My Scholastic Basketball Rant for 2025

 Good Lord, there was a time that I'd almost weekly give an update on Rec ball/AAU/School ball for my girls.    When you're travelling all over creation for different levels of ball for two girls, it's a bit of a lifestyle, good or bad. 

My rants dried up after Maja broke her wrist in the first game of a school trip summer league back after her Freshman year.   Mind you, she played 30+ minutes of the next five games as a tiny 5'9" center on a short-handed team, without a thank you, without a follow-up by staff.  So when one of the other players wrecked her knee playing AAU, and the hordes came in to comfort her, she had enough.    And when the varsity coach realized what went wrong and wanted her back, AND OFFERING CONCESSIONS for non-basketball activities... Maja said hell no.  

And with Maja focusing on volleyball and theatre,  Millie was now one of the chosen ones, her and a 6'3" center who would crack the varsity line-up while a dozen girls wallowed in JV time with a volunteer coach we wouldn't want in the community rec league for grade school kids. 

Except our 6'3" player got a full ride to a private school out side of Philly and is playing in some tournament in Arizona.   

And Millie (and Maja) moved with their mother to Upstate New York. 

I always told all the girls to keep plugging along with the system, be it sports or activities, unless (a) you're not having fun or (b) the folks tell you to stop showing up.    I realized early on that the school they've moved to is the paragon of "participation trophy" when the volleyball team had EIGHT SENIORS on Varsity, and half of those wouldn't make the JV team back at Maja's old school, which stuck new girl Maja as the team manager.  

Basketball added another level that confused me.  Varsity and Junior Varsity are two distinct teams.  There's never any chance of promotion during the season, even if three or the entire Varsity team came down with the flu, it would be a cancellation/reschedule.  

In the new school, two of Millie's freshmen classmates tried out, and made Varsity.  They're playing as 5'8" centers... because they're the tallest girls on the team. 

I didn't like that Maja didn't try out for basketball with a new team and new experience, but she would've been stuck in the same exact spot she was before.  

So the good news? 

It's all good news, even if they're not winning everything. 

Millie's starting point guard, still has teammates that can't make lay-ups or move to get position on a pass (and to be honest Varsity can't either).   She's got 11 other teammates, and the coach has tried to situational substitute them in the second half.  

She should not be the second shortest on the team, and third in the team in rebounds.    I'm still amazed that I've caught four out of her first five games (plus a host of others locally with her ex-teammates) and everyone loves to shoots threes, but it hits less than 20% and the defensive team snags the rebounds 3/4 of the time. 

Dave's Train Corner and the Other Three Corners of the World

For those dear new readers... and those who are out of the loop... let's catch things up 

1.) After almost three years, the official divorce decree is finally signed, sealed, and after a month to travel two miles, delivered. 

2.) The girls had moved to upstate New York with their mother back in June.   Instead of multiple sports, Maja (16) is focusing on volleyball, Millie (14) is still dedicated to her first love, basketball.

Friday:  I had figured out that I was driving up to the ex's apartment between Albany and Saratoga the following Friday, see Millie play JV, share some pizza and crash on the couch, maybe even play a game or two.

Then I got the text message.  "You are coming up for her game tonight, right?  You need directions?"

Communication was one our problems back in the day...   Me caving in to requests was another.  

So, by 12:45 I was in the car ready to go... after my weekly stop at Dollar Tree.  Nothing too crazy in the Christmas or Toy section, although I was confused to find SALES? at Dollar Tree?  I understood the Tortilla Chips that expired that same day (but were great for my Mexican dish Saturday night), but arts & crafts stuff for 50 cents or a quarter?  Win!  I also snagged a small handled x-acto knockoff for $1.50, with six different blades!  

It has been a long time since I went that far north into New York state.  In my 4-hour drive,  I did learn that the Baseball Hall of Fame is within day-trip driving.  North of Albany?  A little rougher.   And despite the preponderance of Mirabito gas stations, I-88 just feels like a remote wasteland, even though you're 10 minutes away from the next exit. 

Good thing I didn't get there late.  She started for JV and it was 18-0 within 4 minutes.  Time for the JV B-Team to dominate playing time... and with A-Team helping her and there, they won 47-18. 

Her stat line wasn't too impressive, 1 point, 1 rebound, 4 assists, 2 steals, 0 turnovers, but the team ran through her, and everybody was happy.  

I drove her to her house, pizza consumed.  Millie crashed, and I got to spend time with Maja before making my couch bed and binging Death by Lightning.  Sure, certain liberties were made, but I want a Death by Lightning 2: More Music! More Fighting! More Sausages! 

Saturday:  The reason I had not planned on coming up this Friday?  First off, it was on every schedule as a scrimmage, and that's a bigger crap shoot than a game.  Plus Maja was leaving Saturday morning for a travel volleyball tournament in Boston.   The good news is her games weren't till the late afternoon, so I managed to wake them up and hang up before driving back to Wilkes-Barre.  Thankfully the weather helped out... although I swear the rest stops on the Thruway were so much more awesome back in the day.  

I did get home early enough to catch some of the junior high games from the girls' old school.  They happen to play five minutes away, and I supported most of the girls when I was part of the community rec league board, so it felt good to watch them succeed.  

Cut to the chase, the 8th grade program is in good hands, getting a blow out win and a last second win over the weekend.    The 7th grade team, like many first time school ball programs, tend to get in their own way.  Unfortunately the coach has them at the bottom of their priorities, and lack of basketball sense reigns supreme.  

Game one:  21-8.   Take away the 12 points the other team scored on stealing the inbound and scoring... SIX TIME IN A ROW BEFORE SHE CALLED A TIMEOUT?   9-8.

Game two:  Subbing in a wild "fresh" player who resulted in a missed assignment, two turnovers, and a technical foul for running onto the court in the middle of an active play?  

Let's just say the parents of both grades are not impressed.... which has been an ongoing theme for years.  If history continues, those 24 girls might have 5 make it to Freshman or JV next year, and that explains why the Varsity is playing five girls against D-level talent to 50 point victories, while current JV twiddles their thumbs.   I've already seen some issues with Maja and volleyball, so I don't have full confidence in basketball quite yet, but I do have hope.  

Sunday: A free Sunday, a little more junior high basketball, church, and a trip to the Hudson Model Railroad Club for part of their holiday Open House.  I've taken the kids there a bunch of times, but as a free agent this year, and during a lightly attended day, I roamed the layout, focusing on weathering techniques on the cars and flocking and ballast choices on the scenery (I swear they used Army Painter yellow flowers for fill the flower beds at the one station).  The one advantage of going by myself?  I had the patience to sit back and observe one of the club members realistically move an Amtrak engine out of the roundhouse and hook up with the passenger train in the distant yard, at scale speed.  

