Arlington travel tryouts?

[Anonymous]

I have never seen a public school sports team with so many weirdos hanging around it (the cult lady, the lady with the fawning videos, the "team mom" without a kid on the team who is in charge of collecting thousands of dollars which seems to have disappeared, the random relative hangers-ons, the million assistant coaches) and so much cheating and transfers. The dog park address, the fake street address, all the ineligible players, paying single moms to use their address, FCPS pretending "this is fine! meme", homeless paperwork, VHSL having to step in b/c FCPS won't do their job, kids giving up their private school scholarships to play at Hayfield...its all completely batsh!t crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:McLean isn't going to have a D1 8th grade team?

Is this correct?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McLean isn't going to have a D1 8th grade team?

Is this correct?

I don't have that info, but last year's 7th grade D1 didn't place well, so maybe they don't want to enter in D1 this year?

[Anonymous]

We recently moved to Arlington from DC. Our son wants to try out for Arlington travel 7th grade team. He’s been playing on Maryland AAU teams for several years, almost year round. Are the middle school team rosters already set with returning players or do the coaches sometimes add new talent?

Assuming our son can make a spot, will he be able to continue playing for his AAU team, assuming few team practice conflicts, or do the coaches require 100% participation for every practice and game for that long season? Many middle schoolers in Maryland play for their AAU teams year round except for football season. Do travel teams also support multi sport players?

Son doesn’t want to lose a spot on his AAU team but also wants to be a part of NoVA basketball scene he’s heard so much about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We recently moved to Arlington from DC. Our son wants to try out for Arlington travel 7th grade team. He’s been playing on Maryland AAU teams for several years, almost year round. Are the middle school team rosters already set with returning players or do the coaches sometimes add new talent?

Assuming our son can make a spot, will he be able to continue playing for his AAU team, assuming few team practice conflicts, or do the coaches require 100% participation for every practice and game for that long season? Many middle schoolers in Maryland play for their AAU teams year round except for football season. Do travel teams also support multi sport players?

Son doesn’t want to lose a spot on his AAU team but also wants to be a part of NoVA basketball scene he’s heard so much about.

Are you talking about playing for the Arlington FCYBL team or playing for the Arlington public middle school teams?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Are you talking about playing for the Arlington FCYBL team or playing for the Arlington public middle school teams?

I’m asking about Arlington FCYBL teams for 7th grade. From reading this thread it sounds like making a team is as much about who you know as it is about skills and experience. But we want to know if the time commitment works for players on other AAU teams simultaneously.

I suppose son will try out for middle school team but I was told that season is very short.

[Anonymous]

Your son would be expected to prioritize his FCYBL team practices (usually 2 nights/week) and his FCYBL team games over any other sport, during the main season which is Nov 15-early March.

There is usually one game per weekend and maybe 1-2 weeknight games.

Since AAU games are also on weekends, and you have no control over when either team practices since you don't coach either team...you will likely have a lot of schedule conflicts.

[Anonymous]

Yes, coaches support multi-sport players. Kids are expected to finish out their fall sport (football, soccer, etc). Once fall sports end, coaches expect them to prioritize the county team time commitments dover any other team.

My son's 5th gr team had an AAU player who tried to do both but the coach would not play kids if they were late or missed practice the previous week without a good reason and so he barely played the first half of the season, then he quit the team because his parents were piqued that he wasn't playing. He didn't know what they were running bc he skipped practice for AAU practices, so he didn't add any value to the team.

[Anonymous]

Depends. We were able to swing ATB and AAU because DC’s AAU team practiced on opposite
nights and mainly trained in fall/early winter to not conflict with football season. But after holidays, AAU team started playing in a winter league and circuit so we had conflicts and had to skip a few games (using lame excuses) for both teams. DC wanted to stay on ATB to play with his friends but honestly it was a hassle for us so we should have dropped ATB and used the extra time saved for individual training instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

All that doesn't matter. Individual entities - the city sports groups - are acting in an anticompetitive matter. Doesn't matter if they are non-profits or because schools don't offer middle school basketball. See the anti-trust cases against the Ivy leagues and other colleges wherein they shared information on students. Whether this rises to an antitrust violation likely rests on how one defines the marketplace. You can't work as a team to be anticompetitive. Mclean as an individual actor or Falls Church or Great Falls wants to limit their players to a certain location. Certainly can do that but what they can't do is work together.

