Inside a Youth Hoops Association PLUS Wolves lose AGAIN & Gophers fall in BTT

The Minnesota Youth Athletic Services Grade State basketball tournament marks the end of the winter season for thousands of players across Minnesota. But while the players finally get a break, the work for local board members never stops. In this episode, we’re pulling back the curtain on the logistical "mountain" behind youth sports—from gym-space wars to the emotional intensity of tryout week.

Joining the show are veteran board members Kristi Hicks and Sara Schwartz. We discuss the "shop talk" that happens when association leaders from different communities get together to navigate the challenges of running a program. 

In this episode:

• The Mission: Why the focus is on a "growth mindset" and ensuring every kid from 3rd to 8th grade has a place to play. 
• The Logistical Puzzle: Balancing gym schedules between varsity sports, JO volleyball, and community ed in a crowded district. Why tournament scheduling begins in June and the behind-the-scenes chaos of hosting a home event. 
• The Coaching Debate: The reality of recruiting volunteer coaches versus the challenges of finding and hiring paid professionals. 
• The Truth About Tryouts: Navigating evaluation models, the "48-hour rule," and why early team placements don't define a player's long-term ceiling. 
• The Human Element: A look at the "emotional labor" and thousands of volunteer hours put in by board members to keep the game alive. 

Whether you’re a parent curious about where registration fees go or a coach looking for perspective on association checklists, this episode offers a candid look at the people behind the program.

Plus I start the show off with a few thoughts on the Timberwolves falling again in LA, this time to the Clippers. The 3rd loss in a row is a concerning point as the NBA playoffs loom and as seeding in the Western Conference tightens up. 

And the Minnesota Golden Gophers Men's basketball team falls in the opening round of the Big Ten Tournament. A costly run of empty possessions in the 2nd half doom the team that had little margin of error the past 2-3 months. 

It's all in this episode of the Splash City Basketball Podcast! 

Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or YouTube. 

Follow Splash City Basketball Podcast on Instagram, Facebook and Bluesky. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Bag in there, back in there, back again. Whoa, whoa, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 0:08

Hey everyone, and welcome back to the Splash City Basketball Podcast. It is Thursday, March 12th, busy week. We have girls' state basketball tournament. The last pod I did, we talked to Cassidy Hedesheimer from the Star Tribune talking about uh players to watch, teams to watch, matchups we're excited for. So check that one out. Um, and make sure you follow and subscribe to YouTube, uh, Instagram, Facebook, Blue Sky, and you know, wherever you get your podcasts, of course. Um, got an in-person event coming up for March Madness soon. So I want to make sure you all know about that. Uh, we'll be broadcasting live from Back Channel Brewing in Spring Park, Minnesota during um the March Madness event. I'm still dialing in Thursday or Friday, but that's where we'll be one of those days. So you won't want to miss that. So make sure you uh stay tuned, follow on social so you know what uh all the updates and the times and things like that. So really excited for that event. Um, today's episode, we're gonna talk to some members of a youth basketball association. Um, the youth season for the winter is kind of wrapping up here for most teams. And I think there's a lot of elements to running an association. There's a lot of work, volunteer time, effort, resources put into that just to make a great experience for young people to enjoy the game of basketball. And so I brought a couple of uh my local association members on to get their thoughts and feedback, things that they hear when they're out and about at tournaments and talking to other folks at other associations. So hopefully that's really insightful and helpful for a lot of you out there, especially parents of uh youth players, because um there is a lot of uh time and resources devoted to that. And so I think it's important that we all remember uh the work and the people behind that. And if you're not volunteering today, uh maybe that'll motivate you to do so. So um, but first in uh the initial segment, I want to talk briefly about the wolves and gophers. Uh, both suffer disappointing losses. Timberwolves really never uh had a chance. They just didn't. Um, you know, there was a late push in the third quarter, thought maybe they'd get back into it, but Kawhi Leonard was just too much last night. Defense was non-existent for the Timberwolves, and uh Gophers just felt like you know, maybe uh their their uh six-man rotation kind of caught up to them, um, didn't quite have the the juice last night. And uh Rutgers, uh to their to their credit, played played better. So we'll talk briefly about that before we talk youth basketball associations. And with that, let's get into it. All right, this first segment I want to devote a few minutes to the Timberwolves losing their second game of this four-game road trip out west to the LA Clippers. Um, and Kawhi comes out and he's hot early and he scores 45. You know, there's not much really you could do. Um, we've seen Chris Finch attack other stars with double teams and try to get the ball out of their hands a little bit, but um Kawhi was just super efficient. Uh he got, I know he got a couple on kick outs off of rebounds, he got a couple transition shots. Um, he was going to the body of Rudy, and Rudy was unable to deter that shot. Uh Kawhi's arms length uh playing a factor there, but took 20 shots, scored 45 points, nine of ten at the line. He was six of nine from three. Um would have been nice to see some tactic there to slow him down. You know, the wolves had the lead down to um, I think it was about nine or ten going into the fourth. And there was moments where they could have cut it closer. They just couldn't couldn't really make any any headway um defensively. They just couldn't slow the clippers down. It felt like anytime they got a couple of stops in a row, there was bad offensive possessions. And that goes back to um what I said the other day on the podcast about moving the ball. And yeah, Anthony Edwards scores 36 points, and that's great. Uh, but Jaden, Rudy, Dante to all took six shots or fewer. Um Nas Reed had a nice game, so that was that was helpful uh to see him put the ball in the basket. And Bones played a solid game, so it wasn't really the bench guys so much as it was um, and even offensively, I don't even know if there's that much to complain about um outside of Julius' three for ten. Um, but that turnover stretch in the beginning of the game was just killer. Um, you know, they got behind early, and it kind of just again, uh you know, I mentioned this the other day, but to me, this the tone setting of this team is is where I worry. Like there is just no um, you know, hey, we had a bad game in the Lakers. Let's come out and lock in, take care of the ball, uh, get back to who we are on the defensive end. And there's just very little pushback on any of that. Um, so things can just kind of, you know, they won the second quarter, they lost the third by two. So the middle two quarters are competitive, but when you come out and the the tone is set that we're giving up 38 points and we're gonna turn the ball over, uh, they have 21 turnovers, you know, and the Clippers aren't a great team, but they're playing team. Uh they're playing well lately. Uh they've been playing well for a while now, after a s really, really slow start. But um, you know, Jaden's of minus 40, Rudy's a minus 38. And those are your two defensive stalwarts. Um, that that can't happen. Really disappointing again. Now I said if they can go two and two on this road trip, they get the Warriors.

