FCYBL-is this allowed?

[Anonymous]

^^I will add that his regular team of regular 8th graders were not competitive against the hand-picked super squad.

[Anonymous]

The problem is other teams in D1 feel the pressure to play the silly recruiting game, and recruit their own out of town ringers to keep up. Adding two high level players can completely raise a teams ceiling to another level. But kids that actually do live in town get squeezed out of playing time or even off the roster.

FCYBL and its member leagues need to rethink this. Or maybe they’re perfectly fine with it??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problem is other teams in D1 feel the pressure to play the silly recruiting game, and recruit their own out of town ringers to keep up. Adding two high level players can completely raise a teams ceiling to another level. But kids that actually do live in town get squeezed out of playing time or even off the roster.

FCYBL and its member leagues need to rethink this. Or maybe they’re perfectly fine with it??

The whole point of the league is to provide middle school travel experience before high school. That's why its community based. The concept is it supposed to be the kids from Springfield middle schools playing the kids from Mclean middle schools.

The league needs to enforce its own rules and not allow exceptions to its rules. Ten teams with three zip code exceptions is ridiculous when the coaches are told its 2 or fewer per team. There was a player on 6th grade all league last year who lived in another state.

[Anonymous]

"Double reclass" means a kid who should be in 10th grade is playing in 8th grade?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is other teams in D1 feel the pressure to play the silly recruiting game, and recruit their own out of town ringers to keep up. Adding two high level players can completely raise a teams ceiling to another level. But kids that actually do live in town get squeezed out of playing time or even off the roster.

FCYBL and its member leagues need to rethink this. Or maybe they’re perfectly fine with it??

The whole point of the league is to provide middle school travel experience before high school. That's why its community based. The concept is it supposed to be the kids from Springfield middle schools playing the kids from Mclean middle schools.

The league needs to enforce its own rules and not allow exceptions to its rules. Ten teams with three zip code exceptions is ridiculous when the coaches are told its 2 or fewer per team. There was a player on 6th grade all league last year who lived in another state.

The league is being used by coaches with egos to build their basketball resumes. The kids and neighborhood leagues are being used, as opposed to being served, by these coaches.

If I’m a wannabe coach, I can either try to recruit and build a full AAU team from scratch (hard), or I can instead step into an established community team with decent players and gym time and a full schedule of game and simply bump off two kids and replace them with 2 out of zip code ringers (much easier).

The kids are losing out but some parents are actually cool with this in pursuit of winning and championships. I assume the member leagues all think it’s what they have to tolerate to get “good” coaching for their teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is other teams in D1 feel the pressure to play the silly recruiting game, and recruit their own out of town ringers to keep up. Adding two high level players can completely raise a teams ceiling to another level. But kids that actually do live in town get squeezed out of playing time or even off the roster.

FCYBL and its member leagues need to rethink this. Or maybe they’re perfectly fine with it??

The whole point of the league is to provide middle school travel experience before high school. That's why its community based. The concept is it supposed to be the kids from Springfield middle schools playing the kids from Mclean middle schools.

The league needs to enforce its own rules and not allow exceptions to its rules. Ten teams with three zip code exceptions is ridiculous when the coaches are told its 2 or fewer per team. There was a player on 6th grade all league last year who lived in another state.

The league is being used by coaches with egos to build their basketball resumes. The kids and neighborhood leagues are being used, as opposed to being served, by these coaches.

If I’m a wannabe coach, I can either try to recruit and build a full AAU team from scratch (hard), or I can instead step into an established community team with decent players and gym time and a full schedule of game and simply bump off two kids and replace them with 2 out of zip code ringers (much easier).

The kids are losing out but some parents are actually cool with this in pursuit of winning and championships. I assume the member leagues all think it’s what they have to tolerate to get “good” coaching for their teams.

Or like in this case, you bring in 5 or 6 ringers from out of town.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problem is other teams in D1 feel the pressure to play the silly recruiting game, and recruit their own out of town ringers to keep up. Adding two high level players can completely raise a teams ceiling to another level. But kids that actually do live in town get squeezed out of playing time or even off the roster.

FCYBL and its member leagues need to rethink this. Or maybe they’re perfectly fine with it??

I’ve had many AAU coaches tell me this league is 1) easiest way to get gym space (by joining up with FCYBL club) and 2) easiest way to show parents they’re good team and worth paying for - by beating up on true middle school teams. And FCYBL commissioners tolerate - and therefore endorse it - by NOT ENFORCING their own rules.