One of the trains was a series of centerbeam flatcars, advertising all the sponsors of the club.  

Dave's Train Corner in Edwardsville caught my eye.  Not only is that within my normal sphere of travel, it's right down the sidewalk where the now-defunct Tactical Advantage Games used to be. 

It's not a full review, as I don't usually review train shops, but we lost Dragon Knight games this summer, and with Walter's Hardware in Wilkes-Barre for my glue and scenery needs closing this year as well, I desperately needed a local shop that was a few miles a way rather than always the 12-mile round trip to the mall. 

The store mostly handles HO-scale, with a section of models, as well as some anime-inspired stuff.    Definitely some cheap O-scale Plasticville stuff I might want to grab for a game later, but they certainly check off my two required boxes. 

1. A full line of Woodland Scenic flocking and ballast, and very competitive prices. 
2. ZAP... A... FREAKING... GAP!

I'm pretty solid on my shelf o' flock, but a short drive for more makes my day.  I also have enough Zap-a-Gap for the winter, but I grabbed a smaller bottle for precise projects (and my bottles are getting a bit "unwieldy).  

So, for now, I'm prepping more time up in Albany after Millie's game THIS Friday, maybe even a holiday game or two...   

Also, sometime this past week, I rolled over the 2 MILLION page view mark.  The last million has been plagued with some of the worst bot attacks, so I won't scream upon the mountain tops.  I did take a look at my top ten posts from the 2024-25 year, and most have calmed down to levels where I can call organic levels. 

What Might Be Lone AAU Basketball Rant of the Season

I've really stopped doing my AAU/school basketball rants, but this past weekend was bookended by games, so I'll provide the short-short update and gloss over details before I go into the fun and excitement of Free Comic Book day and more! 

Everyone took fall ball off.  Maja quit Varsity to focus on travel volleyball and the two school musicals.  The Varsity squad did well, winning our state sectional and getting a deep run into the state playoffs, but Maja's predicted fallout came true.  Despite putting up fake smiles at the awards pictures and the end of season dinner, the entire JV squad, save two, has quit.   There's something that can be said when you varsity team loses three games in the regular season and six girls account for 98.6% of the scoring  and more than 90% of the playing time.  Considering there were some other successful programs with similar records (or better) and their bench (past the first varsity six) accounted 10-20 points per game, with one larger programming getting 18 girls more than two points a game.  Maja left, other girls filled in her 32 minutes a game of JV, many putting up great numbers... and zero playing time in Varsity. 

There was no chance for the JV because the Varsity lost two players to graduation, and a former starter would return from a knee injury.  Add the two obvious incoming Freshmen, Millie and her 6'3" center Jordyn, and there would be only eight. 

Except that Millie is moving to Upstate New York, and Jordyn will be playing for a private school either outside of Philadelphia or around New York City.  

Millie's AAU suffered some trauma as half the players moved up to 9th grade this spring, to bolster a talented but thin team.  

A lot of those girls have suffered.  Great wins, weekend championships, but very little playing time for girls who rarely stepped off the court.  One of Millie's friends has even dropped down to play with her now... and that's a blessing.  

Those two now play with the remainder of their team, and who ends up being last spring's B-Team.  They've got grit, they've got some talent, but these are the girls Millie's school team trounced... within Millie or Jordyn on the court for large swaths of the blow-outs.  They've pulled together one solid weekend and a championship, but this week we learned that their school programs and the AAU programmed failed to cover some basic fundamentals, and ball-handlers were unsupported facing a team with disciplined defense.  

Honestly, I am glad that the girls will get to play their sports somewhere else next year, and I'll be happy to subscribe the national high school streaming network to watch their game.    I don't have much faith their three sports developing the bare necessity for varsity, and being a single twisted ankle away from torpedoing their team's season because teamwork and cooperation are spoken of in sound bytes and podium speeches, but in reality, the starters practice and the JV kids stand around and "watch greatness"  that couldn't shoot over 30% against state competition. 

Mandatory AAU Basketball Spring 2024 Rant - Weekend #7

 There are still two tournaments left in Maja's AAU season, but this will be the final rant.

Because THIS happened.

Both Maja (10th) and Millie (8th) had been invited to play on their high school's Varsity/JV  summer camp team at Kutztown University.  Seeing that Maja had been asked to only play JV summer ball "when needed" and Millie's had a full slate of JV games, with one trip down to  junior high ball to bolster the roster.  

God help Berks County getting the two of them for a week.  

Millie's week was punctuated by high praise from the varsity coach for her vision on the court, and high basketball IQ.  Maja's was a little different. 

First off, she didn't see any Varsity time this summer, unlike last year, where the combined Varsity/JV played the Varsity schedule. She spent all her time down in JV.  ALL.... Like 36 out of 36 minutes of gameplay, twice a day.  

Maja's finest play came during the second game of the first day (Sunday).  With a little point guard on the opposition driving to the basketball, Maja pulled her best white girl Dikembe Mutombo impression,  leaping in the air, and swatting the ball into the bleachers, sending the poor girl flying backwards on her butt.  No foul. 

Two or three hours, Maja felt discomfort in her wrist, accelerating into full-out pain by dinner.  A trip to the trainer, some Tylenol, and a pile of ice, she fell asleep... and proceeded to play almost the entirety of the NEXT SEVEN GAMES.  With a wrapped up hand... in pain.  

Upon returning to camp, and an appointment at Ortho, Maja is the proud owner of an avulsion fracture of her wrist.  Her tendon pulled off the bone and fractured it.  

She truly doesn't know her own strength.  

This sidelines her for the final two tournaments, including the four-day SEVEN game tournament currently going on as this gets posted.  The team's loaded, so they should do extremely well.  

Millie's more disappointed there's no beach for back-to-back weekends. 

Oh yeah, this happened to Millie under her mother's supervision... 

God bless America...

Mandatory AAU Basketball Spring 2024 Rant - Weekend #6 Comebacks and #FreeRPGDay

 With Millie's season done, and Maja's AAU practices getting pre-empted by JV and Varsity games Tuesday and Thursday, we're simply counting down the last THREE tournament weekends for Maja's 15U team.  

This past weekend, the team headed into familiar and annoying territory.  The pinnacle of Greek-themed sports complexes in New Jersey.... "Sportika" for the Hoop Group NJ Jam Fest.  For a very long time we've had little desire to attend.  It's 30 minutes from any hotel, although the only nearby food is a very convenient Wawa.  The tournaments have been substandard, with not only total routs of the pool play by Millie's and Maja's age groups over the years, but I believe our current Varsity girls won their their first Varsity tournament at Spooky Nook.... and 8th graders! 

