Seeking a better basketball experience

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rec basketball will never be perfect. Despite the best efforts to balance the teams (pre-draft evaluations, requiring parents to note practice day conflicts, etc) you will always have kids who have game conflicts (especially when the league won't tell you before the season what days games are). Our 5GG team got destroyed this year b/c our 2 best players had conflicts for between half and 3/4 of the games.

Rec games are on Saturdays or Sundays. If your kid has conflicts for most Saturdays or Sundays, its unfair to the other players and coach to sign your kid up to play.

Please, we are talking about rec basketball. Most kids have all kinds of priorities weekends that create conflicts. Most kids are happy just having the opportunity to play with their friends and if some of their friends don't make all the games...well, welcome to life when you have to balance priorities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rec basketball will never be perfect. Despite the best efforts to balance the teams (pre-draft evaluations, requiring parents to note practice day conflicts, etc) you will always have kids who have game conflicts (especially when the league won't tell you before the season what days games are). Our 5GG team got destroyed this year b/c our 2 best players had conflicts for between half and 3/4 of the games.

Rec games are on Saturdays or Sundays. If your kid has conflicts for most Saturdays or Sundays, its unfair to the other players and coach to sign your kid up to play.

Please, we are talking about rec basketball. Most kids have all kinds of priorities weekends that create conflicts. Most kids are happy just having the opportunity to play with their friends and if some of their friends don't make all the games...well, welcome to life when you have to balance priorities.

Sorry, disagree. Rec sports are important to the kids and coaches who play them. Princess Larla dropping in twice all season for fun is obnoxious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents and coaches don't seem to grasp that rec leagues are developmental at the elementary ages. The referees aren't going to call every travel or three second violation or every foul. You would be there all day and the kids wouldn't have fun.

Screaming "Travel" about opposing players when you are on the sideline of your 3rd grader's game makes you the AH.

That part doesn’t bother me. It’s the ridiculous imbalance in what are supposed to be evenly distributed teams

It is very hard to make evenly balanced teams.

Kids want to play with classmates or be on a team with a friend.
Practice days, times and locations don’t work for everyone.
Parents request a coach that their kid liked in the past.
Some new players are absolutely terrible, while others are natural athletes that immediately pick it up.
Some teams work well together and gel and improve over the season, others don’t.
Kids grow and improve from before the season until the end.

All those things can contribute to wildly different teams.

Has to be something you can do. Been to too many games where the end score is 50 to 6.

We'll it depends. Are there enough teams to break rec into divisions. Thus, you have better teams in the top division, average in the next division below and terrible teams in a lower division. My kids leagues have coaches submit evaluations on their team talent level compared to others. Then the county runs seeding games in December to make sure a coach didn't sandbag his team. Generally, after 5th grade, everyone knows which teams are good and which teams aren't.

Why are there pre-set teams? Most leagues do a skill evaluation and a draft.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents and coaches don't seem to grasp that rec leagues are developmental at the elementary ages. The referees aren't going to call every travel or three second violation or every foul. You would be there all day and the kids wouldn't have fun.

Screaming "Travel" about opposing players when you are on the sideline of your 3rd grader's game makes you the AH.

That part doesn’t bother me. It’s the ridiculous imbalance in what are supposed to be evenly distributed teams

It is very hard to make evenly balanced teams.

Kids want to play with classmates or be on a team with a friend.
Practice days, times and locations don’t work for everyone.
Parents request a coach that their kid liked in the past.
Some new players are absolutely terrible, while others are natural athletes that immediately pick it up.
Some teams work well together and gel and improve over the season, others don’t.
Kids grow and improve from before the season until the end.

All those things can contribute to wildly different teams.

Has to be something you can do. Been to too many games where the end score is 50 to 6.

We'll it depends. Are there enough teams to break rec into divisions. Thus, you have better teams in the top division, average in the next division below and terrible teams in a lower division. My kids leagues have coaches submit evaluations on their team talent level compared to others. Then the county runs seeding games in December to make sure a coach didn't sandbag his team. Generally, after 5th grade, everyone knows which teams are good and which teams aren't.

Why are there pre-set teams? Most leagues do a skill evaluation and a draft.

