Scheduling

blackout dates

WMCYO Basketball allows teams to block off day or parts of days for religious reasons, these days and time apply for the whole season not specific dates.  Typical religious reasons include, but are not limited too, weekly mass, CCD, etc.  Note: you will be required to tell us the reason for the request.  Confirmation may be required form your pastor.

NEW  This season WMCYO will let each team block out a maximum of two (2) dates per team, however there is a cost for this.  These are all day blackouts not part of the day. Note: you will be required to tell us the reason for the request.

Each blackout date for each team will be $25.00 per day per team.  These are optional for teams you do not have to apply for any, costs can add up quickly so plan accordingly!

NEW  We will allow teams to blackout the days of the WMCYO at UMass games, which are  Sunday12/29/2024 & Sunday 1/19/2025 - these blackouts will be all day and must be submitted along with other blackouts using the form.  Note: both boys & girls teams can blackout either or both dates!  THERE WILL BE NO CHARGE FOR THESE DAYS.

The blackouts will need to be submitted via a form and paid for at registration with other fees, if submitted and not paid for at registration they will not be honored.  

No submissions will be accepted after the form closes at the end of the day on 11/12/2024.

ALL BLACKOUTS MUST BE APPROVED BY WMCYO BASKETBALL, JUST SUBMITTING DOES NOT GAURANTEE APPROVAL.

Contact the schedule email address if you have any questions.

Revised 10/24/2024

days of the weeks & times

WMCYO games may take place 7 days a week.  

Games on Monday - Thursday are usually sparse but are possible, and teams are required to play them unless there is a religious exemption which needs to be submitted prior to the start of the season - see Black Out Dates section.  

Start time on games being schedules on Monday - Friday should not start too early.  The suggested earliest time is 5:30PM, but 6:00PM is better.  This is to allow for away teams to travel to your facility after parents/guardians get out of work.  Also especially on Monday - Thursday think about the age group you are scheduling, 2nd Grade Developmental or 3rd &4th grade teams especially should have earlier starts.  Weekend games can run all day and into the night too.  

When planning your schedule you may want to take into consideration the WMCYO Days at UMass as we will be allowing teams that wish to attend to blackout those days.

Posted 10/24/2024

Game Cancellations

Home Team Cancellation - home teams should make every effort to play all of their home games. In the event of extreme circumstances if a game needs to be cancelled the coordinator of the home team needs to contact the coordinator of the visiting team via email and copy the schedule email on the notification.  The home coordinator also needs to submit the cancellation via the  Game Change Request form - which can be found on the Links tab on your dashboard.

Visiting Team Cancellation - if a visiting team need to cancel a away game, the visiting coordinator is responsible to find a replacement team to play in their place or they can/will be assessed a Forfeit Fee.  The home coordinator and the schedule email should be notified as soon as possible of the cancellation and the reason for the cancellation, the visiting team can requests a change but the home coordinator is NOT required to make a change.  See Game Change Requests for more information.   When trying to find another team the visiting coordinator can email individual programs or use the Google Group to broadcast.  The replacement team should be a reasonable replacement and must be approved by both the home coordinator and WMCYO.  A division 1 replacement for a division 3 team is not reasonable.  Once a change or cancellation has been decided upon, then the home coordinator needs to submit the cancellation or change via the  Game Change Request form - which can be found on the Links tab on your dashboard.

Also see Snow & Inclement Weather Cancellations.

Posted 11/29/2024

Game change requests

All game change requests must be submitted prior to the original game, failure to do so may make your team(s) ineligible for the tournament or the second half of the season.  Submissions are the responsibility for the home coordinator.

Home Team Changes - The home team can make a request of the visiting team to change the time of a game - this should be minimized and for extreme or important reasons only.  Both teams must agree to the change, if the visiting team does not or cannot agree to the change then they will NOT be held responsible for a Forfeit fee.  If the time is changed and another team is put in as the visiting team WMCYO will be the sole decider if the game will count towards standings.

Visiting Team Changes - If the visiting team needs a change they can request it from the home coordinator and they may or may not be able to accommodate.   The home program is NOT obligated or required to make any changes.  See Game Cancellations for more information.

Posted 11/29/2024

Home gym schedules - Submitting

Home gym schedules are submitted via your dashboard.  

See the Number of Home Games & Away Games section for more information on the number of games.  

See the Submit Home Gym Tab on the Scheduling page for more information about submitting your homw schedule.

Posted 11/10/2024

multiple games

Just because you schedule a team for a home game does not mean that will be there only game, it is possible that any team could be scheduled to play 2 games in the same day.  We do our best to give a 2-3 hour window between start times depending on travel, we lean towards 3 hours - but if the locations are close could be a little as 2 hours.

It is also possible that a team could be scheduled to play multiple days in a week/weekend.  At team could be scheduled to play up to 3 games in a Friday - Saturday - Sunday time frame.  If this happens it is not a mistake.

Cancelling these games will likely cause a forfeit fee by your team / program, also teams and programs that have issues with multiple games -  our policy is to cancel your home game if there is one and no forfeit wee will be awarded. 

Please make sure you coaches and parents/guardians are aware of this. 

