Hoops

Rep Try Outs

"I'll add to the comments above that it may sometimes come down to the coach’s intended team direction or chemistry."

This is where coaches you hope your coach acknowledges the conflict of trials and not even consider much form of chemistry.

You've got x amount of boys in front of you, some who have/haven't played together before all with the same goal of making a team.

What is the single best way to get recognized? Score a lot of points.

So, players will more than likely play un-characistically, taking risks and chances in the hope of making it.

I'm sure there are always exceptions

I’ll add to the comments above that it may sometimes come down to the coach’s intended team direction or chemistry.

While it sounds great to have 12 studs on a team who are all outstanding, the reality is that it’s very hard to turn such a group into a champion team. Each will want to be seen to be the star, each will expect more minutes than the rest, each will demand more of the ball than they get. Self-interest and the pressure of expectations will get in the way a lot. (Just look at Team USA in past years.)

Similarly, you want balance: you don’t want too many talls or guards, 3-point shooters, slow players, players who cannot follow instructions or cannot (or won’t) defend a chair, etc.

" the cream ALWAYS rises to the top.....eventually."

SADLY - This is not true, there are a significant enough number of players who had/have been overlooked in their junior careers, and in their early senior careers , but who by shear luck either fell into situations ( a MVP of a WNBL Final for one) , or by dogged perseverance by coaches OUTSIDE the BA system ( at least 2 drafted wnbl/nba players), found themselves recognised and then lauded by BA and their state associations as "proud products of their development system" - even when those development system coaches TOTALY assessed them as "not required" players - to indicate that there are almost certainly other players that were not system "favoured players" who would have made great contributions in world and Olympic teams, to the standard of playing level in this country.
Sorry this "always rises to the top" crap , really gets my goat as its actually just an apologist cover for those incompetent "professionals" who use their actual failure to identify those successful players as a rational for their own "success"

I actually had the parents of one of my players receive a letter from a nationally funded basketball development program, advising them that as their offspring was now exiting the program, there were opportunities for that ex-player to receive further post-development support career, study etc --- but that player HAD NEVER ATTENDED THAT PROGRAM, it turns out that the state development coach, discovering that the player had accepted a scholarship to a major NCAA div 1 college ( ended up getting to the NCAA 2/3 rd round as a starting 5 player) had shoved that players name into the list of program participants, so they could show how the program had produced NCAA recruited players.

End of rant.

Yes but the sad reality is if your a kid who has hopes of making an national team one day, you depend on this early opportunities like this to get noticed and to open up a pathway for higher progression. Its so much tougher breaking through at later stages of your career as I'm sure many people agree with....so why rob an athlete of this opportunity........

Now he potentially has to wait another 2 years, as the likelihood of being selected as a bottom ager next year is very unlikely whilst the kid selected instead of him gets to face the harsh reality of state basketball, where if you don't perform or contribute, you wont step foot on the court which is completely contrast to why they selected him in the first place.

Again if you want to develop a player, do it in your own time and not at a national tournament.

I am not the op but my son had a pretty oppressing experience recently trialing for our state team. Just to give you a bit of background, he's recently completed his 4th season of development, recently attended nationals where he performed soundly, he's been selected in every single state development academy, attended every state trial (none of which he ever made which has never been an issue for me as I know he wasn't in the top 10 before) and even attends a basketball specialist school. Now however, things have changed and he should have been a genuine contender... He makes an enormous effort to improve himself by playing in 3 domestic teams against older players, plus done really well as a top scorer within his team at Nationals against the countries best development sides recently.

So turns out, the player who has just started his development career in third division only 12 months ago, performed below average at the trial and struggled to put up a shot was better then him (my sons a championship division player). The only clear reason why he was selected was because this kid was a bit taller then my son and I assume they see "potential" in him growing and want to give him as much opportunity to develop.

So in my opinion, if you want to develop your bigs, don't send them away to national tournaments and chuck them in the deep end at the expense of everyone else. Reward those who put the time and effort to attend every single camp you host, every trial you organize, go above and beyond to develop and actually perform at national level tournaments...

Before anyone says to me suck it up, get better etc. Put yourself in this kids shoes, he's only young and has genuinely worked his butt for years, and gets overlooked for the junior who has little creditionals in comparison....I'm sure you would not like this, if you want for your dream job which and were overlooked for someone who had barely stepped foot in your profession.

Its very tough being on the receiving end of harsh unethical decision making by people who you thought would know better.

So I contacted the relevant parties to raise my concerns, they responded saying, every player enters the high performance group at different stages of their career.

So well done to the association for gifting out backdoor passes to players who are no where near ready for state level competition. Really destroys the integrity of the state and the future hopes of those who actually take development seriously.

also this forum is very SA centric, many of those who are titled "rep" coaches on the eastern seaboard are "head coaches" out of local associations. Although the example was in respect of a national championship competition.

I have far more empathy for these parents than some.

I Had a situation where a state "rep" coach (female) when counselling a SELECTED "candidate" group player (12 year old female whose parents were from India) as to why the girl was feeling rejected by the group, told the player ( as reported by the player directly to me) that if she was a better player she would be better liked.
This was the 5th year of this 35+ YO head coach running that particular program.

They are still head coaching

never underestimate the lack of basic communication skill of some of the "rep" coaches in the junior ranks.

“It's a pity you dont have a daughter. She would make it straight away and as long as she doesn't get injured will be classed as an elite athlete even though they are terrible players“

It’s a pity you don’t have a normal sized appendage, then you wouldn’t be such an asshole!

Coached reps for 20 years, tried every method possible, each and every positive suggestion said here, and each year there's always an unhappy parent. You just can't get around it

Will always remember having a young fella with a birth defect turn up one year, he essentially only had 1 arm. Lovely kid, polite, respectful, tried his butt off..........but he only had 1 arm. After he didn't make the team had his old man abuse the hell out me "My kid's the best kid here!!"

Some are delusional and you can't do anything about it. Be fair and learn to live with it

It's a pity you dont have a daughter. She would make it straight away and as long as she doesn't get injured will be classed as an elite athlete even though they are terrible players

Just did my first as a parent with my son at the Sydney Comets. I thought they did an excellent job, they set expectations early, gave everyone as fair a shake as I think was possible with 100-odd kids. About the only thing I didn't like was the cuts were not made on the day, rather via a website post a couple of days later. But equally, with that many kids it would probably be difficult to pull off.

Irregardless, they were very professional and I cannot fault the organisation. Recommended.

Parents are too quick to say it's unfair.

Teach your kids to overcome unfair situations with hard work and not to spit the dummy.