SPEAKER_03 5:58

Um and they get the Warriors and the Thunder. Now you win those two and you go two and two on this road trip.

SPEAKER_04 6:15

You know, that that might feel good, especially if if the last game is uh uh Oklahoma City. Now that's a noon game. Uh and we know the wolves have kind of struggled in these afternoon games. So that that's uh that one is one to watch. Uh, you know, you go one for one and three in these games, then then you almost have to win that next group with Phoenix, Utah, Portland. You have to win those three. Um, you'd be four and three in that seven-game span. So um would love to see the wolves come out Friday at Golden State with a little more movement uh offensively, um, get other guys involved, get Dante going, get Jaden some easy shots, get some confidence, um, find a way to get Julius going. I mean, he's just kind of been scuffling, um, whether it's you know his ISO or even his his three, his uh catch and shoot threes. That what you know last year was really good down the stretch, and he's kind of struggled uh shooting the three ball the last few games. And so um they they gotta find some rhythm early and set the tone because uh whatever they're whatever they're doing right now just ain't working. Uh Julius took one three the other night, he was 0 for 1. Um, and and just gotta find a rhythm. Gotta find a rhythm for these other guys. Um, a lot of times, you know, that defense and offense is tied together. Um and so I think that that's really key against the Warriors. And and that's a team that hopefully we can we can find a little more rhythm there. Uh kind of a goofy matchup. But um we'll see. We'll see how that goes. Uh the other game uh briefly want to touch on Gophers men's basketball team loses their Big Ten tournament opener. Um disappointing just in the fact that they were the top, you know, the favorite. They were uh the 11th seed playing a 14. Now they have blown out Rutgers. I was at that game at Williams Arena a couple weeks ago. Um, and they just that game shot really well. Uh this game they didn't shoot quite as well. Uh I think you know they they did the best they could. Uh, but again, to me it's it's a turnover situation where they second half had a had the game was close and they turned it over a few times in a row. I think there was like four straight possessions, and you lose by five. And that's the difference in the ballgame. So they're I was telling my son, their their margin for error is just so small when you're playing those same six guys with limited um with limited uh athleticism, right? Like, you know, Bobby Durkin can basically do one thing. He does it really well. Um, but if they if Rutgers changes anything and you got to adapt, they don't have a lot of guys that can do that. Um, you know, Grayson Grove plays super hard. He's getting really he's getting a lot better at finishing. He's a great passer. Um, but uh, you know, for struggles at the free throw line. So easy baskets for your inside guys are hard to find. They don't have any rim protection, so they have to execute their zone perfectly to avoid certain uh passes into the high post or to the short corner, because as you saw last night, there were some uh a lot of easy dunks for a bole in the middle. Uh, and so you know that those are the small things that changed from the last game against Rutgers. Um, I again you're three starters down, not many teams are gonna survive that. I think winning eight games in the Big Ten is is uh is a good thing uh for Minnesota, but the the difference last night was the turnovers. Um Rutgers has 10, Gophers have 15. That's at least uh, you know, could be a 10-point difference there. And when you lose by five, that that kills you. So uh more on them probably this weekend, uh kind of do a recap. We'll see if they get to any postseason tournaments. Uh, I I don't know that that's gonna be possible, but we'll see. Uh, but we'll talk more about that later. Uh coming up next, let's talk some youth basketball with Christy and Sarah. Thousands of kids and teams across Minnesota are wrapping up their grade state tournament. Uh, my son's team just wrapped up our weekend. Some seventh and eighth graders are coming up this weekend. So the winter season's almost at an end, but I know for a lot of associations and the board members on those associations, it never really stopped. So today I wanted to look at the work that goes into putting together a youth basketball organization. I know there's a lot of parents, uh players, coaches, even myself as a coach. I don't know everything that the association does. So joining me today are two board members from the local association in my community, the West Tonka Youth Basketball Association, Christy Hicks, Sarah Schwartz happen to be coaches as well. So I'm sure you have, you know, lots of free time in the winter. But um thank you both for joining.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

