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 4th 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
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