Youth Sports: Parents Suck (Part One)

Crazy Youth Sports Parents Series

Youth sports would be so much better if parents limited their role to sperm and egg donors, sports financiers, secretaries, and taxi drivers. They can be fans, but they need to stand far away from coaches, umpires, refs, league volunteers, etc.

A few of the parents for the teams my kids played on this spring ruined the year with their complaining, bickering, scheming and undermining behavior.

Last year, my daughter's AAU basketball team was #1 in Ohio and finished #9 in the nation, but this year was filled with controversy from the beginning. Prior to this season, one of the team's best players left the team. She left to find a better technical and tactical coach, one that matched her skills and style. This made sense to me because the girl is a special talent. I was sad to see the girl go, but I understood the situation. My family wished her and her family well. I cannot wait to watch her play in college in 8 years.

With the departure of this key player, our team was not as dominate as it once was. Regardless, the team was still very strong. They won a 6th grade league as 5th graders and qualified for AAU Nationals Division I. The girl who left joined a new team, a team that became the dominate force in the state. The new team beat our team by 17 and went on to finish 5th in the country.

A few of the parents on our team could not handle being knocked down. As a result, they gave the coach a hard time. They called team meetings. They cajoled other parents on the team to join their fight. The next thing I know, I was in a meeting voting on a suggestion to skip the AAU Nationals. The group did not want their kids to be embarrassed at Nationals.

The Main Point

To me avoiding failure is just as damaging to a young girl's psyche as failing. What does avoiding failure teach a kid?

Were the parents worried about the fragile egos of their kids or their own egos?

I voted to go because 11 year old girls who compete in any tournament - win or lose - remember running in the halls of the hotel, racing up and down elevators, jumping on beds, swimming in the hotel pool and laughing with good buddies as much as the basketball.

I was in the minority. We did not go to Nationals.

Despite my displeasure at the situation, I was not overly vocal. My daughter played both AAU Basketball and travel soccer. She had to put soccer ahead of basketball because she was the starting goalie on her travel soccer team. As a result, she missed quite a few basketball games. My daughter was not a starter on the basketball team. One of the parents, called my daughter out for her lack of commitment in one of the meetings I missed. We made a decision to play multiple sports because our daughter is too young to specialize so I accept the criticism but if we had to do it all again, we would do the same.

I am not sure if it is connected to the situation, but my daughter has decided to give up AAU basketball and concentrate on travel soccer and school volleyball and basketball. Last year, she was thinking about giving up soccer to concentrate on basketball. Funny how things can change so quickly.

Parents, if you do not like a team situation don't be a cancer. Simply leave the team at the end of the season and find a better situation for your kid.

Youth Basketball: Refs Influence Game Outcome

Should refs feel sorry for teams being out played and as a result call a game differently then they normally would?

We have all seen it many times before. One team is dominating another team, so the refs limit the fouls against the inferior team. At the same time, the refs call a tight game against the superior team. I believe that the refs do this to keep the score reasonable and to keep the lopsided game moving.

This past weekend, my daughter's team breezed through a tournament and advanced to the finals as the number one seed .

As the number one seed, we played our semi-final game from 3p to 4p against the 4th seed. We won 38-25. The 2nd and 3rd seeded teams played from 4p to 5p. The 3rd seeded team advanced. Our team beat the 3rd seeded team by 10 points during pool play.

The gym was exceedingly hot when our team took the court with confidence at 5p. The other team fresh off their win looked over-heated and tired. Our team took advantage and scored immediately after the tip off. We scored 4 more baskets in the first 3 minutes of play to take a 10 - 0 lead. The head coach of the other team called timeout and berated his girls. It was embarrassing.

When the game resumed, one of the best players on the other team was assessed her 3rd foul and the hot headed coach stepped on to the court and yelled at the ref who made the call. The coach was assessed a technical for walking on the court. Our point guard buried the 2 technical foul shots and our team took a commanding 12-0 lead. The neutered coach retreated to the sidelines and contained his emotions for the rest of the game.

