I feel blessed!
This is a tough one. But after thinking about it for the past couple of days, I think it's only fair to share what I think about PAL.
PAL exists for one primary reason: to get kids off the street and busy participating in sports. It's about sports for kids, and though the games result in winners and losers, the quality level is not a priority. Neither is the officiating. I've seen that lead to serious problems, including injuries. But the worst thing is a team that splinters. I'll explain.
1. No referee training.
When my nephew Josh played PAL flag football, the officiating was atrocious sometimes. One day, one of the police officers explained to me that they used to train their referees, but those trainees later got recruited by Pop Warner, etc., for better money. PAL doesn't have a budget to pay that kind of money. It's basically a volunteer league. So PAL STOPPED TRAINING THEIR REFEREES.
2. High injury risk.
I helped coach my nephew's PAL basketball team one year. This was in 1999 or so. One day, five of our kids got hurt in a game against a bunch of rough kids. They had kids who were huge and our guys were getting piled on during loose balls. The other team's kids were actually rolling over our guys, then rolling back on them over and over. I asked the referee to stop this, and he had this crazy look in his eyes and told me, "You making stuff up, Coach! You making stuff up!"
We had kids getting hurt bad enough that they couldn't continue playing. Getting pretzeled. And the guys in charge were borderline mentally incapable of keeping kids safe. I never let Josh play in PAL again after that. Never regretted that decision. It led to him playing in KAC, which was where we started our Thunder team.
Kyle played in PAL a few years ago. It was so rough, they broke his collarbone. It's just not worth it!
3. Spirit of PAL.
PAL does not allow "club" teams to enter. The spirit of the league is about giving kids with no teams to play on an organized setting, so there are a lot of novice-level players, teams that are just trying to get experience on the court. That's why I saw a lot of games at PAL where some teams would run up the score and win by 60, 70 or 80 points.
So why would any PAL team have three or four (or more) guys from an outside (club) team? That goes against the spirit of PAL.
For guys who go there, there's absolutely NOTHING to be gained by playing in a league like that. Winning (or losing) by 60 points always turns out to be a waste of time and energy. That time would've been better spent practicing, working on your shot, free throws, conditioning and scrimmaging against each other.
I know the temptation to dominate other teams is always there, but I know for a fact that beating weak, inexperienced, less-talented teams by 50 in every game is useless for our guys. Playing in competitive leagues (CAL, PAA, NJB All-Net, Aiea) against solid teams and future high-school (and college) players on a regular basis makes us better as a team. It raises the intelligence level as an athlete. It challenges us to improve and prepare for the next level.
PAL is not going to do that.
4. Choices.
I'm not going to stop any of us from going to play in PAL. That's an individual decision. But please understand, we've had an issue in the past with SPLINTERING. A couple of years ago, just before we were about to start a new league in 17U, one of our coaches put another team into another league. It was a good way for the guys from Roosevelt to get playing time together exclusively during the summer.
At the time, I didn't think it was a totally bad idea. But what it did was split our team in half on those game days and we were on the verge of forfeiting games many times.
Looking back now, I realize it was one of the worst things that happened to our 17U. It took us a long, long time to recover from that. Even though we were playing in tons of leagues and playing tons of games, our 17U splintered and we lost chemistry and unity. Though intentions were good, the result was negative for that group of guys.
If some of our guys go off to play in a PAL league, it's almost a guarantee that there will be scheduling conflict issues again. Our Thunder start playing in Aiea, CAL and PAA leagues in December and January. Three leagues on different nights of the week. There are going to be scheduling problems if there's another league that some of our guys play in. I don't want to have those problems ever again. It's not worth the stress, especially after seeing our guys practice hard and work together for so long as one team, as Thunder brothers.
5. Free is not always good.
PAL is free. There is no entry fee. No insurance fees. But often times, you get what you pay for. While we're practicing and working hard, PAL doesn't train their people. They don't have an obligation to make sure kids have the best possible referees. In fact, because their referees are working for almost nothing, didn't get trained, the effort is often not there to try their best and officiate well.
You see the PAL ref who walks while the teams are on a fastbreak? It's human nature. His heart isn't in it.
6. Scheduling clutter.
I'm not against PAL. It's just a different level that suits a different kind of team and player. We're going to be busy. Plenty busy.
With Aiea League changing its format, allowing all 8th graders to play, that means our guys who are turning (or already turned) 14 years old are going to be much busier.
Our games are going to be on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Not necessarily games on five days/nights in a row, but it's could happen. When we do get a rare day off, we're going to practice or rest. Last year, we had more games than practices. As a whole, we had about 175 games, which was up from about 120 the year before.
For our guys who are/were 13 years old or younger, they played about 100 to 120 games in an eight-month span of 2013. That was fun. But once league games start, we lose too much practice time — shooting reps, especially — because of so many games. I don't want to lose any more practice time.
The typical schedule once we start league play again will be practice on a Monday and/or Tuesday. Then there will be a game on Wed or Thur, then usually games on Fri, Sat and Sun. Sometimes there will be two games, even three (15U starts in February) on some days. Then Sundays will be car wash days or shooting practice at McCully gym.
I'd rather have a day of practice than lose it for a PAL game.
Why such a long post about PAL?
Because there's more to it than just playing a game there once or twice a week. If you play for the Thunder, your teammates have full trust in you. I have full trust in you. Your parents and coaches are putting in valuable time to drive you to practice and back home. The sweat and time you put in is not just for yourself, but for your teammates. And if we have anybody who misses Thunder games, that's going to hurt our unity and commitment to each other. That would be sad. We've done a lot of great things as a team and we're still growing every day!
I've seen the problems of a splintered team before, so I had to speak up on this. Hopefully, you guys understand where I'm coming from.
For the guys who insist on playing in PAL or other leagues, again, I'm not going to stop you. Making choices is part of growing up, and you're never going to make everybody happy.
But please realize that the time we all put in for our teammates is crucial. We have one heart as a team. Time goes on, we keep working, having fun as a brotherhood. We make sacrifices for each other, we're a better team and better people for it.
Those guys who left? They really missed out.
WE LUB THIS GAAAAME!
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