4th Grade Team- Week 1

What a great first full week in YBA-Xtreme! The 4th grade team learned a TON! We learned a basic 2-3 zone defense, man to man defense complete with weak side help, our 3 out 2 in motion offense, a basic 2-2-1 full court press and our press break offense. WOW! That’s quite a lot for 9 and 10 year old boys to learn. I put a lot on the table for the kids to learn this week and they more than met the challenge.


Noah had never played any of these except the man to man defense. He really stepped up in practice this week to absorb what he was given. Garrett worked hard and had great focus at practice this week. Zeki was one of our most dedicated workers this week in practice, and it showed. The boys found out how much energy it takes to press the entire game. Zeki was a leader in showing the team how to give 100% effort 100% of the time!

We had a great day as a team this Sunday in our first instructional games. The boys not only learned a lot this week in practice, but more importantly, they were able to apply what they learned in their games. Hot NBA range shooting by Josh got us out to a quick start against a very good and experienced 5th grade team. Shane really battled the bigger stronger 5th graders. He was able to come up with some great rebounds and played good interior defense. Nathan, Chase and Vince made the opposition work HARD to get the ball up the floor. I felt our press is what made it possible for us to win this game. Ryan had some great shots and had a good feel for passing the ball. We really worked on spacing on offense this week and Sava was asked to play a couple positions he hadn’t practiced. He did a great job filling those roles and being coached on the fly. And how can I forget about Spencer. I asked Spencer to run the point a few times, and he did a super job! Spencer has a great feel for the game and made all the right passes. What a great example of teamwork to end the first game. Trailing by 1 with 7.6 seconds left, Nathan stole the ball, provided an outlet to Josh, Josh pushed the ball up the court and fired a perfect pass to Vince streaking up the floor, who converted the layup for the game winner. This type of trust in your teammates usually doesn’t occur this fast. I’m so proud of how the team kept their composure and how they never ever gave up. The 5th grade team is a well coached team with some terrific players. Each team deserves a pat on the back. It was a well played game. Thank you to all the competitors.

The late game provided a good opportunity to work on both our offensive and defensive sets. The boys knew not to take the well coached 3rd grade tournament team lightly. Our boys played hard all game. Zeki and Spencer were constantly able to penetrate and many times made excellent passes to open players.

I’m really proud of all our boys this week. I set high expectations for each and every one of these boys and they did everything that was asked of them. Please take a moment to really congratulate your son on his focus, effort and performance this week. We have another tough schedule this week. We’ll be training for the first time, and I will be layering onto what we have already learned. Remember our team motto, “100%, 100% of the Time.” All of our boys LIVED that motto this week. I’ll be asking they do the same going forward as I now know they are capable of doing so!

I’m so excited for what lies ahead for not only our team, but the entire YBA-Xtreme program. I stayed at the Hardwood facility all day Sunday and watched every level of basketball. What a wonderful group of coaches and kids we have assembled. I observed quite a bit of coaching and teaching going on in each and every game. You simply cannot find that level of basketball education in the area.

My favorite part of our first full week was seeing all the smiles on the boys’ faces. That is what it is ALL about at the end of the day!

Coach Bob Mack