The game played on and our team continued to dominate possession. Our team was passing and cutting and beating the other team's man to man defense with ease, but layups and short jumpers were not falling. Still it was very obvious that our team was in control.

At the half way point of the first half, the other team called time. We were still winning 12-0, but should have been winning 24-0. After the time out, our opponent emerged and started employing a tightly packed zone. Our team kept trying to pass and cut in the narrow lanes, but met lots of resistance and tough physical play. The refs, however, were not making any calls. After several obvious fouls were ignored, our coach called timeout and talked to the ref. The ref told our coach to relax because we were obviously going to win the game.

Well, our team kept missing shots and got frustrated. Our frustration lead to fouls and the other team buried foul shot after foul shot. Our team was still dominating each possession, but soon it was a 1 point game.

With 2 minutes left in the game, our team went into a slow down mode. We passed the ball back and forth. Every now and then the other team would foul us trying to make a steal. We were not even close to the bonus, so after each foul we had to throw the ball in.

Sure enough while we were trying to runout the clock, one of the passes my daughter made was intercepted and lead to the winning basket with 16 seconds left on the clock. My little girl was devastated.

The Main Point

In principle, I do not have a problem refs controlling the speed and score of lopsided games, but not in a championship game between two obviously strong teams. We lost the game because our team went completely cold. The other team won the game because they never gave up. Unfortunately, the refs played a major role in the outcome and that is just not right.

Youth Sports: Female Athletes and Concussions

My daughter, CC, is small compared to the girls that she competes against in basketball. The elbows of these much larger girls are at the eye level of CC. Regardless, she does not back down. This gives me a great sense of pride, but it also makes me a bit nervous.

If you are proud for your tough daughter, yet a bit concerned about head injuries like I am, then follow the link and watch Concussion and the Female Athlete: The Untold Story. The video was created by the University of Minnesota Tucker Centre for Research on Girls and Women in Sport.

The Main Point

Learn about concussions and make informed decisions if your daughter, or son for that matter, gets a concussion. The window of opportunity for sports is small, so parents and athletes often make irrational decisions regarding injuries. There are lots and lots of games and lot of life to live after the games are over. Take the time necessary to heal.

Youth Sports: Two Sport Athlete Overcommitted (Part 4)

In the previous three posts, I have questioned whether it is fair for a young athlete to commit to two different teams in the same season? Is it fair to the respective coaches, fair to both sets of teammates, fair to all of the parents who spend a lot of money to put their kid on a top team with high expectations?

I talked to two people who have experienced the two sport situation. After my conversations, I started asking a new question.

Is it fair that a talented young athlete has to commit to one sport over another before he / she knows his / her full potential / passion in any given sport?

The other day, I was at an orthopedic doctor getting a mysterious bump on my shin looked at. (It turned out to be nothing.) Prior to seeing the doctor, a young assistant came into the room to take down some information. While she was asking me questions like when the lump appeared and what medications do I take and am I allergic to anything etc. She also asked me if I had kids, which led to a conversation about youth sports. She was dressed in sweats and looked very athletic, so I asked her if she was an athlete. She said that she had played basketball for a small division 3 college in Ohio. I asked her if she played any other sports growing up. She mentioned that she played club soccer and AAU basketball. Wow, just like my daughter, CC.

So I asked her the burning question - how did you play both? She said,

"You daughter is going to get lots of pressure to specialize from coaches, single sport teammates and parents of teammates. My advice is don't do specialize for as long as you can. My soccer training helped me become a better basketball player and my basketball training helped me become a better soccer player. And, I did not know which sport that I wanted to pursue in college until 9th grade. Play both as long as you can."

I also called a friend of mine to dig a bit deeper into the subject. My friend has two very athletic daughters. The oldest is playing volleyball in college. The youngest just signed a letter of intent to play soccer in college. Both played high level club basketball and volleyball through 8th grade.

Here is what he said after I told him about the pressure we were getting lately:

Wow this sounds so familiar as we had to do this for both of our girls.    