I was impressed and relieved to see that not only did Hoop Group attract a number of reputable programs, but a number of "shoe teams" sponsored by the likes of Nike, Adidas, and New Balance.  Being a sponsored team doesn't always mean quality.  

The format was also different.  Gone was pool play, replaced by a bracket conceived by somebody.  Four wins gets you the championship.  If you lost all your games, you were only guaranteed two. If you won at least one game, you were guaranteed three. 

The kids were with their mom and had already arrived at the Jersey Shore for an morning/afternoon of fun before the 7pm game on Saturday.  I took advantage of the late time and ventured down to The Portal in Bethlehem for #FreeRPGDay. 

I took my sweet time, enjoying the drive down despite the heat wave, and I was very happy there was still plenty of stuff when I got there. a

Even thought the store manager had an "anything goes" approach to the promotion, with no rationing, I held back a little and only grabbed five items, and some dice.  I believe I can get use out of all of them.  

I took as relaxing a trip to Jersey as I could and arrived with plenty of time to refuel at Wawa and see Maja's team take on the Palisades Elite.  

I know we've played them before but they're not on the any of the seasons I kept score.  The game was tight, and it involved a ridiculous number of rebounds (39 combined fouls between the two teams)  and over 30 free throw attempts (16 went in) to earn a six point win over them.  

We returned to the same court at 9pm for the second game.  Rather.... we waited until 9:45pm to start and played well past 11pm against one of the teams we trounced in Scranton in early April.  That same result would not happen.  While some of the girls from the April game were on the roster, they certainly retooled and got a lot better.  They went on a 12-2 run late in the game to overtake the lead and held on to win 53-48.  

Realizing there were zero hotels available, I took a late night drive into Philly to stay at my sisters place, only to need to leave a 7am to catch their morning game against the NYC Gauchos (a sneaker team)  to move into the fourth (championship round).  

Things were incredibly close.  A total of 17 made 3-pointers in the 1st half alone kept things interesting, although Maja's team was down 33-32 at half.  

In the 2nd half, Maja's team outscored the Gauchos 33-9, turning a close game into a 65-42 blowout. 

For the afternoon championship we played one of the Nike programs, the Jersey Gemz.  It took some searching but I realized we played the same program last year in Atlantic City, with a horribly depleted roster, losing 50-22.  

This time it was a grinder in the 1st half, with the Gemz only having a 19-18 lead.  In the second half, they built their lead as high as eight, but the offenses traded baskets over and over, until the 3-pointers and a few select steals ate away and that lead, and with less than two minutes remaining, Maja's team was up by four.     It was intense, but a 58-50 victory over another sneaker tea (who did have two championships that weekend in other divisions) was quite impressive.  

Oh yeah, did I mention their team did it without two players, including the only girl on the team with a D-I offer.    

Our Hoop Group PA Jamfest and NJ Jamfest Champions:

School Ball Update:  Maja's getting plenty of Varsity time, and Millie's thriving playing JV (mostly with Maja).  JV had a chance to win it in the final seconds, Maja hit a crucial shot, but a floor foul in bonus let foul shots win the game.  I also got to see the 7th/8th grade team (sans Millie, but full of our unrefined 9th graders) get a double overtime loss.  It was the premiere for their 7th grade friend Caitlyn, who plays on the same AAU team.   She did everything but sink the crucial foul shots in overtime.  She can certainly hang with every other girls they've brought out.  

Mandatory AAU Basketball Spring 2024 Rant - Weekend #5

 Last weekend was the final weekend for Millie's 7th grade team, and after finally getting a solid look at the dynamics, I say good riddance.  

We were down in Lancaster for another tournament, and for once both Millie and Maja played at the same location.  Of course one played mid-morning and the other late Saturday night, so it's a loooong day.  

I've been house-sitting for my sister and brother-in-law in Philly, as they take a cross-country tour through the Midwest and back through Canada, so I was just over an hour away.  I got to the site, saw gross disorganization from the tournament staff, and some of the most eclectic teams they could assemble for 26 out of the 32 available courts.  I knew there was an issue when, with a backed-up registration line, parents who needed to pay told their kids to simply run through and find their team at their court (which was permitted).  Almost to the person, each one said they couldn't because they did not know the facility because it was their first time here.   Given some of the poorer teams in our programs won more games on Saturday than they had all season,  

Millie's group wasn't so lucky.  The Genesee Vipers always looked like a quality organization that put other Upstate New York programs to shame.  The refereeing was horrible, the scorekeeping atrocious, but with one of the girls missing to play in the World Games in Italy, the remainder of the team just didn't look like they wanted to play together.  Even if everything was corrected, it would still be around a six-point victory, but those girls wanted to avoid each other, and there was nothing the coaches could do.

Their second game was against Central NY Savage, a group of sizable girls, but nothing Millie's team hasn't overcome with tenacity.  

There was zero tenacity.  I really don't want to blame them, as nine straight possessions constituted the ball being inbounded to the one particular player, and that player dribbled up court and shooting at/driving to the basket, with no other passes to teammates.  That large pattern was endemic to the first half, where they were down 18-10.  The pattern continued, until every other single player simply stopped playing, because the particular player wasn't passing, wasn't using screens, and just focused on scoring, until the lead grew to 18 points and the coach finally sat them for the rest of the game.  The bleeding stopped, the team started scoring, but the best they could do was a 43-25 loss. 

By the end of Saturday, we were all essentially done with the season, even with Maja's three more tournaments for June and July.  Between the game play, and the absolutely atrocious uniforms (Millie's seam on the backside of her shorts split), I didn't anticipate her returning for the Fall, or possibly ever.  

Maja's situation isn't as dire, but the only reason she tried out at all this year were true rumors of her favorite coach returning "one more time"  With two injuries and one player returning from vacation, Maja got the rare start in the afternoon. (She had three starts last year, and only one the year before).  She performed well, even if the stat sheet was empty in spots, with 48-6 rout.  The second game was against the hated Bensalem Chargers, but this year's iteration was no match for Maja's team.  An opposite of Millie's team, they LED 18-10 at half, then blew the doors off of them in the second, 25-4, for a 43-14 win.  

Maja loves her coach, but is planning on AAU volleyball or track and field jumping camps with all the time basketball takes up.

Despite my bickering I was appreciative of their wins on Saturday because we didn't need to be on site for games until after noon!  

Maja's team showed no mercy for their play-in game, proper passing and their star player made better choices.  

Despite the spelling error on the schedule, I knew the team Maja's group was up against wasn't much of a challenge.  They were regulars in the C and D-Level tournaments around Philly, so a 45-23 win wasn't a surprise with our bench playing 3/4 of the game.  Maja graced me with actually taking and hitting two shots, so the Father's Day was improving.  