It’s not hard - 1) check proof of address for every player, 2) stick to your only-two-exceptions rule and 3) eject jackass coaches who don’t follow sportsmanship rules. OR just keep ignoring, ignoring and ignoring respectively.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is other teams in D1 feel the pressure to play the silly recruiting game, and recruit their own out of town ringers to keep up. Adding two high level players can completely raise a teams ceiling to another level. But kids that actually do live in town get squeezed out of playing time or even off the roster.

FCYBL and its member leagues need to rethink this. Or maybe they’re perfectly fine with it??

The whole point of the league is to provide middle school travel experience before high school. That's why its community based. The concept is it supposed to be the kids from Springfield middle schools playing the kids from Mclean middle schools.

The league needs to enforce its own rules and not allow exceptions to its rules. Ten teams with three zip code exceptions is ridiculous when the coaches are told its 2 or fewer per team. There was a player on 6th grade all league last year who lived in another state.

The league is being used by coaches with egos to build their basketball resumes. The kids and neighborhood leagues are being used, as opposed to being served, by these coaches.

If I’m a wannabe coach, I can either try to recruit and build a full AAU team from scratch (hard), or I can instead step into an established community team with decent players and gym time and a full schedule of game and simply bump off two kids and replace them with 2 out of zip code ringers (much easier).

The kids are losing out but some parents are actually cool with this in pursuit of winning and championships. I assume the member leagues all think it’s what they have to tolerate to get “good” coaching for their teams.

Our league in northern fairfax was approached this summer by an aau team to do just this. They wanted to play in the league and they wanted fall and winter access to our FCPS permitted gym space because they otherwise have to rent gym space. They wanted to bring their own teams and coach and have their teams be our D1 teams. Our regular kids could play in D2.

Our rec league president laughed them out of town but I am curious to see if they successfully talked anyone into their scheme.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's the list of players from the 8th grade Mclean D1 team last year from an article in the paper:
Simas K., Connor C., Wes O. received all-league recognition. Other players were Mark J., Hudson M., J.T. Holoubek, Max L. Tyler K., Luke S. and Luke M.

(There was also player named Gavin on the team whose dad was the assistant coach who isn't listed in the newspaper for some reason).

Here's the list of players registered so far this year:
Charlie C
Connor C
Declan C
Enzo (
Finnian H
Jack C
Maximus L
Paul B

Definitely looks like "Connor C" and "Max L." could be repeat players. Seems kind of strange to have two kids two years in a row on the same team who both flunked 8th grade.

Oh wow, I recognize 5 of the 8 kids currently registered. One is a double reclass and another is a reclass. If my kid was good enough to be all county last year and he was already a reclass, to reclass again this year just seems like overkill. I guess that’s just what’s happening in basketball nowadays.

Only knew a few kids from last years team. Didn’t know Max, so im not sure if he is the same as Maximus.

Obviously they will have more than 8 kids on the team and I am hearing that an additional reclass and an additional double reclass will be added to the roster.

I think some of these kids play together on the Loudoun 8th grade PYBL team. (Don't have to live in Loudoun to play on the Loudoun team.)

[Anonymous]

I will add that the one who definitely played on Mclean 8th last year and is apparently playing Mclean 8th again is listed as playing on multiple pybl teams with a class of 2027 designation. That's a current 9th grader and he would still have been a red shirted 9th with a september b-day. 8th grade again, really?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Double reclass" means a kid who should be in 10th grade is playing in 8th grade?

Correct.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will add that the one who definitely played on Mclean 8th last year and is apparently playing Mclean 8th again is listed as playing on multiple pybl teams with a class of 2027 designation. That's a current 9th grader and he would still have been a red shirted 9th with a september b-day. 8th grade again, really?

Yeah atleast 2 of them and atleast 2 more are rumored to be on that team that play on the City PYBL team. One of the City players is older than the kid you are talking about.

FCYBL needs to get rid of the zip code exception rule. Either let teams pick who they want or not allow kids to play, unless they are zoned for specific schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McLean is going to take home the trophy. This years team is far more talented than last years 7th grade team.

I meant more talented than last years 8th grade team.

Their 8th grade boys team last year was substantially bigger and better than every other D1 team and all the other D1 teams were good teams. Amazing that every 6'3 athletically gifted 8th grader in Fairfax lives in Mcleans zip codes.:::

The mclean 8th gr coach last year was the subject of one of the many poor sportsmanship reviews by the league and was suspended for 2 games after his team scored on their own basket on purpose to mock another team. Pretty gross.

