Mandatory Basketball Rant - Winter 2023-24 - Part Four

 There are some residual events that have yet to be resolved, but with the AAU teams starting practice for the younger teams this Tuesday, it's time for the final Winter "School Ball" report.

Local Rec League Team:  I still stand by my policy that at least two grades of the K-2 divisions should have had their end of season foul-shooting contest and pizza party the weekend earlier.  Running the events Friday evening and two back-to-back Saturday afternoon was mentally draining.  Our only salvation was the Freshmen girls who formed the base of our Jr Ref program.  With them keeping score and corralling the kids, it moved quite smoothly.  We will use this method for next year.  

With those out of the way, and a ton of practice space open at the one elementary school, we were met with the dreaded event:  the school play... at that school.  It not only eliminated the practice time we just opened up, but cancelled practices for older ages, with little alternative times available (unless you want your 8-10 year olds practicing rec ball until 9:30pm.  Most of these parents don't want their kids up past 8, so we had some complaints.  

No sooner than we finished that week, but for the first time in a decade of being part of this league, the schools shut down for Saturday.    While the snowstorm was quite legit, and it was meant to cancel school practices, it also shut down our rental of the gyms.  The snowfall interfered with the semi-final weekend, and after previous years when teams play a gauntlet of up to four games to win the championship (NOT my idea), the rest of the board finally did could, and coordinated that weekend as weeknight games running Tuesday-Friday.  I was surprised how positive a reaction we received from that, and outside of some parents in the first game of the week, things went quite well.  

Championship Saturday conflicted with my parental responsibilities, namely transporting my own kids to practices, so I only caught the tail end of the 3/4 Girls game and all of the messy gloriousness of the 3/4 Boys.  

I openly admit I'm biased in favor of the girls' divisions at all times.  The games at the end of the season tend to be more exciting and the drama usually remains on the court and not through the adults. 

This year's 3/4 Boys championship may have been a comedy of errors for three quarters, but a five-point run to end regulation in a 16-16 tie, set up a DOUBLE overtime that was worth delaying the next championship game.  With no score in the first overtime, and a defensive struggle starting the second, we luckily had enough board members on site to address an omission in the league rules.  Rules only mention a four minute overtime with a two-minute second overtime, but there was no mention of a third overtime, and shots were simply not falling.  

As time ticked down we agreed to deviate from state rules and adopt an AAU-esque one minute overtime for each overtime past the second, and most importantly, SUDDEN DEATH wins!

We didn't need the new rules implemented, thankfully, because with 16 seconds left a player on the Celtics was fouled and hit the first of six foul shots taken in the period.   The Warriors inbounded the ball, made some passes, and with 3 seconds left, their player was fouled!  Fortunately for the Celtics that two shots missed and they secured the victory. 

Lesson from the 2023-24 season?  Practice your foul shots.

Local Rec League Travel Team: Did have a tournament last weekend, but with parental duties and the championships I didn't get a chance to see them, record stats, or even see how they did.  They are avoiding the big tournament this weekend, and travelling out to Berwick for hopefully different  competition next weekend.  They have been part of a Sunday afternoon camp series hosted by the Freshman coach, and attendance has been pretty good.

7th/8th Grade:  Their seasons are mercifully over, but it has been reassuring to see some of the girls attend the Varsity games, including some road games.  It will be interesting to see where many of the 8th graders handle the summer league and roster placements for next year. 

Freshman: When I swing by the camp today, I'll talk to the coach about a few things, but I do want to confirm that these girls, with an 18-1 record, won their respective Division, if not the Conference outright.  It's a plaque that will never be placed in a display case in the high school, but it's a matter of pride.

Speaking of a matter of pride, and it might be better suited for the AAU posts, but Millie was nominated for an International Travel Team to play in Italy and Austria in June.  Getting nominated and recognized was a great honor, and if anyone has the the $8,500 for a 10-day tour and tournament for her and a parental figure (her mom) to go, I'll be happy to expedite passports. 

Varsity/JV:  Varsity missed out on a week of games for the tournament conference championships by one game (it's only a four team tourney).   The did come back from the layoff to win the first round of the district playoff (the first time they won a game during districts in six years!), but after beating them by 23 in December (and Maja getting significant clean-up time), they only won by 5 with the Varsity starters in the whole game. 

That led to a game against the #1 seed, Scranton, who has state potential, and a 6'2" Freshman center with 10 Division 1 offers already.   

For the first 28 minutes, the game was a tight back-and-forth game with six lead changes.  Unfortunately in the last four minutes, they were destroyed by three or four stupid mistakes, and Scranton hit their foul shots late to secure a 55-45 game.  

Despite the loss, the district provides three seeds to the state tournament, so a play-in game against their rival, Dallas was scheduled, the same team that kicked them out of the Conference playoffs eligibility.  For the third time this year, Dallas proved victorious.  

Outside of Maja's playing time in a December game, I didn't mention her in any games these past three months because... she didn't play.  The Varsity coach stuck with the main seven on the Varsity roster, despite numerous times a player was shooting themselves in the foot during the game, or the lack of substitution rotation wiped out some players physically.    I will point out that my child wouldn't be the next to come off the bench in most circumstances, but the teams that are moving on to states in most school classifications are playing nine girls well before mop-up time, even if some are only getting 2-3 minutes total.  

I'll be honest, the last three weeks has not been beneficial to most of the JV players, who were simply brought to provide bench energy.  Maja has been one of the lucky ones, given a task to beat down the taller girls in practice.    I don't know how a 5'7" white girl pretends to be a 6'2" black girl with colleges breathing down her neck, but the coaches were happy and the girl had only scored four in the first 28 minutes of the Scranton game (8 total by the end).