Must feel real good

[TFX 186]

Why in the world would you want to take your team to a tourney where there is no competition?

 

[Bfishn]

Good point. The problem here is the Bismarck team, as a travel team, has its pick of how many 5th graders that tried out? They should beat the hell out of the small town teams where there may only be 10-15 boys of that age in the whole town.

You make it sound like there is only one travel team in Bismarck. I don't know how many there are but its a lot. Most of these teams are fairly school based or have some sort of connection among parents etc. As Fretgr said i believe there is only one tryout team and i believe they usually play up a grade for better competition.

 

[DirtyMike]

As a coach and official, I've seen more than my fair share of kids/teams come back from a fairly substantial deficit. Maybe it was a lucky move or the universe finally aligned, but I've seen the better team/kid lose because of "letting up." I have never told a kid to take their foot off the throttle, regardless of age or sport. No lead is ever too big.

My main message for any kid or team is that you never lose. You either win or you learn. So take that for what it's worth.

 

[Jigaman]

My boy plays hockey and has taken and given some ass kickings over the years. If they are given the ass kicking there are times when the coach tells them they need to pass X amount of times before taking the shot. They are NEVER told not to play their hardest though.

 

[Kurtr]

As a coach and official, I've seen more than my fair share of kids/teams come back from a fairly substantial deficit. Maybe it was a lucky move or the universe finally aligned, but I've seen the better team/kid lose because of "letting up." I have never told a kid to take their foot off the throttle, regardless of age or sport. No lead is ever too big.

My main message for any kid or team is that you never lose. You either win or you learn. So take that for what it's worth.

I have been on that end and for that reason its hard to even pull the kids back as they know what it feels like to loose a game you had in hand but quit playing as hard.

 

[Brian Renville]

Were the teams getting beat at least basketball capable? You play your best ball, period. The basis for defense whether it's basketball, football, soccer, hockey, or whatever is to try to at least get in the way and make an effort. Teach the kids to have some pride and keep trying. Now if the teams getting whipped have trouble dribbling or struggle even in their own layup line then I'd be ok with my team acting more like drill cones on defense. Basketball is horrible if you don't at least know how to do the very basics, the sad part is that some of these kids show up with zero practice under their belt then it isn't much fun or benefit to anyone involved.

 

[remm]

Been helping coach my son and his buddies for a couple years. Mixed 5th and 6th grade team this year, been doing it since mixed 2nd-3rd. Been on both sides of ass kickings plenty of times through these past couple years. All these kids are learning at different levels. For the most part, the teams that have been in the gym longer are better. We start practicing when football ends, have a couple tourneys a month throughout the winter, and will finish up this weekend in GF (thank god). Around that 5th grade is when a lot of teams are just starting out, for them to go play a team that spends time in the gym and hope to compete is tough, especially if you don't have one or two naturally talented kids. We don't want to kick the hell out of a team by 30-40 points, but sometimes it just happens. Just like we don't want to lose by that margin. I will tell you that over the past few years, we've learned by far the most from losing than any time we've won. Sometimes need a good ass kicking to expose weaknesses and give us things to get better in practice. It doesn't do a lot of good to walk through a tourney without a close game, but unfortunately at this age, it will happen. From what I've seen over the dozens of tourneys we've played the past few years, there's usually a team or two at a tourney that stands out, and the rest of the teams are far more balanced and have good games. Don't let the kids get frustrated when an ass kicking happens, learn a thing or two from it on how to get better, take that new knowledge to compete with the other 90% of the teams in the same boat as you.

 

[49994]

There has been many good points on both sides of this. When talking about 5th grade sports you can tell in the first 5min of the game if the teams are evenly matched or if its going to get ugly. I have never seen a team come back from 30points down at the 5th grade level and win the game. I grew up in a small town and we went to the optimist tournaments in Dickinson/Bismarck and won most of them. We even scored over a 100 occasionally during 7th/8th grade games against much larger towns. We played ball year round, but I can honestly say it was a combination of how hard we worked and the overall early development of our players physically. We all know of a boy who was shaving in 6th grade and physically much more advanced at that age then others and by the time he is in high school was just an average player as everyone else caught up physically. I believe at this age 5th/6thgrade it should be more about player development then W/L. If you develop skills and knowledge of the game the kids will be much better served in the future. I would encourage you to tell your nephew to continue to work hard as there is no substitute for that in sports or life in general.

 

[BrokenBackJack]

Back in the day i have been on both sides of this issue. Got our butts kicked and also kicked others butts. You see this so often in professional football when they have a good lead and they take their foot of the gas and go into "prevent" defense. I always say all prevent defense does is prevent you from winning. Mike McCarthy was good for this and it just pissed me off to no end. I have always said "play to win don't play NOT to lose". There is a BIG difference.
When you lose you should be learning many valuable lessons so you don't make the same mistakes again or you don't let the team that beat you run the same plays the next time you play them. Kids have to learn to lose and parents need to accept that so that when little Johnny doesn't always win or get his way he doesn't cry and pout or blame it on the refs! You see so much of this nowadays.
We love to go watch the real little kids play any kind of sports as they give it their all and they are having FUN. That is the name of the game. Enjoy yourself and shake hands after the game and it doesn't matter who wins or loses. It is a learning experience for both sides.
Just my 2 cents.

 

[Allen]

Nobody “Tried Out” for this team —only one team in Bismarck has had a “Tryout “ for their team

Sorry, I was under the impression it was similar to the youth travel baseball teams.

