Guide to Riverview Minor Basketball

This league is focused on providing positive development and understanding of sport and to introduce grade 4 – 5 boys and girls to the game of basketball

In principle, participation in our basketball league is meant to

• • • be fun for the kids, generally unaware of the exercise benefits
    • teach the fundamentals of basketball
    • reinforce fair play and good sportsmanship
    • provide an all inclusive peer network to belong ~ become part of a team
    • provide lessons in teamwork and leadership
    • teach winning and losing graciously

Special basketball rules designed to aid in development include

• • Equal playing time for participants
  • Half court defense – Offense retreats to half upon turnover
  • Player to player defense only ~ No Zone defense
  • Also basketball can be a very physical (contact) game.  Coaches and Referees are to discourage physical contact at every opportunity in this league.

The development function of this league is not limited to the elementary children but includes coach volunteers and especially high school students who referee the games.

This League is under the direct domain of the Principals of the Schools involved in the league.

Riverview minor basketball has been operating for over 25 years and there are solid foundations for rules as they exist.  Unfortunately without proper communication and education about the principle goals of our organization individual teams can easily adopt philosophies primarily focused on success in winning games.  This desire to win can seriously debase the positive principles that are supposed to be conveyed through participation in this league.  It is critically important to provide a proper foundation for sport as the children, generally 9-10 years old, are very impressionable especially as this is one of their earliest experiences in competitive sport.

Our league is organized, administrated, supervised and coached by volunteers.  These volunteers come with a variety of life experiences and motivations to participate.  It is a blessing to find people willing to commit their time toward the greater community good and they should be commended.  Still it is not enough to merely find a participant willing to fill this role.  There are some fundamental differences in the operation of this league and the operation of a regular competitive league and these need to be understood by all.

                        Principal & Coach communication is essential

Teams are co-ed and required to have at least 10 players to play a game.  As such, teams should be composed of at least 15 players to account for absenteeism.  The teams should also have a balance of players from each of grades four and five, girls and boys.  If a school has more than one team in the league, all efforts should be made to ensure parity among these teams.

The league charges the School $400 per team.  This money primarily goes to referees and timekeepers and year end tournament expenses.  A bank account exists and excess money is carried forward year to year, with a financial statement produced annually by our treasurer.  Cost recovery can be collected from player fees by the school.  At a player cost around $25 per child, the children practice and have weekly games (generally 11 games per season), a final tournament for all teams and have a skills tournament day at CBU with a pizza party and prizes for  participants and awards.

Referees are Riverview High School students.  They are given league instruction and are supervised by adult co-ordinators.  For many, this is their first experience in a position of authority.  As such it remains important to be patient with these students as they develop these new skills.  While the students who referee are gaining work and leadership experience, the league is able to operate at a much reduced financial cost compared to using Basketball Nova Scotia referees.

Parents are welcome to attend basketball games but should be aware of the league principles.  This can be accomplished with a Parent-Player contract signed and collected with the fee.  Positive comments are always welcomed.  However, negative actions should be dealt with by the respective coach.  Failure to diffuse the situation will lead to the party to be asked to leave the gym by the league.  Communication with the respective principals would then be requested asking for positive intervention and understanding.

What you can do. . .

Having become aware of what Riverview Minor Basketball is all about, please do what you can to ensure you apply these principles and goals and are suitable for the job.

Collect a Parent-Player contract that includes a copy of the rules and the league fair-play code (see attached sample).

Understand that this league is teamwork of schools and volunteers who are in it for the benefit of the children.  As such, everyone needs to forget rivalry or individual issues and focus on the greater good.  In other words, if the league contacts you with an issue, there is an issue and early and effective handling is important.

We recognize the extensive demands of everyone’s daily life and propose to do our best to minimize our demands on that time.  Still a little effort at the beginning can prevent the need for a lot of effort afterward.

In Summary  ~

It’s not whether you win or lose, it is how you play the game.

League Focus, Responsibility and What’s really important

Running a sports league, bringing kids together to compete in regular games and a championship tournament is a scary endeavor.   It seems that people (including some parents, coaches and even players) allow their lives to be defined by the scoreboard.  Winning the game becomes paramount and strategies are employed with the idea that the end justifies the means.  This will turn an otherwise positive experience (the league) into a negative one, for no good reason.

As adults (parents and coaches) we are teaching elementary kids (from 9 to 12 years old) to play a game of basketball in an all-play league.  There are many dynamics that create unbalanced play including the population of the school  from which the team draws its players, the number of players on a team, and the relative experience and proportional age breakdown of the teams, to name a few.  Inevitably some teams will be stronger than others and there is nothing wrong with that.  The problem comes when a team in an all-play league forgets who we are and what we are about.  That is an all-play league of elementary children playing a game for fun regardless of the score.  Our league is not meant to teach strong basketball players the skills to play competitive basketball.  Too often good players can develop bad habits because they are successful at the expense of novice players and in some cases novice referees.  Poor teams can win a lot of games with short benches and a couple of good players while good teams may play well but lose.  Again the scoreboard does not define who you are.

Much like the people who don’t take care of their own coffee cups or water bottles, believing, or not caring, that someone else will take care of their mess, nothing is their responsibility.  More people feel they can yell at referees who don’t make the appropriate call in their eyes, because the referees get paid and are apparently not taking care of their responsibility.  These “fans” have no problem expressing unsolicited and often uneducated opinions because they feel they have a right that they do not (coaches either).  The referees are unbiased observers of on-court conduct.  They also come with different skill sets and life experiences and are doing the best they can.  It is our own responsibility (coaches and parents) to recognize the failures of our own players to follow the league rules, half court, man-to-man (with help), no physical contact etc.  For example I have often had complaints of a “rough” game, only to have witnessed each team give as good as they received.  Instead of correcting the contact initiated by their own team, they blame and subsequently justify a scoreboard loss as “cheating” by the other team.  This is a poor message to give the kids.  Further to this there are Coaches and parents that can only see faults in the other teams they are competing against but fail to observe and, more importantly, correct the same actions in their own team.

Everyone needs to take care of their own house.  It is our responsibility as coaches to evaluate and correct the weaknesses of our own players and their on-court actions and rely on the other coaches to do the same.  We need to teach proper etiquette, techniques and skills for teamwork and the game of basketball.  We need to be less concerned with the scoreboard result and more concerned with the success that is defined by the play of the game.  We need to stress sportsmanship and fair-play to our kids (and their parents) at all times regardless of what our on court experience is (some will never truly adhere to these principles, and that’s life).    Again basketball is a game (game=>play=>fun) and part of the lessons we are teaching the children is the concept of winning and losing graciously; that life is defined by the preparation and the play of the game not the scoreboard result.  We are all volunteers with various reasons for coaching these teams.   We must learn to respect each other and the fact that we are here for the fun, growth and success of all of the kids in the league by doing what we can to help each other.

I have continually experienced a level of discontent from others regarding the play or enforcement of rules, and this only gets worse in the final tournament.  It is important that we continue to focus on the goals of the league, opposed to the desire to win at any cost.  The plaques are inexpensive and generally soon forgotten, but the lessons learned in the competition (good and bad) are long lived.

Who knows, maybe it will be better this year, but personally I’ll be rooting for the referees, a good games and most importantly supportive coaches.