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When is registration and tryouts? Registration is on-line and is usually open in August. Tryouts are generally around the 3rd weekend in Sept.
When should I tryout for traveling basketball? Rec is a great way to get young kids involved in basketball. We encourage K+ kids to get involved with rec basketball! Traveling basketball starts at 4th grade, BUT we welcome 2nd & 3rd graders to tryout if they feel they are ready to take on the next level of play.
SFBA and the high school coaches would love to see players make the jump to traveling basketball as early as possible to gain experience from traveling coaches and benefit from a longer season with more time spent in the gym to better your skills.
Who can try out for traveling basketball? SFBA makes teams that will compete at the 4th through 8th grade level, boys and girls. Players need to live within ISD 15 or get special permission from their local association. 3rd graders are encouraged to tryout; however placing them on a team is dependent upon team numbers (In certain situations even 2nd graders may be chosen for a team).
How many kids on a team? Ideally teams will consist of between 8 and 10 members. Certain situations may allow the board to determine a different number of players, but the guideline is 8 – 10.
Who forms teams or evaluates the players? The SFBA hires both the SF varsity girls and boys basketball staff to evaluate players and form teams.
How long are tryouts? Why not longer, or multiple days? Currently, tryouts are per grade (with exception of 4th grade, which could include 2nd & 3rd graders). Each grade has a tryout period between 40–60 minutes. In some situations tryouts could be shorter (ex. Only 8-10 kids in the grade), or longer (ex. Coaches need extra time evaluating certain players). Longer tryouts or multiple day tryouts are talked about every year. The SFBA reserves the right to change tryout times any time, but currently, due to time, space, and scheduling, the above is the standard.
What are the players evaluated on? The SFBA is not involved in player evaluations; this is the job of the varsity coaching staffs. Evaluations are based on basic basketball principles; dribbling, shooting, and basketball drills. In some instances, evaluating could also include team scrimmages or even 1 on 1 competition.
How long before teams/coaches are announced? Results are typically posted within one week. It takes time for the HS staff to compare notes and come to decisions. It also takes time for the SFBA to figure out coaching for the selected teams -which isn’t done until the teams have been formed. It is the preference of the SFBA to post all teams and coaches at once if possible. Inevitably, every year, there are teams that are short players or a coach. In some situations, we prefer to recruit a few players rather than cutting many because there are not enough players to form a team. All this takes time.
Why is traveling basketball more expensive than rec basketball? The costs associated with running a traveling basketball association continue to grow. Between liability insurance, gym space rental from the school, tournament entries for our teams, and costs involved in running tournaments (refs, concession equipment, trainers, etc.). The SFBA is also actively involved in K-12 basketball as well. We host events for younger players on Saturday mornings throughout the season (K-4), we’ve purchased basketballs and backboards for K-4th grade basketball, Night with the Saints, State tournament expenses for Varsity teams going to state, as well as donations to basketball related families/situations (ex. Coaches for community). The SFBA has frequently monitored other association’s fees and responsibilities and have found we are easily in a typical range for player fees.
It seems other teams start their season much earlier than we do. Why don’t we start earlier? As a basketball association, we want our players to be able to play and practice as much as they can. That said, we also believe it is important for players to play more than just basketball. We are in communication with both the school and the rec department to make sure the start of our season does not interfere or pull kids away from fall sports (ex. Football & Volleyball). We generally start basketball practices close to the 1st week of November.
Why don’t we utilize the HS, East Bethel, or the Elementary? Space is always an issue. All our traveling teams play tournaments where they will utilize a standard 10ft rim. Both East Bethel and SFE have gyms with lower hoops. Those schools will be utilized by Rec basketball as well, so scheduling those schools is difficult. The HS is primarily used by our Varsity boys and girls (9th through 12th) as well as the dance line, drum lines, other activities. We often have the ability to utilize the HS gyms over Christmas break.
Why do practice schedules come out so late? Priority for scheduling ISD 15 gyms are: #1 School sanctioned sports/activities, #2 Rec Department, #3 other associations. SFBA is “other associations”. The school schedulers work with us, but we get the remaining open time slots at the end of each month. Once we have these, our scheduler slots teams as fairly as possible taking into consideration some of the coach’s time situations (ex. Some coaches have a job where they cannot coach until later in the day – others have the luxury of coaching right after school). Coaches get a preview of the monthly schedule and can provide feedback. Once the coaches have seen it, and it’s been approved by the district, it gets released as official. Keep in mind that if priority #1 or #2 from the ISD 15 scheduling list above wants or needs space, “other associations can get bumped. All this takes place close to the end of every month and may spill into the 1st couple days of a new month.
We had practice much too late for young kids, can’t we practice earlier? SFBA tries very hard to make practice times fair for every team. Everyone would like to practice at the prime times, but we just don’t have the space to accommodate that. Some coaches have outside factors that influence when they can practice. We understand that late practices are hard for Elementary school players due to bedtimes. We also understand Middle School players start their day much earlier – so they too are affected by late practices. Unfortunately, due to limited gym space and the amount of teams/players in the program, late practice times are a reality for most teams.
Can’t we have a similar practice schedule from week to week? In order to remain as fair as possible, we rotate schedules as best we can so no one team gets late or early practices every week. Coach’s schedule may come into play here as well. We do the best we can to make the majority happy.