Kate and Shea played both club volleyball and club soccer up to 8^th grade (soccer and Volleyball are the same season in High school and club).  Both also played CYO volleyball and basketball.

My recommendation is to keep CC into as many sports as she want to be in and as you can manage.  I think this gives them a feel for what they want to do and they do not get burned out to early on one sport.   As they get closer to high school, girls start to level out

Youth Sports: Two Sport Athletes Overcommitted (Part 3)

Is it fair to commit to two different teams in the same season? Fair to the respective coaches, fair to both sets of teammates, fair to other parents who spend a lot of money to be on a team with high expectations?

In this series of posts, I am thinking out loud regarding the topic of specialization in one sport. I am trying to determine 1) if an youth athlete can do two sports and be respectful to coaches and teammates, 2) the best age to specialize and 3) the best way to manage a two sport schedule until the athlete reaches that recommended age for specialization.

In the previous post, the coach of my daughter's AAU team questioned our commitment to the team in a respectful email after we informed her that we would miss an out-of-town tournament next week to play soccer.

Here is my response to the coach.

Dear Coach, 

CC is overcommitted and I would like to apologize to you, the assistant coaches, the other players and their parents. We are truly sorry for the distraction this is causing. 

CC loves basketball - She is committed to getting better at basketball - believe me - she shoots for hours and hours in our backyard. She truly wants to be able to help the team with her outside shots. 

She also loves soccer. She plays on a top team in the highest select league. She is THE goalie for the team. In a surprising move before this season started, the soccer coach cut the other goalie for the team. He wanted to keep an extra forward. As a result, CC is vitally important to the success of her soccer team.

Last year with all the rain - most of the weekend soccer games were canceled and replayed during the week. As a result, we did not miss a single basketball game - all 49 or so games. We got lucky and a little over confident that we could really do it again. This year - no rain and lots of conflicts. And lots and lots of heartache for CC. If the soccer team had another goalie - she could balance her commitment more toward basketball - but she can't. 

My wife and I are conflicted - CC loves sports and wants to compete every day. We don't want her to specialize at this young age. CC does not want to specialize yet either, not until she knows how tall / big / fast she is going to be and what sport will provide the best opportunity for her to standout in high school and potentially college. We hate that a 11 year old girl

Youth Sports: Two Sport Athlete Overcommitted (Part 2)

In my previous post I asked the following question -

Is it fair to commit to two different teams in the same season? Fair to the respective coaches, fair to both sets of teammates, fair to other parents who spend a lot of money to be on a team with high expectations?


My daughter plays elite level soccer and AAU basketball. In the last post, I wrote about overcommitment and how we got into this situation. I also indicated that the basketball coach is not happy.

Here is the very well written and respectful email from the coach to the team. She wrote this email to the team because my daughter is not the only overcommitted girl on the team.

My comments are in color.


Hello Everyone, 
 
I am a little bit confused right now about what everyone has committed to with our team. When your daughter and your family joined this team you committed to a basketball first team. Yes, we work with you to make sure your daughter has every chance as a young lady to play different sports, but I think, by me being so nice about this, it is coming back to haunt our team.

CC showing her value as the goalkeeper.

We were informed that this was a basketball first program when my daughter tried out for the team and again when she accepted a position. The previous year we were able to do both with few conflicts, but this year there have been a lot of conflicts. My daughter is now the lone goalie on the soccer team, so her commitment to soccer is paramount this year. To make matter worse, my daughter is not the only two sport athlete on the basketball team. Three of her teammates also play elite level soccer.
  
 
We are suppose to be the TOP AAU team, but I cant hold a practice, game or tournament with all 10 girls attending. It really has to do with practice and wanting to challenge this special group of girls, talented girls. I would love to see these girls stay together for years to come, but we need to know that we can rely on each other and that each teammate wants to be apart of this special team. 




We are suppose to the a top AAU team, in fact, the basketball team finished 1st in Ohio and 9th in the country last year. We lost key three players from that team but the team added three new girls. The team has a lot of talent and expectations were high coming into the season. However, for the first time these girls are struggling against other top AAU teams.