Thank you. Yeah, thanks for having us. Happy to be here.

SPEAKER_04 11:13

Uh, so just want to start off, just in general, um, what what do you guys kind of think of when you think of the goal or the the mission of the association? Yeah, go first.

SPEAKER_02 11:25

Yeah. Um, you know, I think really we're looking to provide awesome opportunities for kids that are curious about the sport of basketball, that are looking to develop as players and really also come around and sub around and come next to coaches as well to make sure that we're fostering an environment where it's a growth mindset environment so that kids are being introduced to sports or this particular sport with a positive mindset associated with it. So I think it's not just about the fundamentals, but there's the intentional around the psychology around it too, so that we're creating a healthy environment for kids to play in.

SPEAKER_00 12:09

And to make sure all of them have the opportunity to play and to be part of something bigger than they are. I think you can we think you can learn a lot from being on a team. And so one of the things that our board really tries to do is give a spot for every kid to have us to be on a team throughout third through eighth grade. So every kid's important to us and we want them to all walk away, their families to walk away, having had a good experience or positive experience at the at least.

SPEAKER_04 12:34

For sure. And you guys have been on the board for five years. Uh so has that changed? Like have you had to reevaluate over time from what maybe what you thought initially when you first joined uh the board and versus today, now that you've kind of seen it uh, you know, through the five years or so that your your sons have been playing?

SPEAKER_00 12:56

Yeah, I think um we were both at our first board meeting when her son was in second and my son was in third grade and really didn't know what to expect at all. Then also at that same meeting we were became coaches too. So that was exciting there. Yeah. But I think we would leave and the people on the board back then were awesome. They did everything like they knew what they were doing. And as a new person, sometimes you're like, oh, is that really what we should be doing? And then as you've been on the board, you're like, yeah, that early is what we should be doing for all these things that are happening. You just kind of see it and you're like, oh, it makes sense. But right away, when when you're part of something new, you're your brain's always moving, but you have to sometimes give it a little bit of space to figure out like why it's happening before trying to change something. That you have text back and forth, like, oh, this makes sense now. Like, oh, I get it. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:45

That's that sounds like a little pitch to people who uh have big opinions, join the board and and get involved and then see it all come together, right?

SPEAKER_00 13:53

Well, yeah, so ideas for sure, but like it all they all have to work together.

SPEAKER_02 13:59

I think like any organization like business or other sports organizations or whatever communities your subcultures you're part of, everybody has their own language and way of being, and you might use your internal language when trying to have an external conversation from like a marketing perspective. And I think once you get in and have a little bit of experience, you're like, oh, now this all makes sense, you know?