Maja's championship game was against a solid program, but when they brought six to the court, and their tallest girl was shorter than Maja, I knew it would be about executing early.  The team shot 50% overall, 50% from the 3, and 100% of their foul shots to win by almost 40.

We raced over the other side of the facility for Millie's championship, a rematch with CNY Savage.  Following the formula for the first Sunday game, these 7th graders bent, but did not break in the 1st half, only trailing 27-24.  Better shots fell in the 2nd, and the larger girls on Savage seemed to start making costly mistakes.  Once Millie's team took the lead with a minute left, the Savage coach was broken to discover his girls needed to commit seven fouls even to reach 1-and-1 foul shooting, which drained all but twenty seconds ... and then the girls hit enough shots to seal the deal.  

Millie's team has won 4 out of 6 tournaments this year, and two of them have involved them beating a team in the championship that they lost in pool play (Maja's team has one such instance).  Not bad for a team of guards.

Nothing like two championships (and two trophies) for Father's Day

School Ball: The Adventure Continues:  Actual school ball started up after the last update, and so far there's zero complaints for the girls, and a bunch from me for other kids.  

Maja's getting plenty of varsity time, and as much JV time as she wants.  Millie is playing alongside Maja on JV.  They've won their only game of the summer thus far 32-26, with a 16-1 run in the 2nd half, the only time where they played together. 

I'm being far more vocal for the 7th/8th grade division, even though Millie (8th grader) has been told to stick with JV.  They brought up other 8th graders to fill JV, while they let a lot of 9th graders languish in Jr High for the Summer.  Having finally made a game on Monday, I understand why.  

The 9th graders (and the one 8th grade "ringer") were simply miserable playing against an equally miserable team.  The team leaders were an 8th grader starting their second year of basketball ever.  She ended up with 2 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 steals.  The other star was one only new 7th grader invited to play who had 8 points and 4-for-7 shooting, 3 rebounds, and 7 steals, in twenty minutes.     They did lose in what I could only call Double Secret Probation Sudden Death Overtime 27-25, but the summer is young.

ghjk

Mandatory AAU Basketball Spring 2024 Rant - Weekend #4

Somewhere in the various communication with their mother, I swore Millie's AAU season ended in May, but with the end of the school year, she has not one, but two tournaments in June, and of course they're separate locations from Maja. 

Maja's 15U team got to head to beautiful scenic East Stroudsburg University for a Hoop Group event. It's my old stomping grounds (Class of 2000) so it was amusing to see all the changes for a school I DON'T send an annual donation to.  

The biggest controversy 24 years ago was the construction of a rec center on campus.  At the time, it was a legacy project for certain individuals, and a lot of the upperclassmen voted "YES" for the project.  Funny thing was, the initiative narrowly passed, and the upperclassmen were strapped with hundreds of dollars in new fees to help pay for the construction, yet almost none of them ever set foot in the facility.  

Over two decades later, I finally set foot in the facility, and if it's close to the way it opened, it's held up very nicely (I supposed there's a multi-million dollar renovation in its history, but I'm not researching it). 

Maja's team had a Friday dinner game, and they played like they just walked out of the Chinese buffet.  Sluggish, lethargic, and unable to get a round ball in a hoop.  What was only a four-point deficit ended up being a 21-point blowout loss.  

Saturday was a cakewalk, as the teams on the schedule were programs that honestly should not have left their area.  54-32 and 67-24 wins were closer than they actually were. 

Sunday was a playoff bracket, starting with the very first team they played to start the spring season.  They got out to a 14-2 lead to start, but the other team came back within one with a minute left.  However, the team got their act together in the final seconds to win 37-34.  

A trip to my beloved Wawa across the street from campus and some team bonding and they were back to the championship game, against the team they lost to on Friday.  

The biggest lead either team had all game was six, most of the time they traded off lead changes.  However there was a different result, a 53-48 win.

Maja got limited time in the big games (and a lot in the blowouts), but she continued to be a high percentage shooter on limited shots.  

Meanwhile, Millie's team in Lancaster is imploding, a result of egos and poor recruitment.  A team full of short guards, they ran into some decent 7th grade height and went 1-2 on the weekend.    There's a lot of rumblings within the team, and I have a sneaking suspicion that the team will implode before fall ball.  

I did get to see some of their one game, and Millie looked good. This might be a situation where Millie is more interested in school ball opportunities than AAU.  God knows we can save the money. 

Mandatory AAU Basketball Spring 2024 Rant - Weekend #3 - Communication Breakdown

One basic rule I've developed in my old age is proper communication is key.  I'm certainly no angel when it comes from a failure to communicate, but I've noticed more and more people just omitting massive facts.  

This weekend was going to be another of the "home and away" tournaments for the girls.  I would take Maja up to Scranton, while their mother would take Millie and two other girls down to Philly for their weekend tournament.  Seemed simple enough.  

The plan began to unravel on two Fridays ago, when Maja mentioned they submitted her times/jumps for a track & field invitational almost an hour away.  Good news was, she had already spoken with her AAU coach, and that allowed everyone enough time to schedule afternoon//evening games for Saturday.

That seemed like it was going to work.  Millie's mom would take her down to Philly Friday night.  Maja would take the team bus Saturday to the meet, and I would run her almost an hour north the Scranton for those games.

Then Tuesday came around and Millie casually drops that she too submitted her throws for the meet and got in.  Luckily it was on the way to AAU practice and she could drop it on her coach with some time to negotiate later times.   Now, my side of the transportation remains the same (per the schedule, I need to be an hour and ten minutes away by 3:00pm).  Once Millie's schedule came out, there was no way she would make her 1:35pm game, but 3:00pm was possible.  

Communication folks!  

I normally have some comments regarding basketball officiating, and don't worry, they'll be showing up.  My first rant has to do with track & field officiating and organization, of lack thereof.  

While I must limit my rants regarding basketball based on the fact I never played, and am learning the rules every game, even at this point, I ran four years of track during high school, I helped volunteer and organize the meets I wasn't participating in. 

For an invitational, where qualifying times are submitted, and lane assignments deteremined A WEEK BEFORE, it shouldn't be too hard to organize the kids by heat, take their times, document them, and get the next heat going.   Case in point, when the final call for Maja's intermediate hurdle race was made, appropriately, they were setting up the first of three heats for the 4x100 relay.  

TWENTY-NINE MINUTES LATER she finally started her race.    If it was the beginning of the season, or a bunch of 7th graders, I might understand, but it's May, most are JV 9th or 8th graders, and everyone knows what's going on.  

The field events suffered a similar breakdown, as everyone who ran the boy's shot put, migrated across the complex for the boy's discus, even though there was a perfectly competent team assigned there, and they just breezed through 17 girls in their event.  That left one poor high school volunteer at shot put, and the girls had to wait 30 minutes. 

