rising 8th grader wants to switch from rec to travel basketball-can someone explain FCYBL to me

[Anonymous]

^^This makes me salty as a resident of Arlington, our teams are so hard to make.

[Anonymous]

FCYBL has rules for everyone and then they bend the rules for people who are friends with the commissioners or who know how to ask.
For instance, the rule is you get two zip code exceptions max. Most coaches just accept that and form their roster based on that rule. However last season there were at least ten teams that got "special exceptions" from the rule and had more than 2 exceptions. There's nothing in the rules that says you can call the league up and ask to break the rule. Only coaches "in the know" do it.

[Anonymous]

Unless you are friends with the coach - you will not get in. Travel basketball is THE worst for tryout fairness. My kid is on a team and every year we have outstanding players try out but the coach will not cut one of his cronies sons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unless you are friends with the coach - you will not get in. Travel basketball is THE worst for tryout fairness. My kid is on a team and every year we have outstanding players try out but the coach will not cut one of his cronies sons.

My experience was that it was fair in fifth and then kids had to be really good to bump existing players

[Anonymous]

A kid has to be as good or better than one of the top 2-3 players on the team to bump player #11 out of his spot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A kid has to be as good or better than one of the top 2-3 players on the team to bump player #11 out of his spot.

Agree with the caveat that if he is 6'3, the coach will bump someone for him even if he's not amazing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A kid has to be as good or better than one of the top 2-3 players on the team to bump player #11 out of his spot.

We experienced this first hand. My son was better than half the team and did not make it. Coach will not cut a bench for a better bench.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP thanks for the quick reply. We live in Pleasant Valley (20151).

So you are saying its really hard to make at team? Is there a better league that's easier to get on teams?

pleasant valley, you have a couple options. CYA and SYA. I’m not sure if any of that is Loudoun, but if your in Loudoun the can play for their middle school team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unless you are friends with the coach - you will not get in. Travel basketball is THE worst for tryout fairness. My kid is on a team and every year we have outstanding players try out but the coach will not cut one of his cronies sons.

You should NEVER have your kid play for a parent coach. Never. We avoid any teams where the coach is also a parent of a player.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless you are friends with the coach - you will not get in. Travel basketball is THE worst for tryout fairness. My kid is on a team and every year we have outstanding players try out but the coach will not cut one of his cronies sons.

You should NEVER have your kid play for a parent coach. Never. We avoid any teams where the coach is also a parent of a player.

If your in zip code county team has parent coaches, your kid doesn't have a choice

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless you are friends with the coach - you will not get in. Travel basketball is THE worst for tryout fairness. My kid is on a team and every year we have outstanding players try out but the coach will not cut one of his cronies sons.

You should NEVER have your kid play for a parent coach. Never. We avoid any teams where the coach is also a parent of a player.

Almost all the FCYBL teams have parent coaches. Its a huge time commitment for a volunteer non-parent. The season basically runs from the first week of October to the beginning of March.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless you are friends with the coach - you will not get in. Travel basketball is THE worst for tryout fairness. My kid is on a team and every year we have outstanding players try out but the coach will not cut one of his cronies sons.

You should NEVER have your kid play for a parent coach. Never. We avoid any teams where the coach is also a parent of a player.

Please explain your process for doing that while trying out for an FCYBL team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless you are friends with the coach - you will not get in. Travel basketball is THE worst for tryout fairness. My kid is on a team and every year we have outstanding players try out but the coach will not cut one of his cronies sons.

You should NEVER have your kid play for a parent coach. Never. We avoid any teams where the coach is also a parent of a player.

Then your kid probably is not going to play county.

There are VERY FEW teams I can think of where a coach was not a parent of a player on the team. Also, most of them continue to move up with their kid (if they were the county coach of the 4th grade team this year, they'll be the county coach of the 5th grade team next year). It's a pretty big commitment to coach these teams as a volunteer.

When you add the zip code limitations (you can't just choose your team), you don't have too many options of trying to play for a coach who doesn't have a kid on the team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless you are friends with the coach - you will not get in. Travel basketball is THE worst for tryout fairness. My kid is on a team and every year we have outstanding players try out but the coach will not cut one of his cronies sons.

You should NEVER have your kid play for a parent coach. Never. We avoid any teams where the coach is also a parent of a player.

Then your kid probably is not going to play county.

There are VERY FEW teams I can think of where a coach was not a parent of a player on the team. Also, most of them continue to move up with their kid (if they were the county coach of the 4th grade team this year, they'll be the county coach of the 5th grade team next year). It's a pretty big commitment to coach these teams as a volunteer.

When you add the zip code limitations (you can't just choose your team), you don't have too many options of trying to play for a coach who doesn't have a kid on the team.

The smartest thing to do is to find a good trainer for your kid. You can’t just find a good team and expect your kids game to develop. All that will happen is your kid will get used as a "body”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless you are friends with the coach - you will not get in. Travel basketball is THE worst for tryout fairness. My kid is on a team and every year we have outstanding players try out but the coach will not cut one of his cronies sons.

You should NEVER have your kid play for a parent coach. Never. We avoid any teams where the coach is also a parent of a player.

Then your kid probably is not going to play county.

There are VERY FEW teams I can think of where a coach was not a parent of a player on the team. Also, most of them continue to move up with their kid (if they were the county coach of the 4th grade team this year, they'll be the county coach of the 5th grade team next year). It's a pretty big commitment to coach these teams as a volunteer.

When you add the zip code limitations (you can't just choose your team), you don't have too many options of trying to play for a coach who doesn't have a kid on the team.

The smartest thing to do is to find a good trainer for your kid. You can’t just find a good team and expect your kids game to develop. All that will happen is your kid will get used as a "body”.

Kids want to play in games and feel like part of a team. Practice/training is great as preparation for the fun part: games. They are still kids.