My daugther, CC,  has not missed any of the mandatory team practices due to conflicts with soccer. She practices soccer Monday (team), Wednesday (team) and Friday (goalie training). Her basketball team practices are on Sunday (team), Monday (optional skills and drills) and Tuesday (team).  She does miss a basketball skills and drills practice every week. I am OK with this, because my daughter practices all the time in the driveway with her brother.


Regarding games, CC has missed 1 day of a two day tournament and will miss an entire

Youth Sports: Two Sport Athlete Overcommitted (Part 1)

Is it fair to commit to two different teams in the same season? Fair to the respective coaches, fair to both sets of teammates, fair to other parents who spend a lot of money to be on a team with high expectations?

My two sport athletic daughter is over-committed and her basketball coach is not happy about it. I don't know what to do about it. Over the next several posts, I am going to think through the problem. I am not a fan of specialization at age 11, but we obviously need to address the situation to be fair to her teams.

Last year, CC found out that a soccer teammate named Mel played both AAU basketball and elite soccer at the same time. CC loves basketball and wanted to do the same. I found it hard to believe that you could do both, but I promised to investigate it. I asked the Mel's dad about it. He told me that they have been handling it with relatively few conflicts. He also mentioned that Mel's basketball team was holding a tryout over the next two weekends.

I looked at the basketball tryout schedule for first weekend and realized that we wouldn't be able to make it due to an out-of-town soccer tournament. That should have been my first clue. I looked at the second weekend and as bad luck would have it, my daughter had a soccer game 60 miles away from the basketball tryout. At first, I did not think we could do both, but I figured out that if the soccer game started and ended on time, we could possibly make it to the basketball tryout 5 to 10 minutes late.

It was a rainy day and I was hoping that soccer was going to get canceled, but it didn't. Fortunately, it was raining so hard, that the refs decided to start the game early and cut half-time short. This gave us an opportunity. Unfortunately, the rain snarled traffic and slowed us and we arrived at the tryout 50 minutes late. That should have been my second clue.

CC took the floor with complete confidence and I took my place on the bleachers. I then did a quick count of the number of girls on the court vying for 10 spots. There were 44 girls. After missing the entire first tryout and 50 minutes of the second, I figured CC's chances were slim to none. I thought to myself, that it would probably be for the best.

After the tryout, I told CC how proud I was of her for confidently jumping right in there. I told her that she can definitely play at that level, but that the chances of being noticed during the last 40 minutes were not good.

The following night, I got a call from the coach. CC made the team the team for the winter. We were also informed that another tryout would be held in February for the AAU National Tournament team.

We accepted the invitation to play on the winter team. CC's soccer team competed in Futsal in the winter, but the winter season for soccer is pretty laid back. CC only missed 3 of 20 Futsal games due to conflicts.

In February, CC made the National Tournament team and we accepted. To my surprise, Mel decided to decline her offer. Her dad thought it was too much. WHAT??#@%@ He convinced us that it could be done. That should have been my third clue.

Well, thanks to a lot of rain last spring, most of the weekend soccer games were rescheduled for the weekdays. And thanks to luck, the 5 basketball tournaments were on different weekends than the 3 soccer tournaments. CC did not miss any soccer games (19) or any spring basketball games (49).

The Main Point

An 11 year old athlete should not have to specialize in one sport, but it is so difficult to do in this over the top youth sports world with year round teams.

This year is a different story all together. It has not rained much this spring and there are lots of conflicts and the basketball coach is not exactly happy. More in the next post - including a letter from the coach.

Youth Sports: Losses that Really Matter

March is over. Thank God. March was marked by some painful loses that clearly out weighed any and all wins this month. There's no greater loss than a parent losing a kid.

• Crazy youth sports parents get upset when their little star drops in the batting order.
• Crazy youth sports parents get upset when their little star gets cut from a team.
• Crazy youth sports parents get upset when their little star gets fouled, but the ref doesn't call it.
• Crazy youth sports parents get upset when their little star has to miss a game due to an injury.