With these delays, Millie had to leave at least 35 minutes before the Javelin was supposed to happen, and she JUST got to the facility in time to play at 3:00pm.    I simply had to wait for Maja to finish her high jump and we were on our way, with 15 minutes of wiggle room.  

Millie: 6 out of 18 in the shot, 7 out of 16 in the discus.

Maja:  4th in the high jump, massive PRs in the 100m hurdles, 300 hurdles, and triple jump.

Millie's weekend:  The theme for the weekend for Millie's crew was height differential.  They were forced to play teams with a four-inch height advantage on average.  Yet they finished the weekend 4-0 in the A Pool, including a close game that went down to a steal and a lay-up at the last second.  Unlike the last tournament, everyone was there (save Millie for the first game.) 

Maja's has fewer picture and more text:  Guess who didn't show up for the 3:35pm game?  If you guessed the other team, you'd be right.  Times and locations for the tournament, which, by common courtesy, are usually finalized by Thursday night, seemed to constantly change, and the other team didn't confirm with the app on Friday. 

So we waited... and waited... and luckily our program contact was on site, who got us a 9pm game with them, after our 7pm game. 

The first game wasn't even close, as the girls jumped out to a 21-0 lead after four minutes and the coach called off the dogs.  61-19.

Second game, the other team did show up... and it felt like competition they faced in 7th grade.  65-15 win.  

Sunday morning, fearing a schedule change overnight, I was right.  Our 1pm game had been moved to noon, against the winner of a different pool.    This team, from Long Island, was pretty decent, and kept the game within 6 or 7.  One of our new players buster and an and one at the buzzer to end the half at 28-18, and people never looked back.   48-31.  

The final game was against another pool winner, and it was another 21-0.    Everyone coasted, tried different positions, practiced new plays, and they walked away with a 61-14 win.  

While I mentioned the spontaneous schedule changes, and generally poor organization, I did bury the lead:  Maja's group is 9th grade (15U), and they decided to move up to 10th grade (16U) for this tournament.  

I know when the girls go to the big showcases in Atlantic City and elsewhere, they'll get their buts handed to them, but right now the biggest competition they've faced is the Varsity team every Tuesday and Thursday night. 

(EDIT: One addendum I’d like to add.  One addendum I’d like to add since we were stuck on site at a small Catholic school for seven hours, we got the Watch a lot of the other games and I can safely say, as the referees on site for that timeframe or some of the best I may have ever seen.  I could count on my hands the number of missed calls. They kept control of the game. They were consistent.  This is  the fifth year AAU and I can safely say that I’ve never seen that happen before.  It was a pleasure to watch, Even if some of the actual game results were not.  I might collectively give that group to the first a I’d never give any referees.

*Now, the Sunday refs were a D+ and a solid B, at different sites. 

Mandatory AAU Basketball Spring 2024 Rant - Weekend #2 - The Birthday Hullabaloo

 This whole separate tournament locations for Maja and Millie is for the birds!  Although I'm getting far less wear and tear on my car.  

This past weekend, I got to take Millie (13u) to the Scranton Slamfest, while Maja's mother got the honor of fighting thousands upon thousands of people at the Live at the Nook even in Spooky Nook (Lancaster, PA). 

It was also my birthday this weekend, so while Maja went down to Lancaster right after school for a 6:10pm game Friday, I watched over Millie, and Millie's Friday was going to be baking a lot of cupcakes, whether she like it or not.  

My Official Birthday Sticker for the Weekend. 

Millie (7th Grade/13U)  

The unfortunate news for Millie's team was that they were missing arguably their two best players, who decided to suit up for different teams that were attending the same Live at the Nook event as Maja.  This left them four regulars and three girls new to AAU.  The good news was the pool was tiny, composing of a Scranton AAU team, and the girls own 13U- B team.

For the first Saturday game against Scranton, the team adapted to this new concept call share the ball equally and play with high energy.  The first few minutes were close, but they eventually pulled away with a 15-point win.  

The second game against the 13U-B team started rough.  Down by 4 and only shooting 9%, the girls rallied back under the center, Londyn's 25 point, 15 rebound performance to win 47-30.   My high point?  Millie playing such lockdown defense that multiple players went to the bench in tears.  

My low point?  The referees.  It's been an ongoing issue, and with the excuse of "if we don't use these refes, we won't have games,"  I'd rather not have games.  

Some of the zebras are good, but one assigned to Scranton High School on Saturday had no right overseeing a family Tiddlely-Wink tournament, much less an AAU game.  When everyone in the building, family, players, coaches, and his replacement cringe at over a dozen horrible calls, from missing blatant elbows while staring at the action 10 foot away, to calling fouls on perfect screens and making no-calls on moving shoulder block screens that didn't level girls, but physical moved the girl in the direction the other player was still moving, like a football block, it was simply horrible.

The worse call wasn't even during Millie's games, but one in between, where down 19-16, the player shooting the 3-point shot to tie was legitimately fouled and the foul called.  However it was waved off because this inept ref blew an inadvertent whistle for no good reason, killing the play and giving the winning team the ball to burn off the last seconds.  (I got this directly from the ref who called the foul, whom I'm on good terms with).  

While I was quite please with Millie's performance (Opponent crying and a 6 point 6 assist game) the most amusing part of the day came at dinner.  Millie agreed to Buffalo Wild Wings  and ordered her usual:  10 Wings, all-flats, extra-crispy Mild, Order of Fries with side of Mild Sauce, Shirley Temple.  

Once the food arrive, I happily engaged with my burger, until the waitress came back.  She asked Millie if she wanted water, and I thought her tone was a bit odd.  Millie immediately said yes, though, and within seconds I saw her melt down and nearly spontaneously combust 

It seems the waitress put in for WILD sauce on the wings (one of the three hottest they have) and Millie housed six of them before realizing something was amiss.   Some water, some milk and four replacement mild wings later, and she had a fun story to tell. 

With the two wins Sunday, Millie's team won the most important prize of all, a chance to sleep in rather than play the 8am play-in game for the title.  

Credit to the 13U-B team, they won their 8am game for the right to the rematch and balled their hearts out.   It was Londyn again, asking for permanent residence at the foul line for the last two minutes and giving the team a 50-47 and the championship.    After championship t-shirts and cupcakes were distributed, it was onwards and just over two hours to reach Spooky Nook for Maja's last game of the weekend.  

I'm the statistician for Maja's 15U team, do Friday night, Millie and I huddled around the laptop to watch them play the SI Liberty, the older team of the same program that gave Millie's teams fits in week one.  This batch didn't disappoint, as they hit SIX three-pointers in a row (11 overall), to keep things close, but Maja's Clutch won out 58-55.