I see open gyms throughout the season, why can’t we have 3 practices? As mentioned, the SFBA has the lowest priority when scheduling ISD 15 gyms. It’s disappointing to come into a late practice only to notice nobody was there before you. We only have control over our time slots. If the rec department scheduled Yoga class from 6-7:30, but no one shows up, the gym may sit empty. ISD 15 schedulers sometimes inform us if a gym becomes available, however it is usually very last minute. 3 practices would be great – but space is our issue. If our SFBA scheduler has gym spaces available for 3rd practices, they are made known to the coaches during the scheduling process.
Why are there times we get practice cancelled on short notice? See “Why do practice schedules come out so late” for gym scheduling priorities. If priorities #1 or #2 want to bump a priority #3, it happens.
We need more practices. How can we get more practices? Coaches may request extra practices from our SFBA scheduler. If, after all teams have been scheduled, there are open spots, the scheduler will grant the wishes of coaches who want extra practices.
Why do some teams get to practice right after school every time? Fortunately, we have some coaches who have schedules that can accommodate practicing immediately after school. Most of our coaches cannot make that early time frame work into their schedules. Teams that have the ability to practice after school help our schedule tremendously by freeing up high demand practice times.
How are tournaments decided on and why? Scheduling our teams into tournaments and scheduling our SF tournaments are intertwined. Our main sources of revenue are registration fees and tournament revenue. Without our home tournaments our registration fees would balloon. Because of this, we strive to form reciprocation deals with other associations (ex. SF sends teams to Coon Rapids every year and Coon Rapids sends their teams to SF every year). By having these deals in place with associations within comfortable driving distance from SF, we ensure our tournament will be a success.
More thought should be put into selecting tournaments. Our “A” teams don’t compete in “A” brackets. Over the years, there has actually been more thought and discussion put into this question than any other question. As a traveling basketball association, the SFBA feels as though it is important to expose kids at an early age to some of the best competition in the state. That is sometimes hard for kids and more often – the parents. Getting beat is a part of basketball and a part of life. That said, there is a fine line between losing games by 20-30pts every once and a while, and not winning any games throughout the season, and SFBA understands that. We do monitor teams and talk with coaches to make adjustments year over year.
Why do we have parent coaches? We should have non-parent coaches. We are very fortunate to have parents who volunteer their time to coach. Basketball is a long season and many hours are put into it. SFBA has been fortunate to have great parent coaches over the years. It would be nice to have the finances to hire outstanding non-parent coaches, but that cost would be extremely significant.
Why does it take so long for tournament brackets to come out? Most tournaments provide their brackets on-line a week or so prior to the start of the tournament. Scheduling is always a challenge, most tournament directors are scrambling to fill a bracket or two up until the very end.
I don’t like playing Sunday games. SFBA shouldn’t play in tournaments on Sundays. Most tournaments throughout the season are 2 day tournaments. Associations rely on these tournaments to partially fund their association. The SFBA is the same – we need our tournament dollars to help run the association. MYAS does put on some one day tournaments for teams to enter. These tournaments are very nice for family scheduling on weekends. Unfortunately, these tournaments do not help any associations as MYAS does not reciprocate teams back to SFBA tournaments. (See “How are tournaments scheduled and why” for more on the importance of reciprocation deals)
It’s really unfair that other teams “play down”. Kids don’t like to get beaten by an “A/B” team in a “B/C” bracket. Agreed! At this age, winning by large margins or losing by large margins doesn’t do players a lot of good. This type of thing tends to happen more when coaches are allowed to schedule their own teams. The desire by an individual to “win” the tournament shadow’s the desire to create great basketball players.
What is the relationship between ISD 15 and the SFBA? The SFBA is a non-profit 501c3 organization that is not affiliated with ISD 15 with the exception of renting gym space from ISD 15 to practice and play tournaments.
You should recruit more kids to play – especially at younger levels. This is always on our minds. We put ads in the local paper, purchase road signs, send information to schools to hand out to all kids, go to rec league games, host events for players and non-players, and have several passionate parents spreading the word about basketball and the SFBA to kids that play other sports. If you have ideas on how to spread the word further – we would love to hear from you.
Sell more merchandise or have outside vendors at our tournament to raise money? (See “What is the relationship between ISD 15 and the SFBA”) When we rent gym space from ISD 15, we agree to their rules and policies. Per ISD 15 policy, we are not allowed to bring in outside vendors or sell merchandise during our tournaments. Other school districts have different rules. We want to abide by the rules and policies of ISD 15, as without court time, we obviously have no youth basketball in St Francis.
Two volunteer shifts seems like a lot – especially when we are off that weekend or done? It takes a lot of volunteer hours to run a tournament. Your attendance is VERY appreciated and VERY important to the SFBA. Without the tournaments, SFBA would not financially be able to continue the way it has. In talking with other associations, two 4 hrs. shifts is typical, or on the low end of volunteer time to be involved in a basketball association.
How can my son/daughter get better in the off season? Great question!! It’s in the off season where great players are made. As a player, you cannot put the basketball away in March, and pick it back up in November and expect to be better. The competition has certainly gotten better. Our website has links to everything from SF camps to AAU programs. A quick google search of basketball opportunities in MN, will quickly uncover many, many opportunities for players of all levels and abilities.