Basketball league scheduling question

[Anonymous]

My kid is on Tru2form competitive team and they play in the force one league. The schedule isn’t out till like Wed-Thursday, literally 2 days before the game. Sometimes it changes again on Friday. Sometimes we find out on Friday that another Tru2form team doesn’t have enough players and they need extras so our team players are asked to fill in for them..
Is this how basketball leagues work? Parents are just supposed to not plan anything for the whole weekend??

[Anonymous]

Yes.

[Anonymous]

this is going to sound snarky, but I don't mean it to.

...maybe ask if you could somehow help with the scheduling/put some parameters about cancellations and notifications? E.g. Teams need to notify the scheduler by Wednesday if they need to forfeit or Game times/site will be set by Thursday AM. Might be a heavy lift at first but beneficial for everyone in the long run?

I can appreciate that would be really hard to manage and follow, not to mention frustrating.

[Anonymous]

It is frustrating that these teams are so competitive to make, then never carry a full roster (meaning 8 really ever attend practices and games) and then have to forfeit games.

Could you not allow 1-2 more players, assuming illness, injury and family obligations/scheduling? Especially given the Winter Season, it's inevitable the illness part is going to happen to each kid at least once during the season.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is frustrating that these teams are so competitive to make, then never carry a full roster (meaning 8 really ever attend practices and games) and then have to forfeit games.

Could you not allow 1-2 more players, assuming illness, injury and family obligations/scheduling? Especially given the Winter Season, it's inevitable the illness part is going to happen to each kid at least once during the season.

Not sure if you are answering the question or asking one here… i was just asking why basketball is so difficult to schedule in advance? Since the league already knows how many teams there are why cant they schedule in advance?

[Anonymous]

Don’t know why it is so hard to schedule in advance. I asked the same question when we started 10 years ago. I have had 2 kids play competitive basketball. It is a lifestyle choice. Many will drop the sport by high school because you have to give up and miss a lot to play competitive basketball. But this is true for all elite level athletes, no sleepovers because of tournaments and early games. Miss HOCO or prom for travel. Ask yourself now what the end game is. Rec is always a good option to stay active have fun but also family/life balance. Unfortunately too many kids get caught up in the AAU/travel status but are not truly elite athletes and will miss so much normal kid stuff for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t know why it is so hard to schedule in advance. I asked the same question when we started 10 years ago. I have had 2 kids play competitive basketball. It is a lifestyle choice. Many will drop the sport by high school because you have to give up and miss a lot to play competitive basketball. But this is true for all elite level athletes, no sleepovers because of tournaments and early games. Miss HOCO or prom for travel. Ask yourself now what the end game is. Rec is always a good option to stay active have fun but also family/life balance. Unfortunately too many kids get caught up in the AAU/travel status but are not truly elite athletes and will miss so much normal kid stuff for it.

OP here- thanks for your honest answer. We will finish this session and will stick to rec thereafter. This is not our lifestyle. Even my kid is not enjoying traveling 40-50 mins to pg county only to play for 15 mins in the entire game. It’s definitely not worth it to us. Moreover, many team players are on more than one league, have a private coach etc, and we are not willing to put so much time and effort into basketball at age 11. Because of that my kid will automatically not improve as much as other players. So yes, this will be it for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t know why it is so hard to schedule in advance. I asked the same question when we started 10 years ago. I have had 2 kids play competitive basketball. It is a lifestyle choice. Many will drop the sport by high school because you have to give up and miss a lot to play competitive basketball. But this is true for all elite level athletes, no sleepovers because of tournaments and early games. Miss HOCO or prom for travel. Ask yourself now what the end game is. Rec is always a good option to stay active have fun but also family/life balance. Unfortunately too many kids get caught up in the AAU/travel status but are not truly elite athletes and will miss so much normal kid stuff for it.

OP here- thanks for your honest answer. We will finish this session and will stick to rec thereafter. This is not our lifestyle. Even my kid is not enjoying traveling 40-50 mins to pg county only to play for 15 mins in the entire game. It’s definitely not worth it to us. Moreover, many team players are on more than one league, have a private coach etc, and we are not willing to put so much time and effort into basketball at age 11. Because of that my kid will automatically not improve as much as other players. So yes, this will be it for us.

I get your frustration and have been and am still going thru it though its got better.
When you start getting competitive these teams play in leagues and tournaments. The competitive teams need to do both. Most tournaments don't schedule their games until Thursday/Friday. Those teams that play both then notify the leagues if they can't play due to being at a tournament. So the leagues instead of scheduling and having to redo try to wait to have 1 final schedule. But you will find they schedule the games and have to change because of teams not being able to come.
Force One has a web page and on the home page they have the schedule in pdf form. I find they post there before your team, like Tru2form, will tell you so always check there, sometimes its up by Tuesday of the week. But this is a system wide thing with basketball. So if you want to play this will keep coming up but if just playing to enjoy, rec is the way to go or find a team that plays in Ireach league or shotsup, they tend to have the schedules out more in advance. Force One is a good league, they just have to juggle the teams that play in tournaments.Going to high point is actually not a bad drive for most being off 495.
On the issue of players, it's a delicate balance. If you put extra and then all show up, playing time is reduced. On the other hand if you don't have enough you have trouble if a couple are out. Normally 8 is the magic number, if all show easy to sub in and out and if 2 don't come lot's of playing time which everyone wants.

[Anonymous]

People in this thread have referred a couple of times to “elite” teams. One thing that surprised me a bit as a basketball parent was how team levels work, at least at the HS level.

I’m familiar with three AAU teams at different levels.

Team 1 played in the Force One upper division for HS and won their division at 15U. They played in the “steel” division of big Hoop Group tournaments (levels were steel, bronze, silver, gold, platinum).

Team 2 played in “platinum” division of those tournaments, and if they ever played Team 1 in a local tournament, Team 2 blew out Team 1.

Team 3 was a “b” team for an org with an EYBL top team. Team 3 also played the top division of big open tournaments plus some events against EYBL level competition. Team 3 3 blew out Team 2 when they met and they never played Team 1 because they didn’t play in the same events or divisions.

I’d consider Team 3 semi-elite - they couldn’t usually beat an EYBL team, but they weren’t usually blown out. They were many, many levels above Team 1 that won the Force One league title. I think it’s good to take all of the talk about “elite” teams with a grain of salt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is on Tru2form competitive team and they play in the force one league. The schedule isn’t out till like Wed-Thursday, literally 2 days before the game. Sometimes it changes again on Friday. Sometimes we find out on Friday that another Tru2form team doesn’t have enough players and they need extras so our team players are asked to fill in for them..
Is this how basketball leagues work? Parents are just supposed to not plan anything for the whole weekend??

Spent many years dealing Force One and their scheduling bullsh*t. It won't get better.