I have been upset by all of the above at one time or another. Do you know what is really upsetting - read on.

On March 8th, a 19 year old kid named Jake died in a car accident. Jake's car, for reasons never released to the public, drove left of center and hit an oncoming car head on. Jake was not wearing a seat belt and died in the accident. My 19 year old son used to play soccer with Jake. And for years, I coached side-by-side with Jake's dad. Jake was not the greatest soccer player, but he was a super nice kid who always had a smile on his face. Jake's dad was not the most knowledable soccer coach, but would do anything for the kids and the soccer club.

On March 18th, a former colleague of mine lost his teen son named Collin. Collin was suppose to be sleeping over at a friend's house, but he went to an all night party instead. At 4 am, Collin, distraught about a breakup with a girlfriend, decided to walk home. Collin's home was 5 miles away down a four lane 50 MPH road. A 23 year old guy driving home from work hit Collin. The driver, who may have fallen asleep at the wheel, thought he hit a deer. Collin was tossed over the guard rail and disappeared down an steep embankment covered with underbrush. Collin's dad, Sean, and many many people from the community searched for days before they discovered the sad sad truth.

Collins death really hit home for me. Sean and I had a lot in common. We both loved our kids, youth sports and coaching. Furthermore, we bonded listening to each other's many stories about our not-so-easy-to-parent oldest kids.

Collin's dad, my friend, issued the poignant statement to parents of teens.

The Main Point

Listen, if you can watch your kid play sports, win or lose it should be considered a great day. Some youth sports parents will never see their kids at all, let alone see them play some somewhat meaningless sports event.

More on gaining perspective regarding losses.

This month, my daughter CC started her AAU basketball and select soccer seasons. The anticipation for both seasons were damped by two loses before the seasons even began.

CC's AAU basketball team lost their center and a key power forward.  These players left to join a new AAU team that was forming. The power forward was easily replaced, but the center is no ordinary player. The center is an athletic, game changing, 6' 2" 5th grader who can certainly lead a team to an AAU National Championship. Her mom played in 3 NCAA Final Fours so that is not an exaggeration. 

The best player on my daughter's select soccer team decided to leave the team right before the spring season started so that she could concentrate on basketball. Ironically, she joined the same AAU basketball team that the 6' 2" center joined. The top athletes always seem to travel in the same circles.

There were more than a few people very upset by losing these players. The loss of Collin and Jake puts these loses into perspective.

I know and respect both families and know that they are doing what they think is best for their kids. So I was never got upset by the situation. I was, however, disappointed.

The newly formed basketball team with my daughter's former teammates beat my daughter's team in the AAU Super Regional Tournament this weekend. Both teams qualified for the Nationals.  

Youth Basketball: She's Not the Right Color?

The other day, I was talking to a dad from another basketball team. I learned that his daughter played both basketball and soccer in highly competitive leagues just like my daughter. We talked about our crazy schedules. We talked about the eventual need to specialize in one sport. I told him that my daughter has already run into conflicts and had to pass on ODP soccer (Olympic Development Program) because of AAU basketball.

I mentioned to him that my daughter would likely choose basketball and that her dream is to play for UConn. He said, "Our daughters are not exactly the right color for basketball, they'll have a better chance of playing soccer in college."

I was taken aback by this comment by a total stranger. A dead silence followed as I pondered the statement. Was the statement offensive or statistical fact? I was not personally offended but decided that even if it were statistically accurate it was offensive. If he had said that a black girl is not the right color for soccer the statement would be considered offensive even though the sport is mostly played by white athletes in the US college ranks.

Here is the bottom line:

If my daughter wants to play basketball in college, she will need to be in the top 3-5% of all basketball players, black, white or other, when she graduates from high school.

If she wants to play soccer in college she will need to be in the top 5-7% of all soccer players, black, white or other, when she graduates high school.

If you are wondering - here are some statistics.

