Travel Teams (click to view)

2017-2018 Becker Travel Youth Basketball

Becker Travel Youth Basketball is for boys and girls in 5^th thru 8^th grade. Travel Basketball is made up of the following highlights. Scroll down for a description and the schedule for each of these. The cost to participate is $180 (early bird registration through September 1st, from October 1st-6th, price increase to $200) which includes a Nike shooting shirt.

• Mandatory parent meeting Date: Monday, 10/23
  • Check in 6:30-7:00
  • Parent Meeting 7:00-8:30
  • Please bring $100 uniform deposit
• Culture
• Player Evaluation Dates
  • 5^th/6^th Girls = Thursday, 10/26 5-6:30 p.m. (check in begins at 4:30)
  • 5^th/6^th Boys = Thursday, 10/26 6:30-8:30 p.m. (check in begins at 6:00)
  • 7^th/8^th Boys and Girls = Friday, 10/27 5-7 p.m. (check in begins at 4:30)
• Travel Formation             Released by Sunday, October 29^th
• Weekly practices             Start the week of 11/6 (2 practices per week)
• Travel Tournaments
• Waconia League
• Youth Night
  • Boys and Girls Varsity Double Header- December 8th

Becker Travel Youth Basketball Overview

In accordance with the mission statement of Becker Travel Youth Basketball, for girls and boys in 5^th – 8^th grades is “to provide an opportunity for all interested players to participate in an organized, competitive program focused on skill development, teamwork, and fostering a life-long love of the game while representing Becker in a positive fashion.” Becker Travel Basketball is open to all students that live in the Becker School District.

Below is a description for each part of the program:

Mandatory Parent Meeting

The parent meeting will be on Monday, October 23rd in the “Old Auditorium” in the Becker High School. Check in will be from 6:30 – 7:00 and the parent meeting will be from 7:00 – 8:30.   Please bring your uniform deposit of $100 at check in.   Checks will be held onto and NOT cashed unless the uniform is not returned in usable condition at the end of the basketball season.

Deposit checks are REQUIRED for your child to participate in this program as well as your attendance of the parent meeting.

Culture

The Becker Travel Youth Basketball program has a goal to see all of its participants become Better Players, Better People, and we constantly strive to become a Better Program.

• Better Players
  • Create an environment where players need to COMPETE in order to be competitive, both in games and in practice, but also be able to experience success. This is why we divide teams according to their skill level explained below.
  • Create a desire within our players to be part of something bigger than themselves.
• Better People
  • We want our coaches and parents to constantly be teaching kids to focus on becoming better at the things that they can control. These skills not only make our athletes better competitors but also make them better people as these are life skills
    • Effort
    • Attitude
    • Growth mindset – process of striving to get better
    • Body language
    • Bouncing back from mistakes
    • Building up teammates
    • Attitude of gratitude – avoid complaining
  • Better Program
    • Detailed and organized
    • Communicate well
    • Intentional training for coaches AND parents
    • Feeder program and connected to the varsity programs

Player Evaluations

All players in the program are required to be present at evaluations.   The player evaluations are the opportunity for players to demonstrate their skills. This is how the Basketball Board forms teams.

The first thing to note, that NO parents or coaches are allowed to participate in evaluations. That includes parents and coaches who are board members.   Board members who are parents and coaches may assist with other grades but will have NO involvement in the evaluation or team formation for their kids’ grade level.

The evaluations are based on scores from the skill portion and scores from the on-court portion.   25% of the player’s overall score is determined by the skill stations and 75% of the player’s overall score is determined by their on-court score.   The on-court score is given by two different evaluators and then averaged together.   The skill stations that each player performs are:

• Ball Handling – series of ball handling moves that are timed and scored based on performance
• Vertical Reach – the height they can jump and reach to
• Elbow shots – elbow shots made in 1 minute
• Layups – layups made with correct form in 1 minute
• Drop step layups – drop step layups made in 1 minute drop stepping from block

For the on-court score, players will be divided up and will play different 5 on 5 games with the evaluators constantly changing teams and match ups as well as 3 on 3 games.

At the end of the evaluation, each player is given a score and teams are formed based on those rankings. The basketball board does have the responsibility to make sure that rosters are properly balanced based on position need. However, this is rare.

Team Formation

The number of teams and the number of players on a team varies depending on the number of kids we have in each grade.   We strive to keep team sizes small to maximize playing time.   The ideal team size is 8. Typically, team sizes are anywhere from 7-10 kids.   Usually, if there are more than 8 kids, we implement a rotational system so only 8 kids travel to each tournament so playing time can be maximized. However, this is determined on a case by case basis.

Starting at the 5^th grade level, we use the evaluation process that was described above, to form teams according to their skill level.   If we have enough kids for two teams, then we form a Becker Blue (“A) team and a Becker White (B”) team.   We do this so kids can practice with and against kids with similar skill sets and also find tournaments to compete against teams with similar skill sets. If a grade has enough for 3 teams then all 3 teams would be formed according to skill, Becker Blue (“A), Becker White, (“B”), and Becker Black (“C”).

Our goal is for kids and parents not to become focused on where the kid is now, but focus on becoming better and growing as a player and a person no matter what team they are on. By dividing up according to skill, we believe is the most efficient way for this to be accomplished.

Weekly Practices

Each travel team is granted two practice slots per week. The head coach for each team determines the practice schedule for the team and will communicate that with parents. All of our head coaches are volunteers.   We will provide a pre-season coaches clinic to provide coaches training. We strive for 75% of our practice time to be focused on skill development and the other 25% focused on game preparation.   The location of the practices will be in the Field House, Primary school, and Intermediate school gyms.   The time slots each night are 5:30 – 7:00 and 7:00-8:30. Coaches are encouraged to avoid Wednesday night practices if at all possible.

Coaches are also encouraged to keep practices to a minimum when School Ball is going on.   School Ball is only 7 weeks through the school.   All travel players are required to be in school ball to be eligible for travel basketball (this applies to 7th and 8th grade players).

Travel Tournaments

Each team is given the number of tournaments they can play in.   The dates and locations of these tournaments will be determined by the head coach. The number of tournaments per grade level is:

5^th Grade = 8 tournaments

6^th Grade = 9 tournaments

7^th Grade = 10 tournaments

8^th Grade = 11 tournaments

Each team’s coach will communicate with parents the tournament schedule for the team. Each team does have one tournament in Becker.

Waconia League

This is a league that our Becker Black (“C”) level teams will play in. The Becker White team may even have a couple of weeks of games in this league. This league will have teams with a similar skill level as our Black teams. All of these games are on Saturday’s and each team will play 2 games on the Saturday’s they play.   The board will communicate the schedule with the Black team’s coaches and parents. Location of the games will vary each Saturday. Parents will find this league with a couple of nice perks, no admission fee for parents, and the games are normally back to back or only one game in between which makes for shorter days on game days.

Youth Night at varsity games

Youth night is a great night at a varsity basketball game where there are items and prizes given away to youth, a half time shooting contest for cash, and recognition of the Becker Basketball 10,000 shot members. After the game, youth players get to meet Becker varsity players and obtain autographs. All youth (boys and girls) are welcome to attend for both the boys and girls youth nights on the following nights:

Boys and Girls Varsity Double Header- December 8th