 

[Rowdie]

Why in the world would you want to take your team to a tourney where there is no competition?

Maybe dey taut dem der farm kids knew how to ball? Now dey'll know better, and maby dem farm kids better stick to wrasslin.

 

[Bullsnake]

I still don't get why basketball is king, what happened to all the 3 sport athletes

 

[db-2]

Crank:
As many have said on here in their own words:

Yes they won, hard work with the right talent does pay off I guess, game end, high five, pat on the back, smiles as it should be with the trophy while the other team looks on with maybe a head hung low.

But in the end that win was only for a brief moment in time and the real winner may not be the Bismarck players, coaches or parents.
You and the family now have a golden chance to become the winner. Yes it sucks to lose, it is hard to sit in the stand as your child is getting his ass kick in the dirt and knowing you can not do anything about it at the moment.

Now it is up to you and family, will your child pick him or herself up and say I will be back and I will be back again and again. Or will he/she quit or half way quit. Will you help prepare him/her for the real world when his or her time comes. Yes you, the child, the team, the family can all be the real winner here, not Bismarck.

My son at a young age played hockey in a small town with not much to work with. But more than once when the team went to Fargo to play their traveling Flyer team they came away with a win. It does feel good to win against the big boys. And a time or two against West Fargo until one time they went to Grand Forks and play those 6', six grade kids that were shaving.

My fourth grade grandson played this weekend. At half time his team had two baskets, the other team 15 with some free throws.
In the second half he was bring the ball down and was being tightly guarded. The next thing, that kid was on his back on the floor. Game end, told him good game but next time you put a kid on the floor be more discrete about it, okay. DB

 

[jdinny]

I still don't get why basketball is king, what happened to all the 3 sport athletes

no doubt, came across an interesting piece written in either SI or ESPN the magazine and it was a high very high percentage of the top 100 football recruits in D1 were multi sport athletes.

- - - Updated - - -

single sport specilization is a leading casue of what i see kids for in my clinic good for business yeah maybe but the burnout rate is insanely high and a very very very low % of these kids will make a living playing ball sometimes mom and dad need to be reminded of that.

and this no way shape or form taking shots at anyone on this thread just a generalized statement of repetitive stress on children who have not skeletally matured yet. im the last guy taking shots about parenting and what is right or wrong. the wife and I can barely get out the door with 3 youngsters each morning.

 

[SDMF]

lije I said when I started this thread. You’ve got some really talented kids playing for you and like you said, you weren’t there. They beat NGS 50 something to like 8, then beat south border 60 something to 5 last time I looked at scoreboard and Edgeley put up around 12 to your teams high 60’s or low 70’s.

3-4 more years all those kids from small towns who took a whoopin' @ this B-Ball tourney will be killing bigger deer than the kids on the traveling team from Bismarck, then the shoe will be on the other foot.

 

[You]

3-4 more years all those kids from small towns who took a whoopin' @ this B-Ball tourney will be killing bigger deer than the kids on the traveling team from Bismarck, then the shoe will be on the other foot.

In line with this, I once had a baller friend talk to me about taking him fishing and he wondered how it was that I am always on the fish. I told him that while he was wasting his time chasing a pumpkin up and down the court in high school, I was out fine-tuning my fishing skills. He rarely plays ball at this point. I fish more than ever......

 

[Davy Crockett]

I honestly don't think my kids would be where they are today without the competitiveness and comradery that playing sports drove into them. I agree they haven't made a nickel off sports but they make good money from being competitive.
When they were young they didn't have raw talent so they had to work hard or quit and quitting wasn't an option. It didn't matter if they were juggling, pitching pennies, In county spelling Bees/Math counts or riding unicycle they always wanted to be better at what they did. Getting kicked 12-2 was good medicine and it makes winning feel so much better.

 

[SDMF]

3-4 more years all those kids from small towns who took a whoopin' @ this B-Ball tourney will be killing bigger deer than the kids on the traveling team from Bismarck, then the shoe will be on the other foot.

Fast-Forward 10yrs to when some of those small-town kids own enough land in their own name to have a gratis tag every fall, then see who's whistlin' Dixie!

 

[bigv]

I have been teaching and coaching for over 22 yrs. All levels from little kids to Head Varsity coach. Times are changing a bit. There are far less multi-sport athletes than before. They can't play them all because one sport will take up 10 months. Also, we are seeing a big jump in some athletes giving up that sport. We are seeing them 15-16 yrs old and are quite tired of running and gunning and never getting a break. All of the sudden these super stars are giving it up. Another fact to remember is genetics. Mental and physical. They will take over one day. So your super start stud in 5th grade may be a pud by the time he's a jr cuz now everyone has arm pit hair etc. I have played all sports and coached most. Played Hs, College and yrs of amature bball. I don't like the state of HS sports. They are pushed too hard and DRIVEN! Parents act like their lives depend on their kid making or playing on the team when in reality 97% of the kids will never touch a ball again when they graduate. Push your kids academically folks!

 

[Kurtr]

In line with this, I once had a baller friend talk to me about taking him fishing and he wondered how it was that I am always on the fish. I told him that while he was wasting his time chasing a pumpkin up and down the court in high school, I was out fine-tuning my fishing skills. He rarely plays ball at this point. I fish more than ever......

i am the opposite wish i would have put more time in high school instead of doing just enough at basketball and fishing or hunting instead. I have the whole rest of my life to fish and hunt. My dad wasnt wrong I should have listened to him