What does it take?- high school basketball

[Anonymous]

Unless your kid is over 6 foot 3 tall as a freshman and decently skilled or smaller and a phenomenal PG they are not even going to get a look at Whitman. Those kids have been playing since elementary and it's well known it's kind of rigged before tryouts. The coach has been tracking them that long and many of them hae played together that long.

I would think of a different sport or look at an AAU team outside of schoo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IF he's going to be 6'5, you can start in middle school. Otherwise, too late.

My son is 6’4” and played rec through elementary school. Two years without playing due to COVID, then made his high school varsity because of his height and potential. He ended up sitting on the bench for two years before quitting. He simply wasn’t as good as other kids who just loved basketball more and who played travel in middle school.

So, even with the height, you still need to put serious effort and time in before 9th grade.

Why not move him to JV or C team? Sounds like terrible coaching.

Many schools won't let upperclassmen play JV and many schools don't have a C team.

[Anonymous]

If your child is not tall forget it. Height is the first thing they screen for.

[Anonymous]

My son never played “travel” except at a very low level when he was in elementary school. He did play for his middle school team and rec teams in middle school. But he focused intensively on skill development throughout middle school - shoots a hour or more a day most every day and a dribbling work in the basement of our house. 5’11 and made JV as a freshman. 6’1 and varsity sophmore. Started playing AAU then and now plays D3 basketball for a good academic school.

So you don’t need to play “travel” or AAU but if you don’t (and I think it is a good move to stay out of that world in the middle school age group), you need to find a way to have a skill level equal to those playing “travel.” If I had a kid that was going to be like a top 100-200 player I’d do it differently though. Everyone else AAU isn’t necessarily if you put a ton of work into skill development and have a good athlete

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son never played “travel” except at a very low level when he was in elementary school. He did play for his middle school team and rec teams in middle school. But he focused intensively on skill development throughout middle school - shoots a hour or more a day most every day and a dribbling work in the basement of our house. 5’11 and made JV as a freshman. 6’1 and varsity sophmore. Started playing AAU then and now plays D3 basketball for a good academic school.

So you don’t need to play “travel” or AAU but if you don’t (and I think it is a good move to stay out of that world in the middle school age group), you need to find a way to have a skill level equal to those playing “travel.” If I had a kid that was going to be like a top 100-200 player I’d do it differently though. Everyone else AAU isn’t necessarily if you put a ton of work into skill development and have a good athlete

If kid is 5’11” as a freshman you can get away with this. A later physical developer definitely no.

As always, depends somewhat on the high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unless your kid is over 6 foot 3 tall as a freshman and decently skilled or smaller and a phenomenal PG they are not even going to get a look at Whitman. Those kids have been playing since elementary and it's well known it's kind of rigged before tryouts. The coach has been tracking them that long and many of them hae played together that long.

Are you referring to HS coaches tracking players on local REC or FCYBL (in Virginia) travel teams? My son and some of his friends now play for year-round (traveling) AAU teams for better competition, so doubtful any HS coach is tracking them.

Competition is fierce to get a spot on many FCYBL teams (and AAU teams) with packed tryouts. I can't imagine how difficult it would be for coaches to evaluate such a large number of FCYBL and REC basketball players showing up at their large public HS tryouts. Must be hard for a player to really stand out unless he's above average height and extraordinarily skilled.

-- parent of a late-developing, small MS player who started playing AAU at age 9

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your kid is going to PVI, it will take NBA potential. If your kid is going to BCC, then there is a good chance.

5 DMV teams are ranked top 20 in the country. Avoid Sidwell, Paul VI, Jackson-Reed, Gonzaga, Bullis…and add Dematha, O’Connell and SJC as well for just a kid that wants to make the team and play some.

DeMatha and SJC send kids to D1 and D2 schools, so, no.

Maybe OConnell. More likely schools like Burke/Field if there aren't college hoops asperations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son never played “travel” except at a very low level when he was in elementary school. He did play for his middle school team and rec teams in middle school. But he focused intensively on skill development throughout middle school - shoots a hour or more a day most every day and a dribbling work in the basement of our house. 5’11 and made JV as a freshman. 6’1 and varsity sophmore. Started playing AAU then and now plays D3 basketball for a good academic school.

So you don’t need to play “travel” or AAU but if you don’t (and I think it is a good move to stay out of that world in the middle school age group), you need to find a way to have a skill level equal to those playing “travel.” If I had a kid that was going to be like a top 100-200 player I’d do it differently though. Everyone else AAU isn’t necessarily if you put a ton of work into skill development and have a good athlete

This is the exact profile of the dozens of kids who train very hard for a long time and don’t make even the freshman team at my kid’s school.