SPEAKER_04 14:23

Sure. Sure. So as you guys talk to other, you know, whether it's coaches or people who are part of other associations, I think, you know, one of the things that we were we were talking about earlier was just like how challenges are not unique to any one group. So what when you talk to them, like are they facing similar things? Um, are there things that you guys share and say, oh, well, we do it this way. How do you guys run this? Or how do you do tryouts? We do it this way. Um, what are the big topics that people want to talk about?

SPEAKER_00 14:53

Tryouts. The cost of how everything like the costs.

SPEAKER_03 14:59

Okay, sure.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

A lot of times like gym time and space and how all of that works. Paid coaches, not paid coaches, tournament circles, so let's talk about the coaches.

SPEAKER_04 15:13

No, that's okay. Uh let's talk about the coaches piece. Like, because we are volunteer based uh at our association. Um, what are the pluses and minuses of paid versus um volunteer?

SPEAKER_00 15:27

Uh we actually do have two paid coaches in our association for eighth grade. So eighth and seventh grade used to be run through like our school middle school basketball. There's paid coaches a lot of years ago, before before even before we were on the board, many years ago.

SPEAKER_01 15:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

Um and then when it switched, I think some eighth grade and seventh grade coaches, again previous to us, would get paid. And then that just kind of got phased off. So in our board, I believe our bylaws, we if there's no coaches for eighth grade, you can pay a coach for eighth grade. Um, so then we try to find volunteers for everything else. You would think finding a paid coach would be easy, and it's really not easy. And that's a common theme throughout associations. Yeah. Like a lot of co associations, they might some have it's really interesting. Some do like a paid coach for their top team in seventh and eighth grade, and then the other teams are volunteer-based. Some do only paid coaches for a certain grade, and some parents like that, but they also said sometimes if you have great parents in a program, a paid coach isn't always better. Um, so I think there's a lot of opinions. I feel really lucky the coaches we've had that are paid are great. Um, they're they're awesome where they're eighth graders, but yeah, there's not like a one, there's not a right or a wrong. I it's it's hard to find parent coaches sometimes or paid coaches, actually. So I don't know. True.

SPEAKER_02 16:46

Yeah, we we sit in meetings at all levels and are trying to find like, okay, who's gonna, we don't have coaches for this grade. What's the plan? Who knows people who can we reach out to? Um and I think also, you know, you think about people that are interested or curious about the work that a that a board does or are curious about coaching. Oh, well, I haven't played before or I don't know a lot about the game. And I think for anybody who's, you know, listening and curious about that, I would just encourage somebody to get involved and ask a lot of questions because you can have you can have from a coaching perspective, you might have played the game, but it's a different skill set to coach. And I think it's a different skill set to particularly coach, you know, like third through eighth grade. It's just it's it's about how are you communicating in short phrases motivating. Um, I don't want to get into the weeds on that, but from a coaching perspective, I just think there's a lot of different strengths that people can bring to that environment. And it's not one person doing it by themselves. And then from a board perspective, if you're curious about it or frustrated or excited about uh the community part of it, I I would just encourage someone to get involved because it's a really fun, it's a really fun space to be in and it's a great group of people that not just care about the sport, but really care about the players and the families involved too.

SPEAKER_04 18:17

Yeah. Yeah, you guys were we were talking about um the board members in our association, how everyone has a job, right? Like there's no shortage of things to do. So if someone's interested in helping out and they don't maybe they don't know the game well enough, they don't want to coach, there's other other skill sets that the associations would be looking for, right?

SPEAKER_00 18:38

Yes. And also if you I when I say anyone can coach, I don't mean that as a slam against coaches. I think coaches are amazing. Like I love coaching. If you are someone who has a passion for like learning or helping third and fourth graders, the more parents, more coaches, the better. And you might not be a high school or college basketball star, but like having a parent out there able to like put an ice pack on someone's hand or like make sure they know what circle to stand on. Like that's a good way to just get involved with the younger ones, and sometimes your knowledge can build up or you can keep helping. I I I don't know a lot of associations ever turning away coaches that way to try to help.