Saturday morning, Maja played just before Millie was supposed to go to a shout around warm-up, I was hoping to do stats for most of, but not all of the game, but the family recording the games for us encountered horrible wi-fi.  It took me over 40 minutes to watch the first 10 minutes of actual play, and when we arrived at the CYC for the shout-around, I changed again, and the recording only lasted 17 minutes of actual play before failing.  It's a little sad that there's little to no wifi in student rec center (but the University Gymnasium, where the second game was, had it in spades.)

Still 61-40 and 44-23 wins were impressive, even if I needed to construct stats for the first game, thanks to no parent or player remembering who even scored. 

Sunday, the goal was to get down with an hour to spare and meet up with my sister and brother-in-law to watch Maja's last game, and conduct a dinner, much requested gifts for my birthday.    We actually met, grabbed some light fare from concessions and talked, only to discover (a) the game started 30 minutes early and no one told us and (b) the inept scoreboard operator used a running clock (not in the rules) for the entire first half before being called out on it by the refs.  

Even with poor scorekeeping, the inevitable happened, a 40-34 win that wasn't as close as the final scored suggests.  

I somehow traded kids with their mom, and Maja accompanied me to the birthday soiree at a decent at best local chain of pub restaurants.  

The random gift my sister got me this year?  A Slayer cooler!  .  

I don't know if I want to use it for lunch, or get a job transporting blood or transplant organs.  

The drive home in the waning daylight was difficult, and I did spend some time back at the house while dropping off Maja before heading home.  I got my final gift there:  Kids on Bikes: Strange Adventures Volume 1.  

Mandatory AAU Basketball Spring 2024 Rant - Weekend #1

We're back at this crap again.  

In this day and age where we're not supposed to criticize kids, I'll start off by saying I didn't expect two kids in AAU this spring.  

Millie (13U) I expected.  Despite participating in junior high track and field, her first love is basketball, and all but one of her teammates are returning for the 7th grade team.  They're definitely short on height, but they should remain competitive with 2/3 of the teams.  

Maja (15U) I expected to take some time off.  Varsity time didn't end well, I expected a month off of rest, focus on running and rehab through track and field and possibly a good enough time to qualify for the regional meet.  Off-season varsity stuff would start up again May, with possibly three games a week over the summer.  

One weekend, I checked on her location via the phone, just to see if spending the afternoon with both girls was a possibility.  Lo' and behold, Maja was at the local CYC... at tryouts.  It appeared that Maja and five other girls from the Varsity roster were trying out, and their was a good chance her coach from Freshmen ball (and last spring's AAU season) was returning.  Despite my protests, the rest of the family was running with it... not realizing just how complicated things were going to be.

Biggest problem?  Completely different schedules.  Millie had five tournaments from April through May.  Maja had eight tournaments from April through July.  Only two times were both teams at the same site on the same weekend, and three times there were conflicts (one in Lancaster, one in Scranton).  Let's also add a ninth tournament for Maja this past weekend in Scranton, while Millie's crew is in South Jersey!   Divide and conquer seems to be the way to go, although Maja is already realizing her planned social life is plummeting due to weeknight practices and late night weekend games.  She was invited to two musicals with friends, and could attend neither.  Considering her position on the AAU team is about the same on Varsity (8th-10th on a a 10-girl roster). I simply hope she doesn't get hurt....

.... and that's what I get for typing this part up on Friday before the first tournament. 

Millie was supposed to kick off her season with a tournament in Jersey, but it was dropped on everyone that the Varsity and JV teams would play a local showcase in Scranton.  Divide and conquer started early, with me handling Maja's transportation, and my ex taking Millie duties since they already had a hotael and plans.  

Saturday, Scranton:  Maja's team lost two at-grade players, one of our trusted point guards, and a power forward who just went crazy good during her Freshman year of school.  Also remove two girls who were playing up a grade, and there was some room.  

Their replacements were... adequate, to say the least.  

• Ella, a 6'2" center to compliment our existing 6'1" classmate of Maja's  She's spent the last three years on a depleted school team, forced to do everything.  
• Sophia and Julianna, two girls from the "hated" Hazleton freshmen.  The team already welcomed their Hazleton teammate Mariah last season, and she was a blessing to have.  Hopefully lightning strikes thrice.
• Norah, Maja's school teammate with super-energy decided to improve her game, and earned a spot of JV "A", much to the chagrin of some of the parents of the "B" team players. 

For the random weird person playing at home, the JV team consists of five girls (including Maja) come from the same school, add the three Hazleton girls, the tall prep school player, and one extra lady from a competitive school, and it's a pretty damn good team.  In fact, our 6th freshmen player at the school is tearing it up for the elite Scranton AAU program, so it should be a fun year... and the next three.

We've also turned a corner where the 8am Saturday games seem to have disappeared, replaced with sleeping in and dinnertime and evening games.  

The first team was from Central/South Jersey, and actually had two girls who contributed to their school's state title run.  For a first game, Maja's team broke themselves, in slowly, creating a 23-20 halftime lead, despite missing every single 3-pt attempt.  

For the second half, they only took (and missed) two more threes, focused on play calling and annihilated the other team 48-29.   Maja was used sparingly, still pulled down five rebounds.  There was definitely a disparity between the 5+1 starters and four of the girls with playing time (3 of the 4 are Maja's teammates), but their old Freshmen coach is the AAU coach, so we trust the system.  

We closed out the building with a late-night game, against a team we had trouble with (and won) during one of our national tournament trips to Atlantic City.  

Spoilers:  After talking with the parents, they sent the 15U "C" team three hours.   32-11 halftime lead, and with Maja and the other three bench players with significant 2nd halftime, they extended the lead further for 20+ point win.   Maja with 6 points, 5 more rebounds, a block, and NO TURNOVERS.

The reward for a late-night win?  A trip to Waffle House, and a chance to sleep in for a 2:30pm game Sunday.

Saturday, New Jersey: In a pattern over the last three years, we lost ANOTHER center, and added a handful of girls who will take the entire season to acclimate and develop.  However, their play style is fast and aggressive, with a 72-21 rout that wasn't even that close for their first game.  

And that's when Millie went down the first time.  

Her left ankle buckled on some play and she went down.  Already up by thirty, she got it iced and wrapped and went out to the second game of the day, where she was used sparingly in another 30-point rout.   

Somehow Maja survived the first day, but Millie was packed in ice like trans-pacific seafood delivery that evening.  

Sunday, Scranton:  Some evening research confirmed that the 15U team had already played their best teams for the weekend.  There were good teams on site at 15U, but they had already qualified for, and were playing against, the teams in the tournament organizers showcase circuit.  Maja's team was on a "qualifier" tier against other programs who wanted to be part of the showcase.  However, none of these programs seemed to bring their "A" teams to qualify the program.  

