Turned in the rosters and entry fees for the NJB Summer Classic. The tournament director agreed to hold off on cashing the check today, and assuming my transaction clears tomorrow, things should be OK. The teams in 17U and 12U boys divisions will be competitive.
Our 17U team is mostly 16U, in reality, with a sprinkling of younger players. In other words, we won't be facing any team like Lanakila (last week), which was loaded with recent graduates who were 18 years old. But the 17U is always highly competitive, as always. We did respectable last year with a team mostly of 15-year-olds.
Our 12U has the potential to do well. We're still a new group, still building chemistry. Being in 12U also means we won't have Sifo to count on for offensive production and versatility. (Sifo is on the 17U roster). How far can 12U go? We have a lot of heart, pretty good athleticism and one month of experience and chemistry together. We've got long-range shooters, penetrators and rebounders on both ends of the floor. It will be an interesting tournament, no question.
The 14U roster didn't work out. Some of our current 14-year-olds didn't meet the cutoff standard (14 as of Sept. 1), so that team only had three or four players. Instead of moving the 12U up to 14U, we decided to keep them at 12U and be highly competitive. We've been in leagues and tournaments this year where we were one, two and even three years younger than most of our opponents. 12U will give us a chance to see where we stack up against some of the state's best teams.
Practice today was solid. We got some on-ball, 1-on-1 dribbling drills in, then scrimmaged halfcourt in man-to-man defense for about one hour before the rain shortened practice. It was fine to end there; we don't want to overwork the day before the 13U playoff game against HomeGrown (CAL League).
Most of the 13U team was there today, similar to Sunday. Like Sunday, Isaiah and Bryson were the only 17U players to show up for practice. We've got one week until the NJB Classic, and with a multitude of players on the roster, I don't plan on suiting up everyone for the tourney. The guys who don't show up for practice are going to be OFF the tournament roster. As always, players with desire will stick it out. Everyone else will weed themselves off.
I lub this game!
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