Most leagues in this area, starting in 3rd grade, conduct 1) full assessments to score/rate players and then 2) conduct a full player draft to select the teams. It's the only real way to try to get competitive balance across the teams. That said, some coaches take it seriously and draft based on talent - while others are fine with continuing to draft all their kid's friends, kids from the neighborhood etc. even if they're saddling their team with lesser talent overall. Will always have somewhat mixed results depending on that - but not sure there's any fairer process.

Separate issue would be how coaches handle being on top end of blowout games (which will happen). Good coaches know how to recognize and get their kids to show good sportsmanship (different kids bringing ball up court, requiring them to pass 5-10 times before shooting, sitting best players for more than usual etc.). Bad coaches do none of these things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rec basketball will never be perfect. Despite the best efforts to balance the teams (pre-draft evaluations, requiring parents to note practice day conflicts, etc) you will always have kids who have game conflicts (especially when the league won't tell you before the season what days games are). Our 5GG team got destroyed this year b/c our 2 best players had conflicts for between half and 3/4 of the games.

Rec games are on Saturdays or Sundays. If your kid has conflicts for most Saturdays or Sundays, its unfair to the other players and coach to sign your kid up to play.

Please, we are talking about rec basketball. Most kids have all kinds of priorities weekends that create conflicts. Most kids are happy just having the opportunity to play with their friends and if some of their friends don't make all the games...well, welcome to life when you have to balance priorities.

Sorry, disagree. Rec sports are important to the kids and coaches who play them. Princess Larla dropping in twice all season for fun is obnoxious.

We are talking rec basketball, not CYO, not travel and not AAU. REC. it is about fun and playing with your buddies. Your coaches comment is hilarious in how naive it is. Most rec coaches are fine with travel kids practice participation becaue they know they don't have to explain what 5 out is or what a diamond and 1 press or any number of things a tec coach has to repeatedly tell/coach rec only kids.

Are you upset said travel players take your kids playing time but isnt at practice.. Sorry that's what rec is about. Playing with your friends. If you don't like it, coach your own team and don't let travel players on it. Good luck with that.

[Anonymous]

Wow, this is our first year doing vyi , fourth grade, and it’s actually been great. I’ve definitely seen some kids fouling, but I think that comes with age I’m not so sure it’s program related. Our coach keeps things on the up and up. I guess we lucked out. I’m surprised to see all these comments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rec basketball will never be perfect. Despite the best efforts to balance the teams (pre-draft evaluations, requiring parents to note practice day conflicts, etc) you will always have kids who have game conflicts (especially when the league won't tell you before the season what days games are). Our 5GG team got destroyed this year b/c our 2 best players had conflicts for between half and 3/4 of the games.

Rec games are on Saturdays or Sundays. If your kid has conflicts for most Saturdays or Sundays, its unfair to the other players and coach to sign your kid up to play.

Please, we are talking about rec basketball. Most kids have all kinds of priorities weekends that create conflicts. Most kids are happy just having the opportunity to play with their friends and if some of their friends don't make all the games...well, welcome to life when you have to balance priorities.

Sorry, disagree. Rec sports are important to the kids and coaches who play them. Princess Larla dropping in twice all season for fun is obnoxious.

We are talking rec basketball, not CYO, not travel and not AAU. REC. it is about fun and playing with your buddies. Your coaches comment is hilarious in how naive it is. Most rec coaches are fine with travel kids practice participation becaue they know they don't have to explain what 5 out is or what a diamond and 1 press or any number of things a tec coach has to repeatedly tell/coach rec only kids.

Are you upset said travel players take your kids playing time but isnt at practice.. Sorry that's what rec is about. Playing with your friends. If you don't like it, coach your own team and don't let travel players on it. Good luck with that.

I'm glad our league only allows players to play both rec and travel for one season. DD's AAU team has gym space in the evening after a rec team that's a year older then them. Seeing the disparity in skill level, I don't see how players from the AAU team playing against the rec players would be fun for anyone

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents and coaches don't seem to grasp that rec leagues are developmental at the elementary ages. The referees aren't going to call every travel or three second violation or every foul. You would be there all day and the kids wouldn't have fun.