Maja's first team for Sunday afternoon where the "Runnin' Rebs" a team that gave them problems over the years.  Everyone expected a hearty battle, until parents started admitting that it was the first year most of the girls had played AAU, and the first year in the program for as well.  Again, after some research, another "C" team was confirmed, with their A and B teams playing in different tournaments around Philadelphia.    58-31 and it wasn't that close.  Maja with another 5 points, 3 rebounds, and now adding two assists and a steal... and NO TURNOVERS.

The final game was against the weakest team in the pool, program out of Baltimore with some talented girls, but certainly not the experience together to withstand the assault they were NOT expecting.  

When Maja's coach finally called off the dogs, it was 29-1... with all the subs in.  With no mercy rules to put into effect, the 62-17 final was being gentle.  Only two girls (two of the new ones) made it into double figures, and everyone else scored multiple times.   Maja:  Another 5 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists to make her teammates look good, and another block.  

Most importantly, she's not only having fun, the entire team is having fun, cheering, hooting and hollering, supporting each other.   It was a fun tournament to watch.... and one of the parents was smart enough to not only set up a Facebook group for parents, but also post livestreams of all the games, so Maja's mom didn't miss anything in Jersey.

Sunday, New Jersey:  Four years of AAU and Millie's team finally found a good team in their age group out of Staten Island... twice.  For 4th-6th grade, the Staten Island teams couldn't even be considered road bumps.  In the three or four games these programs have played them, Millie's team may have given up 10 points COMBINED, including a 40-0 shutout in 4th grade where Millie made the winning shot off the opening jumping ball, while on her knees.

The Staten Island Liberty are not one of those teams.  With the championship game guaranteed by tie-breaker, Millie's team fought a war against the Liberty in the last pool game.  Mille and her bum ankle held up most of the game, keeping with two or four points, while she focused on a girl who was trying her best Caitlyn Clark impression... and thankfully failing.    Unfortunately, another tweak, and Millie staggered over to the bench in tears with two minutes left in the second, half.  The girl got some space and got hot, and they lost by 6.

The championship was against the same Liberty, and after a few more hours of ice, some motrin, and a new wrap, Millie toughed her way through a 49-41 loss.  

The events in Jersey have always been considered sub-par in the way of competition and officiating, so it was nice to see two good programs go at it.    I couldn't gauge the Jersey officials, since I was there, but the Scranton official got a solid B-/C+.  However, if you complained about the Iowa/UConn officials "deciding the game,"  you would have had an education on how that really happens with some of the other tournament games.  Collecting $150-200 for a long afternoon seemed to be their number one priority, rather than caring about the action on the court.  I know Maja's team is heading to Spooky Nook in two weeks, so I'll have to gird my loins to deal with those refs and scorekeepers, who are far worse.  

I dropped off Maja at home and checked on Millie, forcing her to ice and elevate and give things time.    It looked like a good 2nd degree sprain (I've had a 3rd degree sprain once and this is bad but not this bad.  IF she listens, she might be ready off the bench in a few weeks, and full action for the last three tourneys.  

A Millie POV of a tired Dad reading her the riot act about resting.

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).  

Mandatory Basketball Rant - Winter 2023-24 - Part Three

And with a bit of a whimper, the regular season for Varsity is over, meaning the triple-header games of Freshman/JV/Varsity are over...

Local Rec League:  I continue to show up to support games, although it's mostly because Maja is reffing and still can't drive.  Without parental interference, the system runs itself most of the time, and I've already targeted the future problem parents for the complaints in the Biddy divisions.

We're in full swing of the playoffs, yet most teams haven't had a practice in two weeks because the elementary school is putting on their play, thus using the cafeteria/stage/basketball court.  If the remainder of the board had agreed with me, most of the Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade divisions would have had three free throw shooting competition/pizza party already, and we could have opened up 15 additional hour-long slots to accommodate this schedule change.  Since I'm no longer the complaints department, I'm enjoying other folks getting the wrath.

Local Rec League Travel Team:  For the first time in four years, we sponsored a 6th grade girls team to play other local programs.  Between a tournament and the regular season, they ended up going 4-6.  It will be fun to see them, as well as the other girls, make the move up to Junior High ball next year. 

7th/8th Grade Junior High:  The teams Millie does not play for finished their seasons last weekend. Despite only having one player from the talented travel teams that dominated the last two years (the rest are playing Freshman exclusively), 7th grade held on to a winning record, going 10-9, and coming within two of an upset playoff win.  

The 8th graders, who had most of the good players move up to exclusively Freshman, fared poorly, going 3-15.  The lone good player on the 7th grade team?  She was the second-best player on the 8th grade.  

Between these two teams, I see no 8th graders making the transition to JV (they will get murdered in the summer league).  The rest will get dumped into bench positions on Freshman.   I do see the best player in 7th moving up to Freshman only, with the rest moving up to 8th, then 9th the following year.  

Good news is, with a glut of players above them, the 6th graders moving into 7th next year should all be together.  

Freshman: Why all the hub-bub above teams?  Because Millie's Freshman team has two true Freshmen, six 8th graders (2 starters), and four 7th graders (3 starters)... and they just finished the season 18-1, against 8th/9th grade competition.  They took some lumps early, but as the other teams improved, they rose to the occasion.  With Millie at point, a 6'1" center and three girls who scored at least 100 points, they were a force to be reckoned with.  Four of the six 8th graders are almost guaranteed JV as Freshman, so that leaves two 8th graders returning, who will be great next year, and the five 7th graders (4 current players, and the girl from 7/8 moving up), to form the core

Junior Varsity: Last year, mutinies and injuries in Varsity, stripped the JV down so much, they played their last 8 games with only five players.  This year, the injury bug hit JV itself, getting them down to 6 players, but a part-time Varsity bench player for two quarters a game.  JV stats are always sketchy, but I think they pulled out an 8-9 record... with Maja as the starting center!    When her friend, the actual center on the team, went down with a concussion mid-December, Maja was the only one willing to fill in the role.  It's been painful, watching her get beat up by clumsy giants on the other team, but as I watched the last two games of the season this week, I realized she was doing exactly the basic orders she was given:  box out players on rebounds and lure her defender away from the ball.   Her boxing out abilities neutralized the biggest girl on the court usually, which gave them a much better chance of rebounding.  She did have a monster game with 18 points, plus this week's games had her with 6+ blocks at crucial times, and two fouls total.  