Posted 11/5/2024

Number of home games & Away Games

All teams are required to host a MINIMUM of 6 home games, 2 per month December, January & February.  This year you must also schedule your 2nd Grade Developmental teams, in case they are moved up to the 3rd & 4th grade division.  

Programs are encourage to submit more than 6 games per team if possible, however more is not always better.  10-12 games is typically a good level.  Too many home games can and will likely effect and minimize the number of away games a team gets.  If the schedulers determine that you have too many home games it is possible that not all games will be filled.

When setting your schedule we strongly suggest you rotate your home schedule, we advise against scheduling the same team at the same time and day every home game.  It is entirely possible that other teams that teams division will have home games at the same general time, especially on Saturdays. If all the games are at the same time then we will not be able to schedule them all and home teams might have to go on the road and leave an empty game in your home gym.

DO NOT SCHEDULE GAMES IF YOU DO NOT WANT IT TO BE FILLED.  DO NOT PROVIDE MORE DATES AND TIMES THEN YOU WANT FILLED.   If you have extra time that you are willing to host other programs home games please email the scheduling email and we will share your contact information with any programs looking for gym space.  Any fees are to be negotiated between the the programs, WMCYO Basketball is not responsible for any of these fees or costs.

While we do our best to provide as many games for each team as possible there are many factors that figure into the total number of games each team is provided.  A home and away against each team is typically not possible, because we rely on the home times scheduled.

The number of times each team plays another team is effected by many factors.  If other programs all have home games scheduled at the same time then we are limited to the away teams that can fill the empty games.  Also the number of teams in your division can effect the number of times you play each team.

Revised 11/5/2024

Schedule Timeline

Even before registration closes on Sunday the scheduling process will begin.

As soon as the divisions are set the the schedules will be sent out to the schedulers to begin pairings.  The divisions are NOT announced until the schedules are released. 

We hope to have the schedules released no later than Monday 12/2/2024, but hopefully sooner.  

The season starts Friday 12/6/2024 - so make sure your teams are ready to go! Also make sure you have referees booked!

When the schedules are issued we will only be filling games until 1/9/2025.  Your home games for the entire season will show, but no opponent will show and no away games will be scheduled.  These games will be filled in after adjustments are made. 

The final half of the schedule will be released on or about 1/6/2025, again make sure your teams are ready and you have referees!

Tournament schedule will be announced ASAP after the season, notice might be quick - games start 2/24/2024.

Posted 11/16/2024

Schedule Announcement

When the schedules are ready the coordinators will be notified via email.  The team schedules are found on our dashboard, on the Team Schedule tab.  You can print your schedules to paper or to a PDF and share them with your coaches & coordinators.  DO NOT SHARE THE DASHBOARD - sharing requests will be ignored & deleted without comments. 

If there is a game not filled on or before 1/9/2025 - then the the schedulers were unable to find a team to play at that time due to schedule conflicts.  You are free to try and find a team to play at that time, but the game will not count towards your standings.

Multiple Games - in same day are NOT an error, see Multiple Games section.

Division Change Requests - will not be discussed or made - emails requesting may be ignored.  Changes will be made at the mid-season adjustment.

Mistakes - While the schedulers do everything possible to avoid mistakes with 1500+ games the occasionally happen.  If WMCYO made a mistake we will do everything we can to rectify the mistake.

Printing to PDF - Click File in the upper left corner. Click Print at the bottom of the menu.  In the page orientation section make sure the radio button next to landscape is clicked, scale should be set to "Fit to Width", Margins should be set to "Norma" or "Narrow".  Click Next in the upper right corner. In the Destination box select Save as PDF and click Save in the bottom right.  This will open a window, choose a location and file name and click Save in bottom right corner.

Posted 11/29/2024

Snow & Inclement Weather cancellations

In the event of snow or inclement weather WMCYO may decide to cancel part of or all of a days games.  When we make this decision all game are to be cancelled because the insurance is cancelled for the day.  We will email the coordinators of the cancellation and it is your responsibility to notify your coaches and parents & guardians.  We will also do our best to post the cancellation on the home page of the website, but may take a little longer to get posted then the email.  The email is the official notification.

Please note when we make the decision to cancel we try to make it as early as possible and we are making it based on the whole geographic location.  Reminder we have teams traveling from as far as Enfield, CT to Hadley, MA and Westfield, MA to Chicopee, MA so just because the weather might be mild in your area does not mean it will be in other areas.

Individual weather cancellations - because of the vast area we cover some programs may have the need to cancel for various weather reasons, or may feel it is unsafe to travel a far distance.  In this case the coordinators of both programs should be in contact with each other as soon as possible and the schedule email should also be emailed.  We will try to post on the website as possible but it is the coordinators responsibility to make sure all are notified.

When games are cancelled due to weather we do ask the teams try ot make them up, if/when possible.  We understand that gym time is limited and this may not be possible.  If a makeup is planned or scheduled both programs have to agree on it, the home coordinator shoudl submit the rescheduled time via the Change Request Form.

Posted 11/29/2024

Referees

Each program is required to find and pay their own referees for their home games. Each game must have two referees.

If you are having problems finding referees please contact WMCYO and we will try and help you find someone.

Posted 11/15/2024