I remember a kid we used to see every day in the gym working on his game on his own. Thought being 6’ was on the tall side for a freshman (it wasn’t). Played for MS team and played rec but didn’t realize that he needed to be doing HS open gyms and playing summer league. Also wasn’t fast, strong, athletic, or skilled enough to hang with the kids who made the freshman and JV teams.

He certainly would have made the team at a different school.

[Anonymous]

I have a current 7th grader who started playing basketball last year trying to make his high school basketball team. He is very athletic but average tall, not basketball tall. He tried out for the travel basketball team and did not make it. We went to a few AAU tryouts and the AAU kids are better than the travel team.

We have started skills training. We hope if he does 2 years of skills training, he will be able to make the high school team. We will see.

I would sign up your son for basketball skills training now and have him work all summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your child is not tall forget it. Height is the first thing they screen for.

My kid tried out for an AAU team and did not make it. I watched the coach divide the boys into two by height. He put all the tall kids on one side and all the average and short kids on the other side. My kid is average tall and was one of the taller kids on the short side. Watching it happen seemed unfair but it is what it is.

I think other coaches probably pick out the tall kids in their head but don’t necessarily physically divide kids during the tryout.

[Anonymous]

We know a tall kid who played travel basketball his whole life who did not make the freshman basketball team. We were all surprised he didn’t make it. There was one kid who was very skilled and short who made the team. I believe every other kid has played travel and/or AAU.

Being on a travel team doesn’t mean you will make it. If you only play rec, it is safe to assume you won’t make it unless you are super tall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son never played “travel” except at a very low level when he was in elementary school. He did play for his middle school team and rec teams in middle school. But he focused intensively on skill development throughout middle school - shoots a hour or more a day most every day and a dribbling work in the basement of our house. 5’11 and made JV as a freshman. 6’1 and varsity sophmore. Started playing AAU then and now plays D3 basketball for a good academic school.

So you don’t need to play “travel” or AAU but if you don’t (and I think it is a good move to stay out of that world in the middle school age group), you need to find a way to have a skill level equal to those playing “travel.” If I had a kid that was going to be like a top 100-200 player I’d do it differently though. Everyone else AAU isn’t necessarily if you put a ton of work into skill development and have a good athlete

This is the exact profile of the dozens of kids who train very hard for a long time and don’t make even the freshman team at my kid’s school.

I remember a kid we used to see every day in the gym working on his game on his own. Thought being 6’ was on the tall side for a freshman (it wasn’t). Played for MS team and played rec but didn’t realize that he needed to be doing HS open gyms and playing summer league. Also wasn’t fast, strong, athletic, or skilled enough to hang with the kids who made the freshman and JV teams.

He certainly would have made the team at a different school.

I’m the previous poster and yeah if my kid had been at Gonzaga or DeMatha he never would have made the freshman team and at a bigger strong public school he probably wouldn’t have made JV team. Going to a school that gives you an extra year or two to develop because the JV team is makeable is very helpful for players like my son who topped out at 6’1 and this was on the smaller side for varsity basketball.

I’ll put in a plug for really emphasizing defense and hitting corner 3s and easily repeatable counters in the training if you have a coach that will value those things at your school (can be hard to find). My son could never have got minutes as a lead guard, but as an off-guard who did the dirty work many lead guards don’t want to do and could move without the ball and hit 3s he got minutes in varsity and help with admissions to a D3 (though no money).

Keep ballin everyone! Greatest game in the world!

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure why the coach picked my son over others for the varsity team. He is not the better offensive player, they are all tall (mine is 6'3"), but there was something else. He didn't start but played some. I think he might have been the only kid always willing to take a charge.

[Anonymous]

The other price of advice here that aren’t foolproof but can help:

(1) Train for a specific skill set you can be great at. Spending a ton of time at the gym trying to get Kyrie’s bag isn’t going to be useful for most players. If you can shoot lean into that. If you are tall and can protect the rim and rebound, lean into that.

(2) Communicate what you think your player can add before the tryouts to the coach so they know what to look for in your player. Ideally this should come from the player and don’t set unrealistic expectations you can’t meet at the tryout. Attending a cattle call tryout without prior talking to the coaches is a recipe for failure unless your player pops athletically or in terms of size.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one is commenting on what it takes. How much practice? Travel teams, private coaching etc.

Just need to be tall and athletic

Above I gave my story of my 6’4” athletic son who made varsity but couldn’t play at the varsity level because no, that isn’t enough. What he lacked primarily was being able to see the court and know where to be. That takes immense amount of time and passion to develop.

DP but actually I think your story proves that it *is* enough, as your son made his varsity team as a freshman. It’s not unusual to not be ready to play with/against the seniors as a freshman, and it sounds like your son should have moved down to JV so he could get more playing experience. Quite frankly, your take on your son’s situation is just bizarre IMO.