Chances of playing sports in college
(Percentage of HS senior athletes who move on to play in college - source NCAA)

• Women's Basketball 3..6%
• Men's Basketball 3.2%
• Football 6.0% 
• Baseball 6.4%
• Men's Soccer 5.6%

I could not find statistics for women's soccer, but the percentage is probably higher than men's soccer because there are 998 NCAA women's soccer teams and only 804 Men's soccer teams. However, there may be more high school women soccer players that could keep the percentage the same as men.

Ethnic Diversity in NCAA Women's soccer and basketball

According to a report from The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports - African American women make up 50.1% of the Division I basketball rosters. White women make up 42.6%. Asian and Hispanic women make up 1.2% each.

The report did not include soccer, so I did a little research on my own by doing

Youth Basketball: Do you have to be a star player to be great?

Alan Stein, social media influencer and basketball strength / conditioning guru, has a great post on his blog that every youth sports parents should read. The post is call Specialist.

In the post, Alan proves that an basketball player doesn't have to have superior skills and athletic ability in all facets of a game to be great. A player just needs to do at least one facet of the game great to be considered great.

He used the career of Dennis Rodman to illustrate his point. One could easily argue that Rodman's name would never be mentioned with names like Bird, Magic, MJ and the Big O when the game's great players are discussed. Rodman was not an "all time" great because he was not a great player at all facets of the game. He was a specialist. Dennis Rodman was a defensive and rebounding specialist. Both are important qualities but these qualities are not featured on Sportscenter nightly. Rodman was not a big time scorer, but he is in the hall of fame. And that makes him great.

So what should a parent do with this information

1) If your kid matured early both physically and mentally; and if your kid has game compared to all of the other players in his or her area, then develop all facets of his or her game. More importantly continue to challenge them. Sometimes players who are dominant at a young age are never challenged, so they never develop the mental toughness needed to overcome defeats and setbacks when they arise. These players often struggle in their teens when they run up against late bloomers who had to scratch and claw for every achievement early on before they grew bigger, stronger and more coordinated.

2) If you kid is the late bloomer and has trouble in certain aspects of the game due to limitations, then help them develop confidence in what they can do well at this stage of their development. For example, my daughter is the smallest girl on the court every AAU game she plays. She does not have the strength nor the size to match up in the paint, but she has a spot on the team. She is a very strong front court defender and she is, perhaps, the best outside shooter on the team. She practices her outside shot almost daily.

She also plays on a team in a less serious league where the girls are smaller. She does this so that she can work on the other aspects of her game. Perhaps one day she will catch up to the others in size and strength and be a featured player - until then she is content knocking down threes, draining foul shots and getting points off of steals.

My daughter is a good player. She is not a great player, but she is working hard to perhaps one day be a great player.

The Main Point

Your kid does not need to be an athletically dominant - featured player to be considered a great player. Help your kid find the strength of his or her game. Then encourage them to work extra hard at that strength to master that aspect of their game. Of course, they need to work on the other aspects of the game to exploit opportunities when they arise.

Youth Sports: This Parent Needs a Hug

Yes

At the end of almost every youth sports season, most coaches give a speech about the team. Invariably during the speech, the coach will instruct the young athletes to give their parents a hug and ask them to thank mom and dad for all the time they sacrificed to allow them to play.

Well, the season has just started and I need a hug.

Last week, I missed my beloved NY Giants play so that I could watch my daughter play volleyball. After that volleyball match, I didn't rush home to watch Tebow-mania and the Broncos win against the Steelers because I was watching my daughter play basketball.

Today, I will not be going to see the Villanova Men's basketball team (my alma mater) play the University of Cincinnati like I do every time Nova comes to town. No, I will be watching my daughter play hoops again. And tomorrow I will again miss my Giants play if my daughter's basketball team advances to the finals of the MLK tournament that they are in. They won the tournament last year so chances are good I will be watching my daughter shoot open three pointers while the Eli Manning is throwing TD passes to an open Victor Cruz.

The Main Point

I love my daughter and thank God for the DVR. Now I'm just waiting for a device to pause my kids games so that can play more golf again.

Youth Basketball: Playing Older Competition

What do you think about younger teams playing against older teams?

