First, a reminder that we have practice on Sunday (today) at 3 p.m., Kahala Park.
OK, guys, I apologize that I didn't find this info sooner, but I have been smashed with work and a little bit sick recently. Much better now, though.
Here's info sent by the folks who run the Aiea Blazers Basketball Tournament and the NJB All-Net League. First, the Aiea tourney.
Aiea Blazers Spring Basketball Tournament
Division:
15-under
Thursday, March 27 to Sunday, April 3, 2011
Aiea District Park Gym (next to Aiea High School)
Entry Fee: $250
Fee Deadline: March 1
Tournament Director: Rob Godinez III
Notes: There is a list of rules I'll print out for our team to read. Includes: no dunking during pre-game or halftime.
NJB All-Net Basketball League
Divisions: 11U, 13U,
15U, 17U (eligibility date as of 9/1/2011)
Age Verification: Coaches must have on their person at the games proof the player's age. This means you must bring a copy of your birth certificate to me to hold for the entire season or they will not let you play.
April 1 to May 29, 2011
Entry Fee: $450
All paperwork due to NJB by March 12, 2011
Notes: No player can play in more than one division (age group). I know that's a bummer for some of our sophomores, but that's the rule. We can still practice together, which is probably the better advantage — still going up against older, smarter, stronger, faster players. The league has reserved a spot in the 15U division for us. I have requested that the allow us into the 17U division, too, now that we've gotten interest from older players. I hope to find out about the 17U soon.
Also, we're on the wait list for the
Ikaika Basketball League (12th-grade and under). They had their organizational meeting already, after I found that we had some nice interest from the older players. If this were summer, it would be easier to have more than one team, but for now, I'm willing to give our players every chance to play in leagues, and then see where things go from there. In a way, it would be cool to get into Ikaika so that our NJB All-Net 15U players could play on a second team with older teammates and competition. If we got into both NJB All-Net 17U
and Ikaika 12th-grade league, it's a win-win for our younger and older players. I've never coached three teams at once before, so it would be a cool first.
There are registration/waiver forms for each player to fill out, and I'll have those printed out for parents. It's humbug, but a necessity for any quality league or tournament. I've run leagues (men's) and tournaments (men's) before and it's no fun on that side of it, too. We're just blessed to have a chance to play in great events and leagues. There are kids in some parts of this state who don't get this kind of opportunity.
Finally, I am handling the costs for entry fees and jerseys. It's my give-back for all the times coaches helped me as a poor kid growing up in McCully-Mo'ili'ili. I owe them an immeasurable amount. Coach Dwight Kaai. Coach Dwight Sato. Coach Miles Ogawa and Tom Costain at Kaimuki High School. Coach Pat Foster, who helped us out even though he wasn't a basketball coach.
Of course, if there's time, we might have a fundraiser and do something fun at the end of the season like Dave & Buster's or whatever the guys want. A party to have fun, watch game videos and just chill out. It'll be more fun if we score 80 points a game, but we can talk about that later.
Speaking of later ...
This summer, we'll be in the great
Compete & Learn (CAL) League again, the same one from last fall at McKinley. Love that shot clock! Also, I'll be looking into travel opportunities, possibly to the Big Island for the
Kona Stingrays Tournament. Coach Bobbie and Donny are old, old friends of mine (I used to work/live there). We used to run the men's league together back before they were coaches.
As for traveling to the mainland, I would love it, but only if everybody is on board, no pun intended. If you guys want to play on the mainland, speak up, let me know, and we can explore the possibilities.
Aloha,
Coach Paul
