Arlington travel tryouts?

[Anonymous]

For boys typically they do 2 nights and the 3rd night is for those who made the initial cut. Roster decisions are determined by the following Saturday. There are no other places for Arlington kids to go so they don’t have to worry about poaching. That scheduled holds true yearly for 5th grade. After 5th they play the 3rd night by ear. One year they may only do 2 nights or they may opt to do the initial cut and hold a 3rd night for a smaller group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For boys typically they do 2 nights and the 3rd night is for those who made the initial cut. Roster decisions are determined by the following Saturday. There are no other places for Arlington kids to go so they don’t have to worry about poaching. That scheduled holds true yearly for 5th grade. After 5th they play the 3rd night by ear. One year they may only do 2 nights or they may opt to do the initial cut and hold a 3rd night for a smaller group.

its intersting how different the dynamics are for places where the kids have no other choices vs. the places where the coaches are haveing to compete for players. last year my ds coach sent some invites out the night after tryout 1 to try and lock in some players. and the coaches try to do their first tryout the very first night.

[Anonymous]

If your DS is trying out for 5th grade, and probably 6th, don't skip any days because so many (100?) show up to fill the 2 teams, 20 slots (plus a few practice players). The division 1 and 2 coaches plus other coach evaluators send players from one end of the gym to the other, but sometimes initially miss a strong player. Based on past experience, your DS will want to end up on the farthest (from the street) end of the gym. Sometimes, players aren't sent to the farthest end until the 2nd or 3rd day.

And as PPs have said, rumor has it that some players are preselected in advance via the gole ole boys daddyball network. When our DS was trying out for 5th grade, DH was hanging around outside of the Kenmore gym on the 1st or 2nd day waiting and was certain he overheard several dads next to him discussing WHO would be on the "A team" this year!

[Anonymous]

The other thing to keep in mind with tryouts is if there is a parent coach AND a preselected parent assistant coach, then each team only has maybe 8 open spots. That's tough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For boys typically they do 2 nights and the 3rd night is for those who made the initial cut. Roster decisions are determined by the following Saturday. There are no other places for Arlington kids to go so they don’t have to worry about poaching. That scheduled holds true yearly for 5th grade. After 5th they play the 3rd night by ear. One year they may only do 2 nights or they may opt to do the initial cut and hold a 3rd night for a smaller group.

its intersting how different the dynamics are for places where the kids have no other choices vs. the places where the coaches are haveing to compete for players. last year my ds coach sent some invites out the night after tryout 1 to try and lock in some players. and the coaches try to do their first tryout the very first night.

Correct. Arlington (and I think Gainsville) has numerous restrictions placed on it to participate in the Fairfax league that all the other youth teams do not. Whether those restrictions would stand up to litigation would certainly be an interesting outcome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The other thing to keep in mind with tryouts is if there is a parent coach AND a preselected parent assistant coach, then each team only has maybe 8 open spots. That's tough.

Yup. And then if a board member has kids trying out...you could only have 7 spots.

[Anonymous]

Agree - If your son is in 8th grade he has a limited shot at getting a spot unless ATB does the right thing and keeps the 8th grade coaches in place from last year and doesn’t loop 2 dad coaches up again with their sons. Even then there’s a slim chance because by 8th the tryout isn’t really a tryout - they aren’t really looking at new kids.
Not sure about other grades.

[Anonymous]

Arlington could easily support 3 teams per grade especially for 5th grade with a large turnouts for tryouts. I was told ATB had trouble finding enough coaches for boys because season so long.

Last year, there were 3 teams for 6th grade but not sure if 7th grade will continue with 3 or only 2 teams. It will be tough to cut a whole team of boys.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For boys typically they do 2 nights and the 3rd night is for those who made the initial cut. Roster decisions are determined by the following Saturday. There are no other places for Arlington kids to go so they don’t have to worry about poaching. That scheduled holds true yearly for 5th grade. After 5th they play the 3rd night by ear. One year they may only do 2 nights or they may opt to do the initial cut and hold a 3rd night for a smaller group.

its intersting how different the dynamics are for places where the kids have no other choices vs. the places where the coaches are haveing to compete for players. last year my ds coach sent some invites out the night after tryout 1 to try and lock in some players. and the coaches try to do their first tryout the very first night.

Correct. Arlington (and I think Gainsville) has numerous restrictions placed on it to participate in the Fairfax league that all the other youth teams do not. Whether those restrictions would stand up to litigation would certainly be an interesting outcome.

Litigation . Its a private sports league, they can run it how they choose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Arlington could easily support 3 teams per grade especially for 5th grade with a large turnouts for tryouts. I was told ATB had trouble finding enough coaches for boys because season so long.

