Arlington travel tryouts?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:As a former FCYBL coach and parent, I will side with the "prioritize FCYBL" comments for most of the reasons above. We made that clear before tryouts -- once basketball season starts, basketball is your priority. If you regularly miss practice, that WILL affect your playing time. If you weren't willing to prioritize basketball, our teams weren't for you, and we have a great rec league for you.

I don't understand why some parents can't grasp this. Your kids will have to make choices the rest of their life, and those choices will have consequences. You can't do everything you want to how and when you want to do it. You're doing your kids a disservice by not teaching them this, even in 5th grade.

Hope you attained that desperately needed validation.

Its frustrating when everyone disagrees with you, huh? You fully expected no one would have an issue with little Larlo missing lowly county team practices to practice with his "prestigious" AAU team and just popping in for county games. After all, everyone is busy, right?

That PP isn't even talking about low end rec (where kids miss all the time - I coach rec) but select where it has been told to kids you can't miss practice.

And, like I said. Kid misses practice and gets reduce playing time I support. But, wait until you come across the kid that misses practices (because he has AAU or baseball or lax or something else) and doesn't see his practice time reduced. That's the one the will drive you nuts.

But WHY would that drive you nuts? If it’s a competitive team as you seem to think it is, why on Earth should face time at practice trump performance on the court? (And why are you monitoring what the other kids are doing?). This is some middle-manager thinking.

Should be game time. Not practice time.

Understood. The question remains. Is this a competitive team or isn’t it? If it is, shouldn’t the best competitors be the ones to compete, not necessarily the kids with the best work ethic, most dedication, and/or most practice time?

If your kid was on their high school math team and studied hard every day, went to every coaching session, and generally worked their butt off to be pretty good at math, should they make the “A” team over the kid that didn’t do all of that work but also consistently got the questions correct in the fastest time?

When we say “competitive” we mean playing to win, correct?

It’s also a kids’ team, not the NBA. Some of the value is in learning how to be part of a team, which means showing up to practice. They also have to cut so many kids at tryouts, the ones who make it should prioritize it or else let someone else have their spot.

Your bolded statement I agree with, which is why I think it’s awful to expect kids (and my involvement in this discussion started with talking about 10 year olds) to give up all of their other interests and activities because otherwise they’re “hurting” their team. Like you said, they’re kids, it’s not the NBA.

But some of you seem to want kids on allegedly competitive (not everyone gets equal playing time) teams to get “credit” simply for showing up versus actually being better. A kid could show up to every practice and “get” the plays, but not be capable of executing them. Another kid might miss the practice where the play was taught and be caught up in two minutes of the coach explaining it to him. In other words, some kids are just better at some things, and if it’s a competitive team a kid shouldn’t be penalized for missing practice now and then just because some other kids’ parents don’t think it’s fair that he is still better than their kids. (assuming he has a real conflict, like another sport or band or a tutoring session - blowing off practices because he doesn’t feel like it that day is a different animal IMO).

Honestly, it sounds like some of you guys are the ones who are really struggling with the difference between competitive and rec.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, tutoring sessions (can be scheduled for any time), music lessons (ditto) or other sports practices are not acceptable reasons to skip a county team practice. Band concert, or
family birthday? Acceptable.
Coaches will schedule practice nights around religious classes.
Sorry everyone isn't telling you what you want to hear.

[Anonymous]

Just let the coach know before the team offers go out that Larlo will be skipping practices from time to time for other activities like sports practices for other teams. Then everyone is on the same page.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, tutoring sessions (can be scheduled for any time), music lessons (ditto) or other sports practices are not acceptable reasons to skip a county team practice. Band concert, or
family birthday? Acceptable.
Coaches will schedule practice nights around religious classes.
Sorry everyone isn't telling you what you want to hear.

I don’t care what you tell me, we’ve already been through this, and it was never once an issue for any of my kid’s coaches. So… it would appear that their definition of acceptable is different than yours.

You’re clearly upset that I’m telling you something that you don’t want to hear: if your kid is getting benched just for missing a practice occasionally, it’s because your kid just isn’t that good.

[Anonymous]

Arguments above are irrelevant if the teams are already set as PPs have claimed. Coaches will select prior ATB team members or the Storm allstars for their teams and play their favorites, unless they skip an excessive number of practices.

Probably same story in neighboring FCYBL organizations. I don’t think the many NoVA Cavs on Vienna teams will be cut if they chose to attend more Cavs practices over travel or if they miss a few games for out of town tournaments.

[Anonymous]

How set are 6th grade teams? So many kids at the open gym this morning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How set are 6th grade teams? So many kids at the open gym this morning.

are they having three 6th grade teams

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How set are 6th grade teams? So many kids at the open gym this morning.

My guess is that in all likelihood there is probably 1-2 spots open on each team. There will be some movement between the teams with some kids moved up and some kids moved down. I know from my son's experience between 5th and 6th grade ATB that at least 2 kids that were on the A team for 5th grade didn't even make the A or B team in 6th grade. So there are "set" in that there is likely a spot or two available.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How set are 6th grade teams? So many kids at the open gym this morning.

are they having three 6th grade teams

Depends on several factors. Do they have the talent to play 3 teams that would be competitive in the various divisions. The 2 5th grade teams were pretty competitive so it is possible. But, Arlington fielded 3 6th grade teams that were a little more competitive in their divisions. So then it comes down to gym space and coaches. Generally, on the boys side, ATB can only field 9 teams (2 per grade and then a 3rd team based on which grade has strongest grade level - though there are also politics involved based on board member/coaches kids). This is because of gym limitations. This doesn't happen every year.

[Anonymous]

I heard ATB planned to have three 5th and 6th grade teams last year, because there was plenty of talent, but were unable to recruit a 5th grade coach. Such a long season for non-dad volunteers.

6th grade expanded to three teams last year, but does anybody know if ATB will have three 7th grade teams this year to accommodate three teams' worth (plus new kids) of returning players? If not, the 7th grade tryouts and aftermath with be interesting, to say the least. ATB coaches traditionally do not move up with the prior grade teams they coached.

I think ATB should consider expanding some teams to 12 players rather than the stated 10. We always had absent players for every game and if coaches also sign up for Shots Up or other league, there will be more playing time opportunities for 12. (I say this knowing full well that some ATB coaches will play their favorites for 75% of every game.)

[Anonymous]

The "draft" list i saw had three ATB 7th grade boys teams: 2 in the first division and one in the 3rd division. Every other boys age group on the draft list had two teams.

[Anonymous]

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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.

Keep being ridiculous. You’re the type of parent who is ruining youth sports in this country.

Again, there is no hurting the team at this age. Do you know why? Because whether it’s rec league or “competitive” (LOL btw) these kids are 10 years old and it doesn’t effing matter.

It matters a lot to the kids. I get it if your kid isn't competitive or skilled, but there are a lot of 5th graders that are both, and they (and the non competitive kids) have a much better experience if they play on different teams with different expectations. It’s no fun for a kid who knows how to play and knows the team’s plays to play with kids who don't, just like its no fun for kids who don't know plays or don't have skills to be on teams where those are expected.

[Anonymous]

Hilarious that someone who has their 5th grader play both AAU and a county travel team is telling other parents not to take youth sports so seriously. Ummm hello??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hilarious that someone who has their 5th grader play both AAU and a county travel team is telling other parents not to take youth sports so seriously. Ummm hello??

You do realize that one can respond to something a second person said about a third person and not actually be that third person, don’t you?

Any adult who describes a 5th grader playing a game as “not adding value” is an AH. Period.

[Anonymous]

6th grade girls are having a 4th night of tryouts?!?