SPEAKER_04 19:20

Yeah, I highly doubt that, right? Um, yeah, I mean, there's a saying in amongst coaches that it's Jimmy's and Joes and not X's and O's. And so if you can get all the kids going the right direction or the same direction, you're winning. Uh you know, as a you know, you're being successful.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:38

Um the other thing you talked about was gym space. And and I know uh we have our uh challenges, I guess, with gym space, but I I I kind of think that everyone probably does to some degree. There's just more participation, especially in um, you know, youth associations, like we have lots of teams, but like, you know, as soon as you build a new gym in another school district, they probably fill that thing up and have things scheduled all the time. So what what is that um, you know, as you work with other, you know, like this time of year, it's baseball, softball practicing in the indoors, or could be volleyball, jail, volleyball, and stuff like that. So how do you how do you kind of work that? I know Sarah, you do a lot of the scheduling and stuff. So how do how does that kind of play into play in nice with all the other teams and coaches?

SPEAKER_00 20:26

Well, I only schedule the tournaments, so I don't have to do the practices.

SPEAKER_04 20:29

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 20:30

We have one person that does that, and I don't know, he it's a full-time job. So he has to work along with so we have 20, what do you say, 24 teams? And then we have like in our district seven full-size basketball courts and three elementary size ones that as you get older are pretty difficult to practice on. So he has to what we need and want with JO volleyball. Um, there's like adult basketball, adult volleyball, community ed basketball, all of those things, plus our varsity basketball teams, their levels. So he um he likes every we get in a schedule about what, seven to ten days out, which is the best that they can do. Like there's nothing earlier. I know some districts are lucky or associations are lucky, they can schedule things like at all the same, but we just don't have that that ability here. Um, but he does a great job, like working hard to ask what practices can be combined with different teams that work well together, like we practice together, um, who can go early or late in different in different spaces like that. But he is always scheduling.

SPEAKER_02 21:35

Yeah, and I think I I think there are challenges across any size district. Um, I think what's unique can be unique about a smaller school maybe versus a larger district is you're often competing in the same tournaments, right? So we're not just playing schools that are the same size as ours. So on average, what we've two, maybe three practices. practices a week, but oftentimes you're playing against other teams that might be getting gym space four times a week. You know, so I that poses some challenges, but I think we talk to to you know even to players about it. What we we can we only have control over so much, right? So you make the most of the time that you have and work hard within the parameters that um that you're given. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:31

Yeah I mean so so more isn't always better. I mean I think all of us would love to practice more and do all that but like kids are kids too, right? Like um you know there's some some I would say positivity about having a day or two off where they don't have to you know go run killers. Uh not that anyone would ever make the kids run killers at this time. Right.

SPEAKER_00 22:53

Running Runny makes them better. It's something they love to do.

SPEAKER_04 22:57

So that's the track coach this is a track coach. Yes I know I know I know um how about uh uh so Sarah you talked about the the tournament scheduling what um I know there's been some years where we've gone you know a little way we're you know we're lucky we're in the metro there's lots of tournaments fairly close by within an hour or so but um like for instance this year our team was we we were really pretty close to home probably a lot of tournaments within 20 30 minutes right Christy like um and then there's been other years where we've gone a little farther is it strictly like you know I know you're balancing a lot you're balancing you know fees whether you can get a spot um you don't want to play like six weekends in a row when it's third grade maybe versus older kids it's that's maybe a you know a little bit better. So like what are all the different factors that you're dealing with when you're talking about tournament scheduling um well it's gotten easier since it's all been online.

SPEAKER_00 23:54

Like the first year I had to mail in papers and write checks and challenging to me. But I try to make a schedule at least for I look at our school district schedule since the majority of our students that are playing are in our school district and try to like black out when there's four day weekends or I I know families want to travel, right? And I don't think use sports to double your life. So do that. We actually start scheduling our tournaments in June where like as soon as it opens, it's usually around June fourth and some of the tournaments fill up like that just so fast, which is why like sorry, sorry June for the next winter.

SPEAKER_04 24:31

Okay. Just wanted to be clear that so everybody understands that that's what's going on.

SPEAKER_00 24:35

So and you're scheduling it before we know our team. So I like look the record of every team from the year before like what percent they won in each level to try to determine if it's I mean it might not be the same players obviously but about the same level of team like where they should play. So then we're guessing on that and then you schedule tournaments and um and our parent feedback has been that they like one day tournaments a lot, close tournaments, um the right level tournaments which I mean you know it's A, B, and C. And some B teams play C that are B, you know and other associations, you know it's never perfect because you you're scheduled like I said. And then you just do the best you can and try to piece it together and hope that if there's a mistake like we had to cancel a team because some of our kids got brought up to high school like we can get our refunds back for that. Or if teams are playing at the wrong level because you'd scheduled it so far and you know you have to schedule that far in advance if tournaments will work with you. So it's like a big puzzle.

