning a co-captain to help fulfill these and other responsibilities in your absence is recommended.

Additional Team Information

A team captain may run their team in the manner they and the team players deem appropriate; i.e. open, social, or competitive.  They have autonomy over your roster of players.  However, any player may elect to bring a matter to the attention of the Board if they feel they have been unfairly treated by the captain(s) and/or team.  Likewise, the Board may find it necessary to address matters with a team’s captain/cocaptain.

It is important you consistently strive for the best court utilization possible.  Please make sure you have enough active players on your roster to use your courts effectively.  If you find you are not utilizing the courts to their best potential, please relinquish the courts not being used.  There is always a high demand for courts by other players looking for opportunities to play.

The Smashers Board of Directors may suspend a team or require a team to surrender some or all of their courts if they find a temporary is not using their assigned court(s) for 3 consecutive weeks. Courts in hiatus are excluded from this rule.

Teams that fail to comply with all these rules may lose their courts.

Creating a New Team

We hope to develop a some new pages in our website to facilitate adding a team. This functionality is not available at this time, so a new team captain must work with the scheduler directly. Once complete the information below will apply.

To form a new team, the captain or cocaptain will need to fill out the New Team Interest Form on the website.  This form will collect some initial information about the team, including the desired courts and times slots and send the information to the Scheduler in an email.

The scheduler will work with the captain(s) and prepare the database for a new team roster.  The captain will then go to the Team Roster Update page to add the roster of players.

Revised 25 February 2025