MHSTeCA's Claims Committee Memorandum

Claims Committee Memorandum: In an attempt to offer a timely process for reviewing and evaluating ethical and possible rules concerns in high school tennis; the MHSTeCA has established a Committee to help with these issues.
To resolve such conflict, it is the Committee’s expectations that all concerned parties make every attempt towards resolution by initially working together professionally and collaboratively at the local level within the guidelines of the MHSAA Coaches Rules Manual.
A detailed and formulated procedure has been ratified by which the Claims Committee will review such concerns and give a notice of findings and recommended actions to all pertinent parties. 

This committee will only be utilized when situations cannot be resolved by coaches or athletic directors locally.      With this clearly defined process, the Michigan High School Tennis Coaches Association warrant that schools will participate fairly, professionally, and with good sportsmanship through competition in the sport of high school tennis.   In the event that a situation cannot be resolved at the local level, procedural steps shall be as follows:

• The concerned party should contact their Athletic Director and the opposing coach to resolve a concern.
• If unsuccessful, the concerned party should contact the claims committee member in their area with the concern.
• The claims member will refer the concerned party to the best practices and/or recommend a course of action to best solve the concern. Upon request, the claims member may assist the concerned party with this course of action.
• The claims member will always notify the claims committee chair of any action, as well as any additional claims members, or the MHSAA as necessary.

• Each individual claims member may:
• Upon request, mediate processes in a coaches meeting (seeding, ranked order check, majority matches etc.)
• Gather scores and other pertinent information based on the concern
• Contact schools to gather additional information based on the concern
• Forward any collected information to the appropriate parties

• The original claims member will collaborate with the chair member and concerned party to gather evidence, review evidence, and notify or contact the appropriate parties.
• The chair member will delegate tasks in the case to claims members as needed.
• Upon review, the party in question and the MHSAA will be given notice of the discovered findings from the original claims member or the chair member.
• The original claims member or chair member will then follow up with the appropriate party(s) within 72 hours of the initial notice to seek the outcome of the case.
• If the chair member decides the outcome does not meet the standards of the MHSAA rules and offer a fair and viable solution to the issue, the claims committee will take a vote of opinion.
• With a majority vote approval: the chair member will notify the MHSAA that; the party in question has not met compliance to the MHSAA rule standards with a fair and viable solution.

If any further questions or concerns please resource www.mhsteca.org website and navigate to the Claims Committee link.

Sincerely,

MHSTeCA