I've never really written about this before, though our players and parents have talked about it. When any other team tries to steal or poach our players, I used to let it go. OTB. Open Court. Lanakila. Maybe other teams, I don't know, but those three for sure.
But I've had enough. Lanakila already tried to take Chris and Tani from us before. Chris said he told their coaches NO. Tani ran the other way. I love our guys no matter what, but when they're loyal and appreciate their teammates and coaches, I love them that much more.
Kyle wanted to play with older players in 17U and we didn't have a 17U team last year, so I gave him my blessing when he went to play with Lanakila. But he made sure that he NEVER played against the Thunder. He still played with us in Kalani varsity league and 15U when he could.
Now Lanakila is poaching one of our other players and he plans to play against us in CAL League. He still wants to play with us in other leagues.
I've never let any of our guys two-time us before and it's not going to start now. Brotherhood means something, and if you can't learn it at 13 or 14, then it won't happen later. The guys who have asked to come back to us missed a rare chance to be part of something special.
I don't know of any other team, especially one as small as ours that does this:
• has three freshmen playing varsity basketball (and I think Tani should've been on varsity last year AND this year). That's not because of coaches and parents. That's because those guys worked their butts off when nobody's around to watch.
• played in 150 games this year and 120 games last year.
• has great parents who are positive and have never gotten reprimanded by leagues or referees.
* has coaches who are willing to pick players up no matter how close or far.
We do this because we love our Thunder. If anyone wants to walk away from that, it's sad and breaks my heart. But we aren't going to let these other teams poach and steal from us anymore without speaking up, and I'm going to speak up on the coaches who smile to my face and pull stunts like that behind our backs.
The Sharks were banned this coming year from CAL for openly trying to steal players from other teams at gym before/after games. A lot of coaches got sick and tired of their ways. I'd heard about it, but I never knew it was that bad until I heard about the ban.
OTB and Open Court were banned permanently from CAL awhile back for various reasons. Lanakila isn't much different from them, just more sneaky.
If you think double-crossing your basketball ohana is a great idea, just remember this: Sleep with dogs, wake up with fleas.
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