This page covers general policies on when and how our seasons run and how we schedule games for various leagues. It also covers when we do and do not play around holidays and what you can do if you're having trouble fielding a team. This page provides general information only - it may not always be accurate for any given league or season and is subject to frequent updates.

Seasons

In general, MSSC runs the following sports during the following seasons over the general timeframes listed:

• Spring: Flag Football, Kickball, Softball, and Volleyball. The first three sports listed start around mid-April (depending on the weather and when the city actually lets us start). In general, they run from mid-April through mid-to-late June. Volleyball starts in mid-May and generally runs until early-to-mid July
• Summer: Kickball, Softball, and Volleyball. These sports typically start anywhere from mid-June to mid-July, depending on how many rainouts we had in the Spring season. We do not cancel Spring league games; we simply push back the start of the Summer season. Any date listed as the start date for a Summer league will be approximate until you receive an e-mail with an actual date. The start date could be moved up or pushed back from any dates listed in the league details on the website
• Fall Outdoor: Flag Football, Kickball, and Softball. These leagues usually start in August, but could start in September if there are a lot of rainouts in the Spring and Summer seasons. The start date for flag football is pretty set in stone, as there is no Summer league before it. Softball and Kickball start dates will be approximate, as we will not start the Fall season until the Summer season has been completed. The start date could be moved up or pushed back from any dates listed in the league details on the website
• Fall Indoor: Broomball, Dodgeball, Flag Football, and Volleyball. These leagues typically start the last week in October or first week in November, and start dates are fairly set in stone since there are no indoor leagues before them. They are typically done by the end of December, but sometimes stretch into the first or second week of January, depending on facility availability, the size of the league, and when holidays fall. We may not offer flag football every year depending on facility availability, and some years it may start later and be considered a winter sport.
• Winter: Broomball, Dodgeball, Flag Football, and Volleyball. Scheduling for winter sports can vary quite a bit. They typically typically start in early January and can end anywhere from mid-March to early April depending on holidays, league size, facility availability, and weather cancellations. Start dates for these may be approximate depending on when the previous season actually ends
• Spring Indoor: Volleyball only. Usually mid-March to mid-May.

Scheduling

In general, all teams receive a relatively even distribution of start times. For weekday evening leagues, start times are generally as follows:

• Flag Football, Kickball, and Softball - 6:30, 7:30, and 8:30 pm. Flag football may be different depending on the availability at Breese Stevens
• Dodgeball and Indoor Volleyball - 6:30, 7:15, 8:00, and 8:45 pm. Any volleyball leagues held at high schools will start at 7 pm and go every 45 minutes. Sand volleyball leagues start 15 minutes earlier than the usual times and do not have an 8:45 slot, as our courts aren't lit.

For weekend leagues, start times are generally as follows:

• Flag Football: 11 am and every hour thereafter. The last start time will vary depending on how many teams are in the league. For the Fall Sunday Flag Football season, start times move up to 9:00 am once the NFL season starts
• Softball: 10 am and every hour thereafter
• Broomball: 6:25, 7:15, 8:05, and 8:55pm. Subject to change based on the arena's internal programming

We try our best to divide start times up as evenly as possible. We don't really take scheduling requests with the exception of teams who like "early" games. If your team likes to play at 6:15 or 6:30, we'll give you more of those games if we can. You can check the box to indicate this during registration. Requests for all games to be played at 7:30 or 8:30 will be ignored, as that's when almost everyone prefers to play. If there is one particular week where you really need a specific time, we can probably accomodate that, but we need to know before the season starts, not two days before your game.

Locations

Locations for any given league are not set in stone. They're subject to change at any time based on the whims of Madison Parks, the Madison school district, or any private facilities we rent from. We have several leagues every year that end up changing facilities for one reason or another, and players should be prepared to play wherever the league is located.

Bye Weeks

Most leagues do not have bye weeks as a general rule. The only time there will be bye weeks is if any given league or division has an odd number of teams, or has more teams than the normal capacity. Do not count on having bye weeks. You may enter a request for a bye week to be on a specific date in the appropriate section during registration or request it via e-mail prior to the schedule being created, but don't count on getting it. Even if there are bye weeks, we can't always accomodate everyone's request.

Holidays

There are generally two types of holidays: Federal holidays and Hallmark holidays.

Federal holidays are those that you probably have off work, you don't get mail, and the banks aren't open. These include MLK Jr. Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day. We don't play on these days. Since Memorial Day and Labor Day fall on Mondays, we don't play the weekend prior to the holiday either.

Hallmark holidays are commercialized holidays that put money in the pockets of card companies, restaurants, florists, jewelry stores, etc. These include Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, and probably a few others that some people celebrate. We usually DO play on these days, as we typically need every date available to get our seasons in. Exceptions may be made. Example: If there have been zero rainouts during a Sunday flag football season we may skip playing on Father's Day since it is toward the end of the season (and generally during playoffs). While we do think it's important to show appreciation for your parents and your significant other, this can be done on any day of the year and doesn't need to be done on one specific day that the retail industry tells you that you should appreciate them.

For our purposes, other dates we don't play include Easter, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, and Super Bowl Sunday. We typically have a two week dead zone around the Christmas to New Year's timeframe because schools are closed anyway.

What happens when the holiday falls during the week? If a floating holiday like Independence Day falls on a Monday or Friday, we take the entire weekend off. If it falls on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday we play every day except the holiday. We don't have the luxury to skip available dates to get our seasons in. 

If playing close to a holiday is going to cause a problem for your team, you should enter it in the field for dates you can't field a team during registration.

Rescheduling

We prefer to not reschedule games unless absolutely necessary. It's very time consuming and very difficult in many leagues. All teams are given the opportunity to provide dates they won't be able to field a team during registration. As of August 2023, there will be a $20 rescheduling fee assessed to any reschedule requests after the schedule has been made live online. This fee must be paid before a reschedule will be attempted, and is charged regardless of whether the game actually ends up being rescheduled. 

If you do want to attempt to reschedule a game, we need as much notice as possible in order to facilitate this. A week or more is ideal. A few days may not cut it. We don't reschedule any games unless all affected teams are in agreement with the switch.

Subs

If you are having trouble fielding a team, you can generally use whoever you want as a sub. The one exception to this is when leagues have different divisions. If you're asking a player who plays in a division above you to sub for your team, you must obtain the consent of the opponent, as one player can have a huge impact in many sports.

To assist you in your quest for subs, we have the following resources available:

• All sports: We have a page on Facebook called MSSC Subs. You can join this as a captain or other player looking for subs for your team, or as someone who wants to sub for other teams. Rules are pinned in the first post on this page 
• Softball: Vist Madison Area Men and Women Softball Players to find subs for softball. This page is not affiliated with any particular league
• Volleyball: Try the Madison Area Volleyball Network and Volleyball - Madison, WI pages on Facebook
• You may find other pages on Facebook for different sports; the pages listed above are the ones we've discovered thus far
• Even if the team captain is not on Facebook, someone on the team is. Please make sure someone is using these resources. If all of the above fails, please send an e-mail to patrick@madisonssc.com and state that your team is having trouble finding enough players. We can e-mail other teams or free agents who were not picked up to try to help you out. It's generally not hard to find subs if you start looking far enough in advance.

Forfeits

We can't have forfeits. They cheat other teams out of a game and cause the league to incur expenses for a game that didn't happen. We can usually find you subs or reschedule the game if you give us enough notice. You can see the details here: Forfeit Fees