Screaming "Travel" about opposing players when you are on the sideline of your 3rd grader's game makes you the AH.

That part doesn’t bother me. It’s the ridiculous imbalance in what are supposed to be evenly distributed teams

It is very hard to make evenly balanced teams.

Kids want to play with classmates or be on a team with a friend.
Practice days, times and locations don’t work for everyone.
Parents request a coach that their kid liked in the past.
Some new players are absolutely terrible, while others are natural athletes that immediately pick it up.
Some teams work well together and gel and improve over the season, others don’t.
Kids grow and improve from before the season until the end.

All those things can contribute to wildly different teams.

Has to be something you can do. Been to too many games where the end score is 50 to 6.

We'll it depends. Are there enough teams to break rec into divisions. Thus, you have better teams in the top division, average in the next division below and terrible teams in a lower division. My kids leagues have coaches submit evaluations on their team talent level compared to others. Then the county runs seeding games in December to make sure a coach didn't sandbag his team. Generally, after 5th grade, everyone knows which teams are good and which teams aren't.

Why are there pre-set teams? Most leagues do a skill evaluation and a draft.

For a number of reasons. Mostly it starts off way back in 3rd grade when the county puts kids on teams generally based on the school you attend. There is obviously some logistical reason for this so parents can coordinate carpooling and the kids might already be friends. After that year, you generally stay on the same team as you did the year before that unless you request to move to a different team. So by the random aspects of life, some teams will be good year after year because they players are good and stick together. Thus, the county has teams placed into a variety of divisions based on competitiveness.

There is always been talk of doing evaluations or assessments and having some type of draft or something like that but that generally is too much work (because it would be all volunteer - county staff isn't doing that) because you are talking about 250 boys and about 200 girls per grade, if not more. Then multiple that by 5 grades and you talking in excess of 2000 kids that need to be assessed. Where would you find the gym space for that? It is hard to find gym space for FFX tryouts that can fit 60-90 kids in it. No place can accommodate those numbers at the Arlington rec level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rec basketball will never be perfect. Despite the best efforts to balance the teams (pre-draft evaluations, requiring parents to note practice day conflicts, etc) you will always have kids who have game conflicts (especially when the league won't tell you before the season what days games are). Our 5GG team got destroyed this year b/c our 2 best players had conflicts for between half and 3/4 of the games.

Rec games are on Saturdays or Sundays. If your kid has conflicts for most Saturdays or Sundays, its unfair to the other players and coach to sign your kid up to play.

Please, we are talking about rec basketball. Most kids have all kinds of priorities weekends that create conflicts. Most kids are happy just having the opportunity to play with their friends and if some of their friends don't make all the games...well, welcome to life when you have to balance priorities.

Sorry, disagree. Rec sports are important to the kids and coaches who play them. Princess Larla dropping in twice all season for fun is obnoxious.

We are talking rec basketball, not CYO, not travel and not AAU. REC. it is about fun and playing with your buddies. Your coaches comment is hilarious in how naive it is. Most rec coaches are fine with travel kids practice participation becaue they know they don't have to explain what 5 out is or what a diamond and 1 press or any number of things a tec coach has to repeatedly tell/coach rec only kids.

Are you upset said travel players take your kids playing time but isnt at practice.. Sorry that's what rec is about. Playing with your friends. If you don't like it, coach your own team and don't let travel players on it. Good luck with that.

Our rec league doesn't allow travel players, for this reason.

[Anonymous]

Rec basketball isn't about "playing with your friends" in any well-run league. There is a skill eval and a draft, so kids don't usually get to play with their friends unless they get really lucky and are drafted on to the same team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents and coaches don't seem to grasp that rec leagues are developmental at the elementary ages. The referees aren't going to call every travel or three second violation or every foul. You would be there all day and the kids wouldn't have fun.

Screaming "Travel" about opposing players when you are on the sideline of your 3rd grader's game makes you the AH.

That part doesn’t bother me. It’s the ridiculous imbalance in what are supposed to be evenly distributed teams

It is very hard to make evenly balanced teams.