SPEAKER_02 25:34

But I don't know so it's a big puzzle but I've never met somebody that puts more time and thought into it than well I want it to be good for everybody. Then Sarah I think you really called out um and I think it's important for curious minds who want to know there is so much thought that goes into it. I mean Sarah just alluded to it but like if you really sit with that it is a giant a giant puzzle and in some ways it's almost an impossible task because it's really hard to make everybody happy and then you heard Sarah say it's A, B, and C level tournaments wealth we can speak to you have grades that have four teams in them. I think one time we had five so the goal obviously isn't to travel an hour to play your own team right to play a to play your um a team within your same grade but sometimes those scenarios are out of our control as well. So there's just a lot to it.

SPEAKER_04 26:37

Yeah well kudos Sarah um not just because you're on the podcast but it is it is crazy and I I do uh feel like it's uh for the most part I don't I don't have any complaints about you know most of the tournaments we played in so um speaking of tournaments we most associations host one uh it's usually like their biggest fundraiser right for their association um what are the most common challenges with that what are the things that uh people get mostly most worked up about when it comes to hosting a tournament um well for us I think it is that we only have we we are very lucky and to have six great gyms in our space.

SPEAKER_00 27:22

So nice yeah which is awesome but six gyms to compare to some other places you you it's harder to schedule things because you don't have like 10, right? So we have to decide how many hours and how six games per hour and all of this. And then the other thing I think for us is a challenge is trying to make it so we have the right levels for all of our teams to play in it. Um like historically our associations had a BC tournament which is great. Like we have had that's a lot of success with that. But then some of our teams are like we added third grade into travel or our teams are playing different levels. Oh so trying to get um teams to come to that and having the right teams enter and so like basically what we do is we open it all up at all the levels and then if four teams enter we'll sometimes add extra teams to that because it's filling up which means them if not enough teams enter you've seen sometimes we've had to do like an A B level or a BC level. So just finding the right spot and trying to hopefully have our Whitehawks teams not play each other or other teams from the same association not play each other just because they also don't want to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_02 28:35

Yeah it's Sarah also goes the extra mile and I'll give an example of this year where she looks at well this team is traveling from over an hour away so I want to make sure that they're not playing the eight o'clock game because I don't think that would be very fun to have to get home at 1030 at night. So I'm gonna give you another shout out for the level of detail that you put into planning which is which is epic. But it kind of shines a light on just the number of puzzle pieces that are happening right. And that's just the the game side of it, right? That's not the concession that's not coordinating with the district to make sure that you have the support staff that you need there so that we have access to the building and then there might be a varsity game the night that you're supposed to be setting up and there's a specific person designated for concessions, right? Which is a huge part of the raising arm of the tournament outside of the entry fees and communication parking and by the way you're usually not the only event happening at a district that day. So what does parking look like and signage and are you directing people to the right spaces and the information table that tell people where the restrooms are 700 times in one day.

SPEAKER_00 29:45

And then like awards how many to get yeah or like in scheduling I mean I never knew how to schedule until I had to learn how to schedule um and just like people like well why do I have so much space in a game like well it's because it's six you know the three team pool you can't play every other hour because there's not it's just funny how it all works out where once you think about it, you're like, oh it makes sense but if you've never actually had to like put it together I would never have known that. Yeah. Finding referee we are lucky there's like a referee guy that someone emails and he sets up referees which is really nice. He has like a system for it. Sure which is awesome finding people don't work the tables I mean now it's parent volunteers which is good.

SPEAKER_02 30:32

Yeah so yeah yeah um what's the like craziest request for like a whether it was our tournament or going somewhere else have you ever had like somebody uh request uh you know we want to play at a certain time or we we need to be out of there by noon so can you get us in in the morning we haven't had any re requests we've had like what we call like we play tournament bingo like did this funny thing happen this year like oh yeah like all right well what do you got there what's that what's that two years ago I was like we have ants on court three and or yeah ants on court four court four so then this year it was like you know are there ants on courts for four is there bingo like did the referee throw up again did a player throw up like just for their grandchild's game like no I promise the boys play the next day um yeah like that there hasn't been I feel really lucky we've had like some coaches that are like I coach two teams not in our association but um they coach like a high school team and then can we play it they play it as in the morning so they can get to their other game which if I can do that like obviously I want to try to honor that. Like our coaches we have several that coach multiple teams so and I would try to make the schedule so they were like playing every other rather than all at the same time but we're pretty lucky I mean so first we're trying to get people to register for the tournament then we're trying to accommodate us like our cur our own coaches that are that are you know coaching their third grade girl and their sixth grade boy and um there's a lot of moving pieces and I say we but it's that part is hard.

