Girls basketball team gets booted from league for being too good

Maybe the other teams should practice more?

And/or get a new coach?

I checked out their website. They offer "house" and "travel" programs. Now I may be wrong because they haven't yet commented. But "house" usually means "rec level". Where "travel" is reserved for the elite level kids.

If this is the case, it may well be that this team is travel caliber and light years above rec level.

The reality is that for many kids, no amount of practice or guidance will ever get them to an elite level. So rec leagues are formed to give them the opportunity to work hard and compete in a sport they love.

Occasionally, a rec league has a team that should be traveling and competing against elite teams. Frequently you'll see a coach that prefers to beat up teams of inferior kids rather than compete at a higher level where he might not be able to be undefeated.

It's not to hard to recognize a kid that may do the best they can, work her tail off, but will never achieve an elite level. They can enjoy the sport for those few years of their childhoods and probably won't move on. And that's ok.

Absent of all of the facts, it may very well be the case where this undefeated team and the kids on it are being short-changed by competing at an inferior level. It's harder for them to understand, especially when you're racking up the wins, but it is possible.

We played "fall-ball" one year at a nearby city league. Our girls crushed every team. The next season we withdrew and found somewhere else. It wasn't doing our girls, or their girls, any good.

Like I say, I don't know all the facts. But I've been around youth athletics long enough to see teams compete more for the "glory" of their coaches, rather than for the kids themselves.

My daughter was the only girl in a roller hockey league and was pretty good and super fast. One year they let a travel team sign up as a team vs everyone else being drafted. The one game the parents were hooting and hollering when it was 15-0 in the 1st period. She lost it and absolutely leveled one of the kids. She was ejected and we never returned again. I admit I was really pissed, it was embarrassing watching her do it but I could understand. I’ll bet after we left the parents weren’t hooting and hollering though.

Interesting comment at the original article:

“Sassy16 1 hour ago
@jazzyb These are not High School players - they are just high school aged. There is a difference. Although they played when they were younger, at various levels, they haven’t played basketball in several years. Some quit for other sports, but the rest were cut from the Rogers High School program. Yes, they know how to play. This is the only Non-High School (varsity) league in the area, and the other teams have former youth players as well. This is a first-time coach, who stepped up because his daughter had been cut from the High School team and wanted to play one more year before graduating and having everyone go off to college. There is a boys’ side to this rec league, and the boys are very good - former youth players and some who played a year or two of high school ball before being cut or quitting for other reasons. The league lets these boys’ teams play, and it is fun to watch. My nephew played on such a team in this league when he was that age, and they were quite good. They need to let the girls play as well!”

The other thing that happens sometimes at tournaments is a house team will register and then supplement its roster by cherry-picking the best players from other teams in its league.

When you see a house hockey team with a 20-man roster, you know something is going on.

The other thing that happens sometimes at tournaments is a house team will register and then supplement its roster by cherry-picking the best players from other teams in its league.

Been there. Although, it wasn't really such a negative in my view. One time we formed a sort of rec-league all star team to enter a tournament against "real" travel teams. Our rec season was over so what the heck. Picked the one or two best from each team, had a half-dozen practices or so, and off we went at 6am to play in our kids' first tournament.

The annihilation that ensued wasn't pretty. The respect the kids gained for the travel-ball players grew that day.

If this is the case, it may well be that this team is travel caliber and light years above rec level.

I've seen that problem in rec leagues where a couple of fathers pick up the teams, naturally taking the best kids for their own team and distributing the rest.

When I coached rec b'ball one of the rules for games was no pressing defenses. Kids basically picked up on D at half court. Our league was invited to participate in an all-star tournament, and I was assigned as one of the two coaches for the team. Our first opponent went full court press on us the whole way. The kids had never faced it and were getting humiliated. I tried to show them how to break the press during a few timeouts and at halftime, but too little too late. Looking back on it, stupid liberalism struck again.

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