Compare FCYBL with all the other sports leagues in NOVA, NVYLL, FCYFL, etc. All grant exemptions to kids that want to play for other teams outside of their zip code. The oversite organizations will make a fuss but I've never seen an exemtion not granted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, coaches support multi-sport players. Kids are expected to finish out their fall sport (football, soccer, etc). Once fall sports end, coaches expect them to prioritize the county team time commitments dover any other team.

My son's 5th gr team had an AAU player who tried to do both but the coach would not play kids if they were late or missed practice the previous week without a good reason and so he barely played the first half of the season, then he quit the team because his parents were piqued that he wasn't playing. He didn't know what they were running bc he skipped practice for AAU practices, so he didn't add any value to the team.

LOL. You’re talking about 5th graders. Thanks for being part of the problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, coaches support multi-sport players. Kids are expected to finish out their fall sport (football, soccer, etc). Once fall sports end, coaches expect them to prioritize the county team time commitments dover any other team.

My son's 5th gr team had an AAU player who tried to do both but the coach would not play kids if they were late or missed practice the previous week without a good reason and so he barely played the first half of the season, then he quit the team because his parents were piqued that he wasn't playing. He didn't know what they were running bc he skipped practice for AAU practices, so he didn't add any value to the team.

LOL. You’re talking about 5th graders. Thanks for being part of the problem.

What problem? Encouraging kids to honor their commitments to their team?

5th graders need to attend practices for their teams so they know what's going on in the games. A kid can be great, but if he goes into the game and doesn't know what to do when the coach yells out a play or a press or an offense, he is hurting his team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, coaches support multi-sport players. Kids are expected to finish out their fall sport (football, soccer, etc). Once fall sports end, coaches expect them to prioritize the county team time commitments dover any other team.

My son's 5th gr team had an AAU player who tried to do both but the coach would not play kids if they were late or missed practice the previous week without a good reason and so he barely played the first half of the season, then he quit the team because his parents were piqued that he wasn't playing. He didn't know what they were running bc he skipped practice for AAU practices, so he didn't add any value to the team.

LOL. You’re talking about 5th graders. Thanks for being part of the problem.

What problem? Encouraging kids to honor their commitments to their team?

5th graders need to attend practices for their teams so they know what's going on in the games. A kid can be great, but if he goes into the game and doesn't know what to do when the coach yells out a play or a press or an offense, he is hurting his team.

Sports for 5th graders is supposed to be fun. There is no “hurting his team” at this age.

[Anonymous]

When my son played for ATB, he said some kids regularly skipped practices for other sports and missed games for weekend lacrosse tournaments. At least one of his coaches limited playing time for kids who skipped or were regularly late to practice.

As I recall, some of the practices were only an hour, we had to rush to get him there after work then hang around because it didn't make sense to return home in traffic for a short time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, coaches support multi-sport players. Kids are expected to finish out their fall sport (football, soccer, etc). Once fall sports end, coaches expect them to prioritize the county team time commitments dover any other team.

My son's 5th gr team had an AAU player who tried to do both but the coach would not play kids if they were late or missed practice the previous week without a good reason and so he barely played the first half of the season, then he quit the team because his parents were piqued that he wasn't playing. He didn't know what they were running bc he skipped practice for AAU practices, so he didn't add any value to the team.

LOL. You’re talking about 5th graders. Thanks for being part of the problem.

What problem? Encouraging kids to honor their commitments to their team?

5th graders need to attend practices for their teams so they know what's going on in the games. A kid can be great, but if he goes into the game and doesn't know what to do when the coach yells out a play or a press or an offense, he is hurting his team.

Sports for 5th graders is supposed to be fun. There is no “hurting his team” at this age.

Its fine to have that approach for 5th grade! Those families should play rec league where you get to play whether you skip practice or not.

If a kid doesn't go to travel basketball practice, it hurts his team. Putting him out on the court is not fair to the other 10 players who attended practice and learned what they were supposed to learn.