Last year, there were 3 teams for 6th grade but not sure if 7th grade will continue with 3 or only 2 teams. It will be tough to cut a whole team of boys.

The outline the league circulated this week had two Arlington boys 7th grade first division teams and one Arlington boys 7th grade third division team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For boys typically they do 2 nights and the 3rd night is for those who made the initial cut. Roster decisions are determined by the following Saturday. There are no other places for Arlington kids to go so they don’t have to worry about poaching. That scheduled holds true yearly for 5th grade. After 5th they play the 3rd night by ear. One year they may only do 2 nights or they may opt to do the initial cut and hold a 3rd night for a smaller group.

its intersting how different the dynamics are for places where the kids have no other choices vs. the places where the coaches are haveing to compete for players. last year my ds coach sent some invites out the night after tryout 1 to try and lock in some players. and the coaches try to do their first tryout the very first night.

Correct. Arlington (and I think Gainsville) has numerous restrictions placed on it to participate in the Fairfax league that all the other youth teams do not. Whether those restrictions would stand up to litigation would certainly be an interesting outcome.

Litigation . Its a private sports league, they can run it how they choose.

NCAA is a private sports league, they can run it how they choose. ..must why the NCAA has been so successful beating off all that litigation recently.

There is an argument the FYBLL is restraining the ability of consumers (i.e. youth basketball players) to participate and play basketball for what organization they want via restrictions on who a player can play for and who they can't. (E.g. the zip code rule and Arlingtons conplete ban). The argument in support of this is to prevent recruiting and I guess Arlingtons numbers to swamp other local organizations.

Any type of restrictions on consumer choice is generally anti-competitive. Whether it rises to a restraint of trade and antitrust is up for debate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For boys typically they do 2 nights and the 3rd night is for those who made the initial cut. Roster decisions are determined by the following Saturday. There are no other places for Arlington kids to go so they don’t have to worry about poaching. That scheduled holds true yearly for 5th grade. After 5th they play the 3rd night by ear. One year they may only do 2 nights or they may opt to do the initial cut and hold a 3rd night for a smaller group.

its intersting how different the dynamics are for places where the kids have no other choices vs. the places where the coaches are haveing to compete for players. last year my ds coach sent some invites out the night after tryout 1 to try and lock in some players. and the coaches try to do their first tryout the very first night.

Correct. Arlington (and I think Gainsville) has numerous restrictions placed on it to participate in the Fairfax league that all the other youth teams do not. Whether those restrictions would stand up to litigation would certainly be an interesting outcome.

Litigation . Its a private sports league, they can run it how they choose.

NCAA is a private sports league, they can run it how they choose. ..must why the NCAA has been so successful beating off all that litigation recently.

There is an argument the FYBLL is restraining the ability of consumers (i.e. youth basketball players) to participate and play basketball for what organization they want via restrictions on who a player can play for and who they can't. (E.g. the zip code rule and Arlingtons conplete ban). The argument in support of this is to prevent recruiting and I guess Arlingtons numbers to swamp other local organizations.

Any type of restrictions on consumer choice is generally anti-competitive. Whether it rises to a restraint of trade and antitrust is up for debate.

This is......not a winning argument. FCYBL is a non profit sports league that was set up to compensate for FCPS MS lack of official school sports to help get kids ready to play in HS. They nicely let Gainesville, Manssas Park and Arlington participate, even though Gainesville, Man Park and Arlington kids can now essentially doubledip and get school basketball teams AND FCYBL basketball teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington could easily support 3 teams per grade especially for 5th grade with a large turnouts for tryouts. I was told ATB had trouble finding enough coaches for boys because season so long.

Last year, there were 3 teams for 6th grade but not sure if 7th grade will continue with 3 or only 2 teams. It will be tough to cut a whole team of boys.

The outline the league circulated this week had two Arlington boys 7th grade first division teams and one Arlington boys 7th grade third division team.

thank you

[Anonymous]

The entire league is run by volunteers, people who have demanding full time jobs. Commenters here are acting like it is travel soccer or volleyball that makes money and pays coaches. ATB has never been that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The entire league is run by volunteers, people who have demanding full time jobs. Commenters here are acting like it is travel soccer or volleyball that makes money and pays coaches. ATB has never been that.

Agreed! And (despite these DCurbanmom mean posts) 99% of Arlington parents are VERY GRATEFUL and THANKFUL for the time and dedication put forth by the ATB coaches and other volunteers!!

For the 1% who complain here, they are free to LEAVE and bring their offspring to a pay2play basketball or other AAU team.