Honestly if the league didnt allow so many special secret wink wink privileges to some coaches, they wouldn't have so many sportsmanship issues.

What?!?!

Yes, this was against my son's team so I saw the whole thing. The Mclean team was the only 8th gr D1 team all season that had sportsmanship issues even though there were many other games between different teams that had large point spreads and McLean had so many issues with the other teams between the kids, parents and coach.
The Mclean team was winning easily. There was trash talk on the court.
League rules are that if a coach wins by 40 points or more, he is automatically suspended the next game.
A Mclean player bad at math went and scored and put their lead to 41 points.
Mclean coach called a timeout and apparently told the kids to play no defense. They came out and just stood around on the court. Basically taunting our kids to go ahead and score, they weren't going to try to stop them. Our kids started just passing the ball around. Eventually, a Mclean player stole the ball and went to score on his own basket to try to adjust the score, one of our kids tried to defend against the basket and they started shoving. The refs called the game and the Mclean coach got suspended for at least one game.

You can read in this article how the Mclean coach had some kind of bizarre winners' sour grapes and tried to spin it as everyone else was mad that they were too good. Well, when you over-improve for the neighborhood, and sign up for a league with sportsmanship rules, you are signing up for a frustrating season. You still gotta follow the rules. The "lying about their scores" was because they underreported at least one game score to avoid the over 40 penalty.

(Also in this article he mentions adding a player later to their roster: that's against the rules, the rosters are set before the season starts so I'm not sure how he got permission to add a player or if he even asked for permission). The kid he whined about who he thought should have been league MVP had multiple Ts for bad sportsmanship that season so I'm sure that's why the coaches didn't select him.

https://www.fairfaxtimes.com/articles/sports/mclean-youth-basketball-team-overcomes-outside-pressure-to-capture-championship/article_89dadce8-c9a9-11ed-8a2e-433f5a5b050f.html

[Anonymous]

WOW that's crazy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McLean is going to take home the trophy. This years team is far more talented than last years 7th grade team.

I meant more talented than last years 8th grade team.

Their 8th grade boys team last year was substantially bigger and better than every other D1 team and all the other D1 teams were good teams. Amazing that every 6'3 athletically gifted 8th grader in Fairfax lives in Mcleans zip codes.:::

The mclean 8th gr coach last year was the subject of one of the many poor sportsmanship reviews by the league and was suspended for 2 games after his team scored on their own basket on purpose to mock another team. Pretty gross.

Honestly if the league didnt allow so many special secret wink wink privileges to some coaches, they wouldn't have so many sportsmanship issues.

What?!?!

Yes, this was against my son's team so I saw the whole thing. The Mclean team was the only 8th gr D1 team all season that had sportsmanship issues even though there were many other games between different teams that had large point spreads and McLean had so many issues with the other teams between the kids, parents and coach.
The Mclean team was winning easily. There was trash talk on the court.
League rules are that if a coach wins by 40 points or more, he is automatically suspended the next game.
A Mclean player bad at math went and scored and put their lead to 41 points.
Mclean coach called a timeout and apparently told the kids to play no defense. They came out and just stood around on the court. Basically taunting our kids to go ahead and score, they weren't going to try to stop them. Our kids started just passing the ball around. Eventually, a Mclean player stole the ball and went to score on his own basket to try to adjust the score, one of our kids tried to defend against the basket and they started shoving. The refs called the game and the Mclean coach got suspended for at least one game.

You can read in this article how the Mclean coach had some kind of bizarre winners' sour grapes and tried to spin it as everyone else was mad that they were too good. Well, when you over-improve for the neighborhood, and sign up for a league with sportsmanship rules, you are signing up for a frustrating season. You still gotta follow the rules. The "lying about their scores" was because they underreported at least one game score to avoid the over 40 penalty.

(Also in this article he mentions adding a player later to their roster: that's against the rules, the rosters are set before the season starts so I'm not sure how he got permission to add a player or if he even asked for permission). The kid he whined about who he thought should have been league MVP had multiple Ts for bad sportsmanship that season so I'm sure that's why the coaches didn't select him.

https://www.fairfaxtimes.com/articles/sports/mclean-youth-basketball-team-overcomes-outside-pressure-to-capture-championship/article_89dadce8-c9a9-11ed-8a2e-433f5a5b050f.html

That picture has 3 players that reclassed. One of which, reclassed again and is playing with McLean this upcoming season.