FCYBL roster registration is closed. Best thing to do is find a trainer for a couple months, play rec ball, and get ready for Spring AAU tryouts in Feb/March. As mentioned above, Nova94 is a good one because they always have multiple teams per grade level.

My son played for NoVA94 AAU team at that age, for 2 seasons. It was generally a good experience except for the “daddy ball” team with 2 coaches playing their sons most of every game and with 4 bigs on that team, there was minimal playing time left for the other 4-5 players on that team. But that is fairly typical (see other thread) so it’s best to select a team where your son will be in the top 5 of the talent pool.

Anonymous wrote:I have a very talented basketball player son and he was very frustrated being on rec teams the last two years. What are our options for his age? I believe he’s too young to play true travel? Is there pre-travel for this age like there is for soccer? We are in Sterling. Thank you.

just curious to what you mean by "very talented" ? is this your own assessment?

In what ways is he getting frustrated?

With my own kids, grade 3 and below were pretty much like baby ball and there were a lot of handicaps put in place in terms of rules.

Grade 4 is where you start seeing better play and it gets better too.

A lot of it comes down to the team and coach you get in rec ball too.

There actually are higher level basketball opportunities for grade 4. Both aau/travel and a kind of in between of rec and that higher level.

A lot of the aau teams already had their tryouts back in August or September, if not March. But there are some teams(not aau) that play seasonal/winter only that are likely wrapping up their fall seasons now and will be having winter tryouts in the next couple of weeks. If you're looking for your son to move up a level but not quite aau level, these are the type of opportunities that you're probably be interested in. But although you would hope so, not every "higher" level team/paid coaching is better than well coached rec teams.

I'm not too familiar with the Sterling area, so can't really point you towards any teams.

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax County Youth Basketball League if he’s in 5th grade, or even a very good 4th grader. Tryouts are probably done now, but you might get lucky that a team nearby still needs players. Herndon would be a good one to reach out to.

He’s 4th grade.
-OP

Fairfax County Youth Basketball League if he’s in 5th grade, or even a very good 4th grader. Tryouts are probably done now, but you might get lucky that a team nearby still needs players. Herndon would be a good one to reach out to.

I have a very talented basketball player son and he was very frustrated being on rec teams the last two years. What are our options for his age? I believe he’s too young to play true travel? Is there pre-travel for this age like there is for soccer? We are in Sterling. Thank you.