Mahtomedi Basketball Association

Traveling evaluations for the 2010-2011 season are Saturday, September 18, 2010 at the middle school. The evaluation schedule will be posted on our website by September 11.

It is expected that evaluations will last two hours. The first hour (lower gym), players will participate in a series of ten timed or counting activities (The Decathlon) in order to gather quantifiable information on various basketball/athletic skills. This will account for 40% of the overall score.

The 2nd hour of the evaulation takes place in the upper gym in a scrimmage setting where six specific skill areas (scoring, ball control, movement without the ball, defense, rebounding, intangibles) will be accessed.  This subjective component will account for 60% of the overall score.  While we expect to complete the evaluations in one day, please note that some age groups may need to be called back for further evaluation on Tuesday, September 22, 2009.

Evaluators are board members or other qualified volunteers all of whom have considerable basketball playing and coaching experience.  During the evaluation process a number identifies each player rather than names to add additional anonymity.  Results will remain confidential. Evaluation results will be tallied by the board President and shared only with the respective Traveling Director.  For players not making a traveling team, you are welcome to contact the Traveling Director if you would like to identify skill areas that your son/daughter may want to work on.

 
4th grade teams (or if a grade level did not have a team the previous year):  The top 10 ranked (by points) players constitute the team.  Once player selection is completed, the parents of players who have made the team or others who are interested in being the head coach will present their coaching credentials, coaching philosophy, and experience to the board.  The board will then make the final selection of the head coaches for the 4th grade girls and boys teams.  The head coaches then select the assistant coaches. The interview process and selection of coaches for Traveling teams will be done at the October Board meeting.  Please notify the traveling directors as soon as possible if you are interested in coaching a traveling team.
 

Grades 5 – 8: The head coaches frequently carry over from the previous year.  Determining factors include a requirement that the child of the head coach from the previous year must score in the top 10 players in the evaluation and feedback received on how the team was coached the previous year has been positive. The board reviews every head coaching position each year.  The board may interview and select other candidates if they feel it will benefit the program.

After the head coach is selected, the head coach selects the assistant coach.  The Traveling Director will meet with returning head coaches to finalize the team rosters. In most cases, the team will consist of the top 10 rated players, however, up to two of the ten players selected may not have scored in the top ten, but may be selected based on team needs (height for additional post players, need for a ball handler, etc.).  No player can be selected for the Blue Team that has received less than half the total possible points.  The selection committee (Board President and Traveling Directors) strongly encourages and supports the selection of the top 10 ranking players, and will only support the selection of lower ranked players for very clear reasons that support the objective of improving the team.

From a procedural standpoint, the following rules have been adopted to guide the establishment of the traveling teams:

• There will be only one Blue team for each grade level
• At each grade level, a Blue team must be established before a Gold level team can be established
• Subject to gym availability, a sufficient number of qualified players and tournament opportunities, there may be more than one Gold team at each level.