Kids want to play with classmates or be on a team with a friend.
Practice days, times and locations don’t work for everyone.
Parents request a coach that their kid liked in the past.
Some new players are absolutely terrible, while others are natural athletes that immediately pick it up.
Some teams work well together and gel and improve over the season, others don’t.
Kids grow and improve from before the season until the end.

All those things can contribute to wildly different teams.

Has to be something you can do. Been to too many games where the end score is 50 to 6.

We'll it depends. Are there enough teams to break rec into divisions. Thus, you have better teams in the top division, average in the next division below and terrible teams in a lower division. My kids leagues have coaches submit evaluations on their team talent level compared to others. Then the county runs seeding games in December to make sure a coach didn't sandbag his team. Generally, after 5th grade, everyone knows which teams are good and which teams aren't.

Why are there pre-set teams? Most leagues do a skill evaluation and a draft.

For a number of reasons. Mostly it starts off way back in 3rd grade when the county puts kids on teams generally based on the school you attend. There is obviously some logistical reason for this so parents can coordinate carpooling and the kids might already be friends. After that year, you generally stay on the same team as you did the year before that unless you request to move to a different team. So by the random aspects of life, some teams will be good year after year because they players are good and stick together. Thus, the county has teams placed into a variety of divisions based on competitiveness.

There is always been talk of doing evaluations or assessments and having some type of draft or something like that but that generally is too much work (because it would be all volunteer - county staff isn't doing that) because you are talking about 250 boys and about 200 girls per grade, if not more. Then multiple that by 5 grades and you talking in excess of 2000 kids that need to be assessed. Where would you find the gym space for that? It is hard to find gym space for FFX tryouts that can fit 60-90 kids in it. No place can accommodate those numbers at the Arlington rec level.

Our large rec league with 1500+ kids manages to do it with volunteers. If the county is running a rec league (and I don't really understand why that is the set up instead of being run by a community org like everywhere else), then the county should do it properly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rec basketball will never be perfect. Despite the best efforts to balance the teams (pre-draft evaluations, requiring parents to note practice day conflicts, etc) you will always have kids who have game conflicts (especially when the league won't tell you before the season what days games are). Our 5GG team got destroyed this year b/c our 2 best players had conflicts for between half and 3/4 of the games.

Rec games are on Saturdays or Sundays. If your kid has conflicts for most Saturdays or Sundays, its unfair to the other players and coach to sign your kid up to play.

Please, we are talking about rec basketball. Most kids have all kinds of priorities weekends that create conflicts. Most kids are happy just having the opportunity to play with their friends and if some of their friends don't make all the games...well, welcome to life when you have to balance priorities.

This attitude is the worst. Don't ruin the experience for everyone else. If you commit to a team of any level, you show up!!!!

[Anonymous]

I don’t know that VYI strictly uses tryouts to form teams. In our age group, coaches seem to request teams of their kids and their kids friends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rec basketball will never be perfect. Despite the best efforts to balance the teams (pre-draft evaluations, requiring parents to note practice day conflicts, etc) you will always have kids who have game conflicts (especially when the league won't tell you before the season what days games are). Our 5GG team got destroyed this year b/c our 2 best players had conflicts for between half and 3/4 of the games.

Rec games are on Saturdays or Sundays. If your kid has conflicts for most Saturdays or Sundays, its unfair to the other players and coach to sign your kid up to play.

Please, we are talking about rec basketball. Most kids have all kinds of priorities weekends that create conflicts. Most kids are happy just having the opportunity to play with their friends and if some of their friends don't make all the games...well, welcome to life when you have to balance priorities.

If you're committing to a team, you should commit to a team. Just because it's "just rec basketball" doesn't mean that the kids don't rely on their teammates being there. It's the worst when you have a team where five people don't show up and the five kids who did show up don't get any rest. It's not fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Burke Rec League has been a nice experience.

Were you around last year when the commissioner had to send multiple emails about bad behavior from coaches and parents alike? Cops were called to a post-game brawl after a girls’ game and multiple coaches getting into it with each other on the boys’ side (including our coach).

IN REC? that makes me sad. We did Burke rec and then select for years and had a great coach. It was the other leagues in select that scared me. I'm sad to hear Burke rec would have issues