4th Grade-November 20th

This weeks newsletter I will call EXPLOSION.

We had an explosion of great defense and offense, great teamwork, great basketball fundamentals, and awesome YBA family time. Because of this, we were able to take home a championship trophy for the whole YBA 4th grade family.
Our first game, we played a fast and furious fundamentally sound Delta Running Rebels team. Our Dawgs had a team of only 5 players for this tournament, but still gave a 110% effort throughout the whole game. Both the Rebels and Dawgs started out strong, but our Dawgs proved to be a stronger team both offensively and defensively due to our boys' strong basketball fundamentals. We defeated the Rebels 38-19.

Our second game, we played and defeated the Reno Ballers 4th grade team. The Ballers were no match for our 4th grade Dawgs, but they gave a good effort and were really good sportsmen. Our Dawgs remained in a 3-2 tight defense and man-to-man never allowing a pass inside the key or a drive to the basket. Our boys did not need to release their monster full court press. We defeated the Ballers 57-9, again with only 5 players using awesome basketball fundamentals. 

In our championship game, we played our brother team, YBA Xtreme, also a very fundamentally sound team coached by Coach Mack. Director Ken Gee, Coach Mack, and I all decided to have a family fun game by mixing up the two teams, 4th grade Dawgs and 4th grade Xtreme.....and boy was it lots of fun. Each player revealed great offensive and defensive skills that I was proud to see. Their training received by YBA to improve their core basketball fundamentals proved to be a success in this game. I recognized that many players were using the fundamentals that are taught at our training sessions. All the 4th grade Dawgs looked great! What a blast we had. Both teams were working hard and impressive. After our game, our boys and parents had a fun filled time at Skipolini's Pizza as a 4th grade YBA family. Coach Mack and I really feel fortunate to have such a great YBA family. Great job boys and thank you YBA parents for the great weekend!

Coach Martinez

4th Grade-November 20th

What a mile stone week for our 4th grade YBA program!  I want to start out by thanking the players and their parents for their flexibility and dedication.  Coach Robert Martinez and I have been working to combine our practices to better benefit all the players in the 4th grade YBA family.  This includes agreeing with which offenses, defenses, set plays, presses and press breaks that we will run as a program.  I think our GREAT week of fantastic play has proven the huge steps taken towards accomplishing this goal. 

To start of the week, the boys came out and trained very hard.  We had some great cardiovascular, core, ball handling, rebounding and defensive training this week.  The one thing that I stressed this week in training and will continue to push, is to also be working on these skills at home.  I told each child that while the training is great, it alone will not significantly increase their skill level.  The kids need to go home and work on these skills each day.  I can already tell which kids have committed themselves to doing this.  For those that are interested, I will be happy to develop and individual plan for them. 

Wednesday was a great practice.  We had both teams on the floor to learn the new offense.  We put a couple of wrinkles into the offense this session.  The boys were a little slow to catch on, but by the end of practice they were able to run the offense.  We didn’t get too involved in our defense, but we did manage to work on some drills that would help in man to man defense.  All of the boys worked really hard and were very focused.  This focus and drive hugely benefited us when both teams played a full tournament on Saturday. 

Heading into the weekend, I knew this tournament would be the first tournament we would play opposite of our DAWGS brothers.  We were placed in the same division, but different pools.  The first game of the tournament was against CJBA.  We have played this team twice and have lost two very tight games.  This week proved to be a different story.  I think the team did a great job against the press.  We were very patient thanks to the calming effect Spencer had with the ball in his hands.  Zeki did a nice job attacking the basket when needed and Matt was a beast on the boards.  We pulled out a 7 point victory!!! 

By the time we got to the second game, the DAWGS had locked up their spot in the championship game with two blowouts.  We played a young Reno Baller’s silver team and did not play a great first half, but we still managed to lead by 13.  At half time, I challenged the kids to push the lead to 23 by the end of the third period.  Boy did they rise to the challenge!  I blinked my eyes and we were up 30.  The lead was built by some great shooting by Vince and excellent defense by Evan.  Caden, who was playing in his first tournament with Xtreme, was looking more comfortable and made some great plays!  By the time the final buzzer went off, the boys secured their spot in the championship game with a 41 point win! 

TWO YBA TEAMS IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME!!!  For those of you not familiar with AAU basketball, this is not a common occurrence.  In fact, this is the first time as a coach that I have been involved in this type of scenario.  Coach Martinez, Director Ken Gee and I came together and decided to reward the kids by splitting the teams up and playing the championship game as a YBA Family game.  Coach Martinez and I started out the season with the goal to set up each team so that any player could play on either team and not skip a beat.  This game would be the first time we would be able to put this to the test and we were not disappointed.  We instructed the boys to play as hard as they could against each other, but still go out and have fun.  To their credit, the boys did not fool around. Noah was on fire for Coach Martinez!  He made several layups and his dribbling skills were noticeably improved.  It was all business out there.  Both teams played very hard and wanted to win as did each coach!  The game was very close and went down to the last minute.  After the game we came together as a team in a “Circle of Fire” and cheered each other on.  We ended up taking one big championship picture and what a great picture it was.  It was great seeing two sets of jerseys mixed all together as one YBA family!  