SPEAKER_00 32:16

It's other and I mean and also I think the under the person who's like the most undes like doesn't get any praise as the concession stand person. They're doing trips to Costco probably in October like getting all the things yeah the the spreadsheet and bringing out the price points and I mean like because we all know cranky kids hungry kids are not fun right and parents don't want to spend$50 at a concession stand so trying to balance all of them. So shout out to the concession stand people.

SPEAKER_04 32:45

They're good yeah right well there's a lot there's a lot there uh so I hope anybody who's listening will you know thank their association members um we want I want to finish with one topic you brought up early I'm saving it to the end of tryouts uh what are the philosophies I know ours but like across all associations that you hear like what are the different ways they do it you know who who's evaluating uh is it coaches is it parents is it the varsity coach like all that stuff like what what are the different things you hear on how that happens I think a common um back and forth is two day versus one day so the amount of time that you're evaluating are you outsourcing your evaluators so are you hiring a seemingly independent group of individuals that know nothing about anybody in your um in your in your community that are coming in to do the evaluations um and the plus is minus there are people know what the kid's capable of the prior year they've seen them play versus someone who's literally has no idea they have no background, right? And that could be a good thing it could be a bad thing.

SPEAKER_00 33:58

Right. Um also cost too I mean hiring people to come in is a pretty big cost. And I don't I we're always trying to keep prices reasonable because of tournaments and and scheduling for gym space and stuff. Um I also think like I'm a varsity coach in a different sport and I know coaches might know kids but I don't think any varsity coach is like going to try to do a poor job or move someone up that isn't deserving because it will impact them later on, right? And they want the best in their program too. Then at the same time I get why valuators that are on that don't know anybody are great, right? They but it's it's hard. I think every association one of the things we're learning is no association, every association has complaints. Yep that's what I was gonna but I think like that there are lot maybe loud complaints but there's not a ton of them all the time.

SPEAKER_02 34:55

Yeah I that's kind of what I was going to say I feel like it's not that no one's happy but it's that there isn't a perfect answer. Because when you communicate and ask questions across associations trying to look at districts that are similar in size to yours and then also looking at you know in our case districts that are larger than ours what you find is everybody runs into runs into challenges. And there's a reason like if you you know if you go to association websites you'll see in handbooks um a lot of people have in place a 48 hour like no contact rule like you can't contact the board after teams have been announced right it's a really emotional and um emotional that's what it is it's an emotional time for um I would say players and parents sometimes observationally it might be more parents than players. Sure. But yeah I don't know that there's a I don't know that there's a a perfect I mean perfect answer.

SPEAKER_00 36:04

I think we try to lean on yeah we there's and I don't know what other we've researched what a lot of associations have done just because we're always trying to do the best we can and get better. That's what I really do love that about our board is we always are trying to figure out like what can we keep improving on. But I know some associations do like strictly scores others do evaluations from previous years coaches. Others do I mean I've heard of an association where like after the first day then the coaches of the team get to come in and the A coach gets to select their team and then the B coach selects their team. So their coaches are actually choosing teams um which maybe is great or not we that's not what we do. But so I think and even talking to other sports in our community that have evaluations they also have they're still trying to figure it out so I don't think there's one perfect system at all.

SPEAKER_02 36:56

It depends on like the community association all of the things and I think the point I think the point there I think the process is important but I think big picture it's to understand that really everybody involved is really here for the best possible outcome for every player that's trying out. And I think sometimes that gets lost that there's I I'm not sure I don't want to speculate or say what else it would be but just kind of energy and conversations um that that I've been in whether within our district or talking to other board members or other parents or coaches in other communities. I think that sometimes as humans we can just we get big emotions and we forget oh this is a group of people it's all volunteer run. Right and everybody really is doing it because they really want the best experience possible for all the players that are involved.

