NSGA Rules:
The Texas Senior games Association (TSGA) uses the
rules as published by
the National Senior Games Association (NSGA) for
the 2009 Summer National
Senior Games for all events offered at the national
senior games. Any
exceptions are noted below. The TSGA
publishes rules for all events, not
offered at the national senior games. The
NSGA rules for the 2009 Summer
National Senior Games may be found at the NSGA
website, www.NSGA.com .
The NSGA distinguishes between sports and
events in the following manner:
Track is a sport, 100 meter dash and 400
meter run are events; Tennis is a
sport, singles, doubles and mixed doubles are
events.
Qualifying for the Texas State Senior Games:
All Texas Senior games, both regional (local) and
state, are open to all
people 50 years of age or better. (Age for
the 2008 Texas State Senior
Games is established as of 31 December 2008.)
Anyone, age 50 or above,
may enter in any of the Texas regional (local)
senior games. In order to
compete in the Texas State Senior Games in one the
events offered at the
Summer National Senior Games one must qualify at
one of the Texas
regional senior games. (See exceptions to the
qualifying rule in the
paragraph, Where Qualifying is not Required.)
Anyone finishing
in the top five places at a Texas regional senior
game is
qualified to participate in the Texas state senior
games in
that event.
Participants at the regional games may also qualify
for the state
games by meeting the minimum performance standards
as set
by the National Senior Games Association for Track
and Field,
Swimming, Golf, Road Race, Race Walk or Archery
while
participating in a regional game.
Athletes may also use the limited opportunity rule
as stated by
the NSGA Rule D (NSGA Rules) for Pole-vault,
Triathlon,
Triple-jump and Hammer Throw to qualify for the
Texas Senior
games. However, the NSGA limited opportunity
rules for
cycling road races can not be used for qualifying
for the Texas
State Senior games. Limited opportunity
certification must be
submitted with the state games registration form.
Click here
for a limited opportunity certification form and
TSGA rules.
Out-of-State Qualifying Requirements
An out-of-state competitor has the same qualifying
requirements as a
Texas resident. (See exceptions to this
qualifying rule in the paragraph
Where Qualifying is not Required.) The
out-of-state resident must qualify
at a Texas Regional Game and finish within the top
five (5) places to
compete in the State Games or meet the MPS for the
event. An
out-of-state qualifier will not displace a local
Texas resident from qualifying
for the state games. In the case where an
out-of-state resident finishes in
one of the top five (5) places Texas residents will
move up one place. Both
the out-of-state athlete and the Texas athlete will
be allowed to advance
to the state games. The regional games policies on
awarding of medals to
both local and out-of-state participants vary.
Contact the director of the
regional game to get more information on the
awarding of medals at that
specific local game.
Where Qualifying is Not Required:
An individual does not have to qualify to enter any
sport or event not
considered one of the “national
sports”. These include basketball free-
throw, basketball around the world, billiards,
checkers, dominos, 42,
pickle ball, recreational race walk, Skip Bo,
spelling bee, washer toss and
50 meter dash.
Individuals that live in proximity to the state
games are not required to
qualify to enter the state games. Proximity
is defined for the 2008 Texas
Senior games held in Temple, Texas, as Bell County,
McLennan County,
Falls County, Mylan County, Williamson County,
Burnett County,
Lampasas County, and Coryell County.
Residents of the proximity area
are welcome to participate in any of the Texas
regional games and are
encouraged to do so. However they may
register for the state games
without qualifying at a local game.
For the 2008 Texas state games, established
out-of-state women's three
on its three basketball teams do not have to
qualify. In applying this rule
and out-of-state team is defined as one that has no
Texas resident on
the team. In order to be a member of a
non-qualifying out-of-state
team, the Texas resident must have participated in
3 on 3 basketball at a
2008 Texas local game. Established team is
defined as one that has
participated as a team in organized competition
prior to competing in the
Texas State Senior Games.
For the 2008 Texas state games qualifying is not
required to enter
Badminton. Badminton was not offered at
enough of the regional
games to provide sufficient competition at the
state games.
Number of Events an Individual may Enter:
The number of events limitation as described in the
2009 NSGA Rules
does not apply for the 2008 Texas Senior Games.
An individual may
enter as many events for which he/she qualified
consistent with the
games schedule. Sports competition will not
be delayed in order to
allow a competitor to complete competition in
another sport.
Teams:
It is not unusual for a team to qualify at more
than one local game. In
this case, a team must select the roster from one
of the qualifying sites
and use this as the base team. The team may add
substitutes or
additional players to this base team, in accordance
with the chart below:
Basketball: 3
Volleyball: 4
Softball: 5
A player or a player /coach must have been
registered in a qualifying
regional game in that sport to be eligible for
addition to the roster.
Documentation of player registration must be
provided by the director
of the regional games in which the additional
player was registered to
the register of state games at least one week prior
to the beginning of
the state games.
Other substitution rules, as described Section F of
the 2009 NSGA Rules
apply. This includes the NSGA rule that specifies
the number of
out-of-state players allowed on a team.
Doubles Partners:
Doubles teams consisting of one Texas resident and
one Non-Texas
resident will be considers as an out-of-state team
for qualifying down
purposes. This mixed residency team can
qualify by winning a qualifying
place as defined in the NSGA rules but will not
displace a Texas
residency team. A Texas team will also
qualify.
Section E of the 2009 NSGA Rules state that doubles
partners who
qualified together must play together. The
NSGA rules allow for a
change of partners for valid medical reasons.
In addition to the valid
medical reason, the TSGA allows for a change of
partners in one of
other circumstance. In some cases, an
individual may qualify with one
partner at one regional game and a second partner
at another regional
game. Since an individual may only play with
one partner per event at
the state games this would leave the second partner
abandoned. This
abandoned partner may take another partner.
In all cases the new
partner must have participated in the same local
game in which the
gaining partner qualified.
Documentation of new partner registration must be
provided by the
director of the regional game in which the
individual participated to the
register of state games at least one week prior to
the beginning of the
state games. There will be no “on the
spot” partner substitutions at
the state games.