After the game we had our first family dinner at Skipolini’s.  While there was some issues getting our tables together I really enjoyed the night.  The parents were on one side of the restaurant while the players and coaches sat at one big table.  This was great.  We had DAWGS and XTREME players mixed together and bonding.  The boys had a great time eating pizza and being goof balls.  This time at the table allowed Coach Martinez and I to finally sit back and smell the roses.  While we preformed great in the tournament, I think I can speak for both Coach Martinez and myself in saying that we are becoming more proud of how our YBA family is forming as each day passes.  This is what we set out to do from the first day Ken came to me about taking the YBA Xtreme 4^th grade team.  It has been only three short months, but we have the foundation set for what we really wanted to accomplish.  As we were sitting at the players' table we could look down the table and watch the kids treat each other as equals; there were not lines drawn between teams.  We also noticed the same thing with the parents.  Going forward, we plan on having many more of these types of events as we feel they are very beneficial for not only the players, but the parents as well.   

I want to finish by saying that I am so proud of all our boys.  To come into a tournament without even fully learning our offensive or defensive schemes and have the level of success they had, is simply remarkable!  I can’t wait to see these teams play after they have learned the entire scheme.  All of these boys work very hard and should be commended on their efforts and teamwork this week.  What we will continue to build on will be the camaraderie between the teams as well as their basketball foundation and skills.  To the parents, please don’t think that your efforts, dedication and attitudes go unnoticed or unappreciated...I have to thank each and every one of you for trusting us with our plan to mirror our teams and practice together.  I know it may have seemed odd to some of you, but we really believe this will be a huge benefit to all the kids in the program to develop each player in the way that works best for each of them.  Thank you for staying positive and flexible.  Keep filling those emotional tanks!!! 

Sincerely.

Coach Mack 

8th Grade-November 21st

Placer Blazers vs. YBA Xtreme 8^th grade

Sunday morning brought a cold morning a cold gym and a cold start for YBA.  A sluggish warm up transitioned into a sluggish first quarter allowing Placer to grab an early 10 point lead.  YBA woke up a little in the middle of the second quarter and finally took the lead with some strong defensive pressure, defensive end rebounding and some transition baskets by Bret and Parker.  YBA was turnover prone through out this game maybe due to cold hands but never the less YBA turned the ball over again and again allowing Placer to believe they were in this one.  Noah stepped up from the seventh grade team and played a solid game at both ends of the floor both rebounding and scoring on the interior.  And Ish continues to show excellent grit, superior court vision and a talent for turning the game flow in YBA’s favor.  The bench played some solid minutes led by Austin and YBA held on in the final minutes due to some clutch free throws from Parker.  A step in the right direction but YBA still continues to play hard in spurts rather than for 28 minutes of the game and when they do play hard for the full 28 minutes this team will be a tough opponent.  Nice win have a nice Thanksgiving break and be ready to get back to work in practice next week.

Fairfield vs. YBA Xtreme 7^th grade

A slightly warmer gym (but not much) hosted a tough opponent in Fairfield in YBA’s first of two games.  Some early turnovers allowed Fairfield to stay in the game in the first half but YBA turned up the defensive pressure late in the first half and took a lead into halftime.  Noah and Brandon led YBA in the first half owning the defensive glass and controlling the interior on the offensive end.  Cole and Bailey turned in solid performances at the guard positions and Tre and Gauge provided some solid minutes off the bench.  Team defense was outstanding in the second half with two charges taken and the ability to turn the opponent and jump the ball creating turnovers and easy transition baskets allowing YBA to stretch the lead for a comfortable win.  Learning points out of this one:  as a team we need to get into the fast break initial offense quicker and our guards need to do a better job pushing the ball up both the right and left sides of the court and hitting the corner earlier,  also we need to learn our out of bounds plays so we don’t need to waste timeouts to go over them, and we need to run the offense instead of being in a hurry and forcing low percentage shots out of the rhythm of the offense.  Finally we need to get better in our 2-3 zone offense I could not put you back into it as we let Fairfield back into the game as we failed to fulfill our defensive assignments and we gave up to many easy baskets and became complacent we will work on it. Otherwise this was an impressive win.

8^th Grade Placer vs. YBA Xtreme 7^th grade

Ok the gym was a few degrees warmer in this the 12:10 p.m. game but I think hands were still a little cold.  This one got off to a frantic pace with Placer content to apply full court pressure for the majority of the first half and capitalize on quick YBA turnovers for easy transition baskets and a large lead that they maintained the rest of this one.  YBA panicked a little in this one but settled down to do a nice job breaking the press at times for easy transition baskets and once we learn to keep our poise against pressure we will be able to compete better in games like this but that only comes with experience so we will be better the next time we face full court defensive pressure for having experienced it in this game.  YBA needs to get to the positions in the press break quicker and all five players need to fulfill their role or we will fail as a team as we did today.  Guards need to get to their spots and set solid screens and bigs need to flash middle and come to the ball.  We need to realize that the faster we pass the ball the easier it will be to break the pressure but we were content to dribble too much and allowed ourselves to be trapped but we will get better.  Great performances from Noah and Brandon again in this one we made some impressive three point shots in the second half so that was a positive.  We played an older opponent and we did not have our entire team there for this one so it was a good test and a good measuring stick for things we need to improve on.  Thanks to Zach for stepping in and helping us out since we had a small roster with players missing today.  Lessons learned:  need to set up the press break and move the ball not dribble to break the pressure don’t be in such a rush, break the pressure and if we don’t have a lay up set up and run the offense we failed to get into 23/Kentucky once the entire game, be stronger with the ball, and we need to work on our ball handling but a respectable performance we just need to believe in ourselves more and compete like we know we can.  Have a nice Thanksgiving break and be ready to get back to work next week.