SPEAKER_04 38:01

Yeah and like going back to what we talked about at the kind of beginning was just about you know dealing with different things throughout life like like right this is microcosm of of life where maybe you don't get up on get to the team that you wanted maybe you worked all summer and you didn't do it there's still you know an opportunity to improve there's still you know a team aspect you know you still have to show up and you know get over it to some degree and like move on and try to find the best you can and and know that there's another opportunity next year. I saw a video on social media I think it was like a week ago about uh a varsity tournament team you know playing in the section tournament and someone was like that was an A kid all the way through the those two were both B kids up until ninth grade and those two kids played C almost their whole life. And so like this idea of um you know almost like failure if you don't meet a certain expectation for a youth you know basketball player is is tough because it's really just like are you getting better today you know than you were yesterday and that that should be what it's about and and you know there's gotta be some lines drawn in certain points. So I I don't envy those people that make that decision. And um you know I know it's it's tough but uh hopefully hopefully this helps people kind of process how that works.

SPEAKER_01 39:31

Yeah I hope so too.

SPEAKER_04 39:34

All right um anything else you want to share uh anything that we didn't cover about like associations and what they do and their responsibilities No I mean I feel like if you put a multitude of associations you know next to each other or a group of adults that were participating, I think you would hear common what we would call checklists of things that are being done, right?

SPEAKER_02 40:03

You're running a tournament and there's a checklist associated with the tournament. You're running a tryout and there's a checklist associated with the tryout. But I think sometimes um what gets lost and I it's probably a little bit more to what I was just speaking to is maybe the humanity part of this to just know there is so much compassion, time, energy and effort of really kind of an emotional labor that happens on being part of um a part of something when you care, right? When you're showing up for youth and you really want it to be a positive experience um for kids I think there's just a lot of texts, emails, like hours that are put in that it's not just a board meeting for an hour once a month um 12 out of the year. And I think that I I think it's important for people to know that. So when you're thinking about whether it's you know your own player or you're just familiar with people that are part of um an association. And it doesn't have to be basketball, right? I mean people have um youth that are involved in a variety of things but people who are doing volunteer roles I think really are trying to operate from a um from a a place of wanting to do the right thing in the best interest of the the players and the kids.

SPEAKER_00 41:32

And I think 100% as as someone who if you're not in the board or as a coach or not on a coach um not a coach I should say uh asking questions is like the best thing because we uh sometimes I just assume people know like why a tournament's happening or whatever, right? But asking questions, assuming that your people that are volunteering are trying to do the best they can it's I've had some really great conversations about why things happen and I'm like oh I and I would rather have that happen and I would assume most people would rather than waiting till the end and firing off a survey like communication is key. And if we can do something I all of us in the board believe you could do something like throughout the season to make it better.

SPEAKER_04 42:22

Might have to cut that part out.

SPEAKER_00 42:25

So anyway just I think communication is really important between the board and community. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 42:30

Yeah well said um you know I think this is a a a good reminder that sure there might be some people out there who have not the greatest intentions I don't know who they would be but 99% of people who are on youth athletic association boards are doing it because they want to help and they want to be you know stewards of the community they want to help kids have great opportunities and so um I think that's a great call and if you have thoughts or opinions they're always looking for more people to join right coach yeah sweet all right well this was fun thank you guys for joining um Christy Hicks Sarah Schwartz um I this is this was a great I think eye-opening experience both for me because I learned some things and I hope everyone listening did as well thanks again thank you all right so that's the show today I want to thank my guests Christy Hicks and Sarah Schwartz from the West Tonka Youth Basketball Association for bringing some insight into what it takes to run a youth basketball association and um the challenges and the positive things that come out of that. And it's a it's a great experience that many of us have either having played or as a parent of a youth player playing today in boys and girls basketball throughout the state in the region. So thanks again to them. We'll have more coming up This week's Sunday, we got the big NCAA men's and women's basketball selection show. I'll be breaking down the brackets with my buddy Eric. Uh, we're gonna try that one live as well. So if you want to join on YouTube, it should be there. Uh, go to uh my channel, Steve Hartman, or the Splash City Basketball Podcast channel on my YouTube page. Um, it should be there. I'll share out that link as well uh via social. But um, thank you all for being here. Thanks for listening. Go out and enjoy some basketball this weekend, uh, plenty of it around, girls state tournament, boys' section championships tonight and tomorrow, and then um a lot of college tournament championships on TV, as well as the Wolves continuing their uh West Coast road trip. So thanks all for listening. This has been the Splash City basketball podcast.

unknown 44:50

Baganam, bag and back.