Last year, my daughter's AAU team finished #1 in Ohio and ended the season #9 in nation at the conclusion of the 2011 AAU National Championship in Orlando, Florida. One of the reasons for the success achieved in state and national tournaments can be attributed to playing against older, faster and bigger competition leading up to the top tournaments.

The coach is following the same path this year. She entered the 5th grade team in a 6th grade winter league and in 6th grade tournaments.

Playing older, faster and bigger competition has advantages and disadvantages. The following advantages assumes that the younger team can actually compete with the older teams.

Advantages

• The team learns how to play against strong teams.
• The team learns how to break the press against stronger, faster and often tougher guards.
• The team learns how to get rebounds despite being outsized.
• The team learns how to win close games instead of blowing out every team.
• The team learns how to lose - going 40 and 0 before a tough national tournament can add to the stress.
• The team learns how to shoot over taller competition.
• The team learns how to create space and move without the ball.
• The team learns how to help on defense because older, faster kids will often breakdown a younger defender.
• The team learns how to work hard for points because nothing comes easy.

Disadvantages

• The team could lose confidence.
• The faster paced game could create bad habits - picking up the dribble to early, forcing bad passes, avoiding drives to the rim, etc.
• Some players could get hurt against bigger players. Our team is very big for a 5th grade team so this is not a problem as a team, but some players on the team are undersized. My daughter is one of those smaller players.

The Main Point

I worry about the injury risk because my daughter is so small compared to most of the older competitors, but I am not worried about her confidence waning. She does get disappointed when she doesn't play well against a bigger and faster opponent but she doesn't get discouraged. Conversely, her confidence soars when she plays great against players who should be better than her based on their bigger size and extra year of experience.

Regarding bad habits, in the beginning of last year my daughter was overwhelmed by the faster and stronger players and she often pick up her dribble too quickly and made hasty passes. Still, she never seemed discouraged or intimidated. And the coach did not give up on her. She progressed greatly over the year and this year she moves the ball with so much more confidence and purpose.  

Overall, I think that teams should play up against older teams if they are exceedingly better than the same age competition in their area. A good team that wants to do well in state and national tournaments needs to find the right competition level to challenge them and make them better. For me enjoyment of the game and confidence is the key to success, so a team should never move up to an older league if it will erode the confidence of the players or take the fun out of the game for the players.

This past weekend, CC's 5th grade team came in second in a 6th grade Cincinnati Christmas Classic Tournament. They lost a low scoring physical game in the finals 15-18 against the 6th grade team from the same select basketball club. CC was the smallest player on the court, but she scored 6 points and was called upon to attempt the game tying 3 point shot with 3.5 seconds left. She got the shot off, but it did not go in. She was proud in defeat.

Youth Basketball: The Climb to an AAU National Championship (Part 8)

My daughter, CC, and her team are making a run at a AAU Division I National Championship. I am following the process through this series of blog posts.

• (Part 1) Youth Basketball: The Climb to an AAU National Championship -Registration Process
• (Part 2) Youth Basketball: The Climb to an AAU National Championship -Tournament Qualifying Process.
• (Part 3) Youth Basketball: The Climb to an AAU National Championship -The Super Regional Step
• (Part 4) Youth Basketball: The Climb to an AAU National Championship - Tips and Tricks 1
• (Part 5) Youth Basketball: The Climb to an AAU National Championship - District Championships
• (Part 6) Youth Basketball: The Climb to an AAU National Championship - Positive Coaching Alliance Test
• (Part 7) Youth Basketball: The Climb to an AAU National Championship: Opening Ceremonies
• (Part 8) Championship Games

The following describes how the AAU National Basketball Tournaments are structured.

Pool Play

Once the qualifying process is over and all the teams have registered for one of the AAU National Tournaments (Div I, II, or III), the tournament committee ranks the teams and forms the pools for each division.

