Mandatory Basketball Rant 2021-2022 - Week 1

Despite constant pleas by the AAU team to come in for "free" practices, it's an odd season of "downtime."  By downtime, I mean scholastic ball, local rec league, and just a smidge of competitive regional ball. 

With the updates, I'll keep this in three categories: Rec League Rants, Millie Rants, and Maja Rants.

Local Rec League
I'm still the VP of the local rec league. Thanks to delays getting answers using the school district facilities and a very milquetoast attitude of the other board members, our late registration has still gotten around 80% of our normal number of kids. In fact, the only major loss comes from the Middle School division, where we could barely field three teams, so we decided to scrap it for this season.

The big behind-the-scenes news that has troubled the board was an affair involving two married couples, all four of whom serve on the board. With a few family members (none of mine) drafted into service, we've suffered some serious communication disconnects. I spent most of my Thanksgiving weekend, not updating a schedule, but manually entering paper registrations someone's kept in a folder for more than a month. It accounts for more than 10% of the total registrants, and explains why some teams are missing 3 or 4 players on the online rosters, even though their information was given to the coaches weeks ago.  

To add onto that not only are coaches not contacting their teams, but we've already had conflicts with the schools for existing practice time.   There's a rec center in the future for the community.  Three courts should be enough to satiate most demand, but the planning stage just got approved.  

Oh, and without context, I simply despise the Dome Soccer community and the players in it.  

(Edit: And I discovered the President of the local youth soccer league hates them as well.)

Millie

Millie is still sneaking into the AAU HQ for practices and the occasional lesson, but she is definitely in off-mode competitively.

By off-mode I mean the (a) West Hazleton 7th grade co-ed that she, as a 5th grader might be in the top five for players (b) the local rec league, and (c) and a local 5th grade team in the ultra-competitive regional league Maja used to do.

(a) West Hazleton has some coaching drama.  She'll make games when she can, but things aren't promising.  Add to that a no parent rule currently at games, and I'm less than excited for the season.

(b) The local rec league was a requirement, because this league will have the girls she'll be playing with at the junior high level in two years.  She was drafted first overall to a team our friend Pat coaches.  Our two kids in the 5th/6th grade division should torment the other teams, so much so, that I've volunteered Millie's services to help practice.  We're looking out for a bigger picture than the championship games the last week of February.

(c) I'll leave my rants about the regional league coach for another day, as while I'm trying to keep this anonymous, I still have way too much to work with her for the local league to burn bridges this early.  She was responsible for the 2020-21 winter practices, a season at the CYC, and a respectable runner-up in the big local tournament.  This time, the girls are old enough to play in the regional league at the Kingston Rec.  Unlike Maja's teams, this one appears to only 5th graders, so the damage won't be too bad if things go south. 

This team started practicing off-the mountain before the rec league started up, and.... I've been spoiled with 5th grade AAU.   In AAU, Millie has earned her spot to be a starter.  On this team, she's MJ, Kobe, Lebron, and Kareem combined when compared to her competition.  Don't get me wrong, a month in and some girls are remembering things, but it will be painful to watch.... unless all the other teams are in the exact same boat. 

Maja

Maja had two plans for the winter. (a) play in the West Hazleton league for fun and (b) make a spot on the junior high team.  All the West Hazleton league issues under Millie are the same (they are on the same team), with the only caveat that Maja might be the best player in the co-ed league.

For her first try at the scholastic team, it wasn't a matter of making the team.  The 7th and 8th grade teams that practiced together had 7 AAU players on the rosters, Maja and three or her 7th grade AAU teammates, one 8th grader who played on the programs 8th grade team that was so dominant that they won 9th grade tournaments, and two girls from the rival AAU program in Scranton that we've gotten to play once and beaten.  Needless to say, the only competition for these girls might be against each other.  

Over October practices, Maja and I discussed the different scenarios, from having her teammates get promoted to 8th or 9th grade ball and her stuck back at 7th, to riding the bench for 9th.

We talked about every possible option, yet the coaches presented us with an unanticipated one..

Made the 9th grade team as her primary team.  In fact, all the AAU girls made the 9th grade team.  With the coach for that time, she can anticipate lots of playing time, but plenty of rest.  That roster might give JV and Varsity a run for their money.  

Biggest thing I didn't think about was that the 9th Grade team plays ahead of  JV/Varsity, usually 4:00 or 4:30.  I don't mind taking off a few hours early to get to the games, but four of the first five games are away games an hour-plus from the house, closer to 90 minutes for Maja by bus.

To compound the 18-game schedule, she'll also be participating in the 10-11 weekend games on the 7th grade roster, played collectively at a nearby tech school.