Rick Witsken spends his days teaching tennis.

He won two state singles titles at Carmel High School, but his competitive juices still flow, and he wants to be pushed.

So he and some other top area players have formed a new doubles league, the Indy Tennis League.

“There was definitely an interest from higher-level guys to play competitive matches on a weekly basis,” said Witsken, Zionsville. “A lot of time in USTA (U.S. Tennis Association) league, tennis teams try to set out to win the league and kill everybody so they can go to nationals.”

High school and college students are among the doubles league’s 120 players. Players were drafted after being rated by a committee.

“There will be more of an even playing field with this system,” said Witsken, who teaches through his company, Team Witsken.

He is the league commissioner and helped form the group with Kris Looney, Matt Schiller and Chris Zeilinga. Dick McKenna will be the league referee.

Matches will be at Park Tudor High School, University High School, Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School and at one of Zionsville’s middle schools.

Witsken, 38, is one of several teaching pros competing in the league, whose players mostly are from Carmel, Indianapolis and Zionsville, he said.

Among the high school players are Zionsville’s Nick Laconi and Joe Hammond, who won the state doubles titles as juniors last fall. Also playing is North Central’s Nick Chappell, who won the state singles title as a sophomore last fall, and Carmel freshmen Mihir Kumar and Elliott Yee, who played in their school’s top two singles spots last season.

“For the kids that are playing doubles, this helps them gear up for their season,” Witsken said. “We wanted to combine juniors with seniors. We’ll have 10 guys in the league that are over 50 years old. We’ll span the age range from 15 to 55. That’s a beautiful thing.”

Witsken said it should benefit the younger players.

“As a junior player, I never had the opportunity to play doubles against the better players in the city,” he said.

There are 20 players on each of six teams, with six rated doubles spots on a team. Twelve athletes will play each week, and Witsken said juniors will play half the matches. Teams will face each other twice, followed by playoffs.

The plan is to run the league indoors after the high school season.

Witsken, who helps run a women’s doubles league that began earlier this month, said the league might include higher-ranked women next summer.

Witsken also is reviving a city tournament for Indianapolis-area players.

The Team Witsken Men’s City Tennis Championships will be June 19-21 in Zionsville. The singles winner will get a wild card into the Indianapolis Tennis Championships qualifying tournament.