The 2011 4th grade tournament only had 26 teams divided up into 6 pools. Pools A - D had 4 teams each and Pools E-F had 5 teams each. As such, teams in pools A-D had 3 pool play games and teams in pools E-F had 4 pool play games each. I am not sure if the extra game is an advantage (extra experience) or a disadvantage (exhausting). All of the final 4 teams came from pools with only 4 teams so you can draw your own conclusions.

I was told that the committee ranked our team 6th going into the tournament so we were the first team in the sixth pool (pool F). The returning champs from the 2010 3rd grade National Tournament were the first team in the first pool. So our placement makes sense. I am not sure how the committee placed the other teams, but every team in our pool was a district champion.

Pool play games were held on Tuesday and Wednesday. Our team had 4 pool play games so we played 2 pool play games each day. The teams in pools with 4 teams played 1 game on one day and 2 on the other day. Each team's pool play record determined a team's placement in Championship bracket. Every team advances.


Our team started off with a very surprising 0-4 pool play record, yet we still had a very good chance to win the National Title.

Championship Bracket 

All teams advanced to the single elimination Championship bracket. Each position on the bracket was predetermined and populated after the results of pool play were determined. Each pool first place finisher got a bye. All of the other teams fell into the spot that corresponded to their pool letter and placement in the pool. For example - the 3rd place finisher of pool D was schedule to meet the 3rd place finisher of pool E for the opportunity to face the 1st place finisher of pool A (the defending champion). I was a bit surprised that the teams were not re-ranked after pool play and placed into the Championship bracket based on that.


2nd place and lower teams needed to win 5 straight games to win the National Title. The 1st seed teams needed to win 4 games to take the title.


First Round Consolation Bracket


Teams that lost their first round game (not including the teams with byes) were placed into the first round consolation bracket. These teams vied for 11th and 12th place. A team would need to win 4 games in this consolation bracket to earn the 11th place finish.


Click here to understand how the 10th through 1st place teams are determined.

Youth Basketball: The Climb to an AAU National Championship (Part 7)

My daughter, CC and her team are making a run at a AAU Division I National Championship. I am following the process through this series of blog posts.

• (Part 1) Youth Basketball: The Climb to an AAU National Championship -Registration Process
• (Part 2) Youth Basketball: The Climb to an AAU National Championship -Tournament Qualifying Process.
• (Part 3) Youth Basketball: The Climb to an AAU National Championship -The Super Regional Step
• (Part 4) Youth Basketball: The Climb to an AAU National Championship - Tips and Tricks 1
• (Part 5) Youth Basketball: The Climb to an AAU National Championship - District Championships
• (Part 6) Youth Basketball: The Climb to an AAU National Championship - Positive Coaching Alliance Test
• (Part 7) Opening Ceremonies

Opening Ceremonies

The Opening Ceremonies for the AAU National Championship in Disney at the ESPN Wide World of Sports was a pretty special event for the 10 year old girls (4th grade) and 9 year old boys (3rd grade) who are competing in the tournament. I can only image how my daughter felt. I know that I never experience anything like it in my sports career in the 70's and 80's.

The event started at 8:00pm, but the teams needed to assemble in uniform at 7:00pm. The entire event with a Parade of Champions of about 50 teams took exactly 1 hour. After the parade was compete, the kids sat on the floor, listened to a few short speeches from a Disney official, Mickey Mouse and an AAU official and watched the Toy Story Green Army Men put on an acrobatic trampoline show. The event concluded with an explosion of streamers. The kids and their proud parents loved it.

Tip: The HP Pavilion fills up quickly. Our team of 10 girls had about 60 people in attendance. We did not get there early enough to secure a single section for all of the boosters for our team so we had to split up in to two sections. If you have a big group get there 45 minutes early to secure a big section.

Parade of Champions AAU Basketball 4th Grade Girls

Parade of Champions

Big Crowd in HP Pavilion

Short Speeches from Disney, AAU and Mickey

Disney Entertainment - Acrobatic Show

Conclusion Explosion of Streamers

The Main Idea

Disney puts magic into everything to delight the kids. The AAU National Tournament Opening Ceremonies was a special event. If your son or daughter is lucky enough to go one day you will not want to miss it.