Varsity:  Varsity team had a great run, going 15-8, but a costly loss on Monday is the season why the winning team is in the league playoffs, and they have to wait a week for Districts, then hopefully State seedings.  Not bad for a team with 2 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, and 2 Freshmen in the starting line-up! Maja ended the Varsity season with a whopping two points, and a hosts of assists, rebounds, blocks, and steals.   Her goal next year is continue to show she's indispensable, adaptable, and crazy enough to do what the coaches need from her, and crack the top 10 on Varsity.  Her job isn't to score 1,000 points (we have three right now on track for a 1,000+ each in their careers), but to do everything else to ensure for the team to win. 

Mandatory Basketball Rant - Winter 2023-24 #2

 We're finally in the thick of the season at all levels!

Local Rec League:  I've stepped back in my duties, but I still find myself at one of the schools by 9am on a Saturday.  All the "improvements" that the board try to improvise either barely work or are dead on arrival.  

Varsity:  The basketball moms were in an uproar around the New Year, when all the local sports Facebook pages didn't have Maja's varsity team in the Top 15... and they had three wins against teams in the rankings.  They're 6-3 with all three losses against teams from outside the district.  Last year, they'd carry a ten-point lead into the 4th quarter, and lose by 15.  This year, two losses were buzzer beaters, and the third loss they had managed to tie at the buzzer before losing in overtime.  Culture and talent have definitely improved. 

Maja's most recent game was against Tunkhannock, and she got significant varsity time and finally scored her first varsity points!  

JV:  Injuries and Varsity time has dropped the JV squad to 6 or 7 players, similar to last year.  Maja is now the starting center (!) and despite only scoring 4-6 points every game, she sits less than two minutes total each game.   

Freshman:  Millie's crew hit a snag on their season of destruction, getting upset by the Lake Lehman girls, 32-22.  Considering the Lehman 7th and 8th graders were destroyed by our B-Team by a combined score of 55-20 last year, we've got to chalk it up to horrible shot selection and a shooting percentage under 20%.  Millie is comfortable in her point guard role, leading the team in assists.  

7th/8th Grade:  Some of the girls are complaining about playing time, but when THE point guards for either team miss a game, it's a disaster on all other fronts.   7th Grade is holding onto a .500 record, and 8th grade is struggling at 1-6.  

Rec League Travel Team:  The 6th grade Rec League Travel Team went up to Lake Lehman for the Back Mountain Holiday Tournament and finally pulled away with a win in exciting overtime fashion, 17-14!  

Mandatory Basketball Rant - Winter 2023-24 #1

I know it's been a long year when I forget that I did a weekly rant on the "regular" basketball season.  I won't do week by week this year, at least by label, as we're already a month into the seasons.  I'll start by burying the lead.

Local Rec League:  Still Vice-President of the league.  Still not getting anything pushed through that needs updating, rather the board is swooning to the desires of a few, a few who will not be working with the league at all in a year or two.  We've gotten rid of the obnoxious parents from the last few years and replaced them with benevolent dictator parents.  At the end of day, despite all the hand-wringing from parents, officials, and league officials like me... the league plays on and the kids learn basketball and have fun. 

The biggest thrill for me has been Maja and her freshman teammates becoming active junior referees this season.   I'm biased, but Maja's the best of the bunch (per the official PIAA refs we use alongside them).and all of them are more active and more vocal than the last two years of recruits.  

Varsity:  Maja made the JV team as a freshman, but that just means she's a bad game by another player, an injury, or an exceptional JV game by her away from .getting some playing time.  It also means that she still attends all Varsity games, including the Tip-Off tournament they played in last weekend.  They won their first game and came back Saturday to play a New York State Semi-finalist team to a last second tying shot, but eventual loss in overtime.  Not bad for a team coming off a 8-13 season and starting a junior, two sophomores, and two freshmen this years.  

Funny story,  most of these tip-off tournaments have four teams: two local that might not play each other every year, and two out of the area teams (us and the New York team).   We knew the site was the one participating high school, and that was about an hour away.  What about half the parents didn't know is that the site was changed on the team website on Wednesday, so half of us drove to the other "local" team in the tournament... which was another 40 minutes away from the site, over dark and rainy country roads carved out by the original Pennsylvania settlers, or original native trails that were never improved upon.    We all had a good laugh once we found civilizations.

Junior Varsity: Maja got to start on the JV team on Monday.  2pts, 8 rebounds, and a flurry of other stats in a 4-point loss.  The best player on JV is also a second or third player off the bench for Varsity, so she plays the first half only.  

Freshmen: In what must be a family trait, Millie not only made the Freshmen team, but was declared a starter as a 7th grader.  But unlike Maja's 7th grade year where she ended up playing 7th, 8th, and Freshmen, Millie is locked into Freshman only with only possible chances to play "down" if things go catastrophic for those teams.  The team is four 7th, 6 8th, and 2 9th graders and is very talented, but incredibly balanced.   First scrimmage was a 61-31 rout of the local "elite" catholic school Freshman team, so here's to a healthy season.

7th/8th Team:  Unfortunately, taking and keeping the junior high talent for the Freshman team leaves scraps.   When Millie's local travel team coach took the gig, amid some controversy last summer, I think she imagined rolling through both the 7th and 8th leagues with her five core 7th graders.  Only one of her girls didn't make Freshman, so she is the workhorse for both grades.   When I wasn't getting lost in the Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania this weekend, I was at the old tech school gym where the leagues are hosted.   Fun fact:  the 7th graders won both their games.  Somehow I left at halftime on Saturday and didn't make it until five minutes into Sunday's game, yet I didn't miss them score any points.  They led 8-2 at halftime, and held onto with 8-5.  And despite eventually blowing out their opponent on Sunday, they were behind 4-0 in the first before I walked in to see a beautiful steal and lay-up get them on the board.  I do not want to be their good luck charm, but I'll show up as necessary.

The 8th graders had some delusions of grandeur, and when the Freshman coach only took taller, more athletics players, the other girls had hissy fits, including one that was a favorite of mine last year.  A mass exodus of girls quit the team, leaving a point guard  who was very serviceable last year when she didn't shoot.... and now she has to shoot all the time.  I miss their Saturday game due to the tournament, but I'm still trying to figure out how they won 24-10 that day, and got utterly obliterated 30-10 by a vastly inferior program.  

Youth Rec League Travel!    After years of COVID excuses, or "building back up to it" from the board, the local rec league finally decided to sponsor a team for the 6th grade Kingston Rec league.  (This is the same league the Millie's crew played in as an independent the last two years).  I've sort of positioned myself as Grand Vizier or Old Wise Man Advisor to the trio of coaches.  The team is large (11 girls), with only three with experience "off the mountain".  Their first game was Sunday night against the always well-prepared Dallas program.  After giving up an eight points in the 1st Quarter, our team finally scored a few times, to  a 21-6 loss.  It's a new batch of girls to learn names to keep score, and a lot of 5-in, 5-out substituting, but this is my 5th (!) years going to these games.  They will get better.