twaugie

I have had a child play for a public school and one that played for a private school. I can tell you that recruiting goes on far more for public school kids than they do for private schools. Most private school coaches jobs are not judged solely on their win/loss record as they public school counterparts.

what position do you play?? What H.S. did you play for this year, and what is your grade and height....thanks.....

This has been one of the best posts in a long time. So many good responses. I am a coach and a parent. When I coach rec league ball I try to give all my players a good bit of playing time. That's the only way they are going to get better because of our limited practice time. However when I coach on the varsity level then it is about winning and you normally win with the best players playing the most. In the rec league I tell my parents I will treat each player fairly when it comes to playing time. There is a difference between fair and equal by the way. As a parent I have seen my child sit on the bench a lot when she was starting out. As she has worked hard and practiced during the off season she has improved a great deal and is now one of the main players. I call it paying your dues. Her coach (which is not me thank goodness) has an open policy and will discuss anything, including playing time with a parent. The only thing he asks is if you don't think your child is getting enough playing time is for you and your child to ask him what they need to do to improve and get better in order to gain more playing time. As one poster commented I think our modern day "it's all about my child" mentality and society's treat everyone the same, everyone gets a trophy, no one gets singled out for achievement thinking is ruining sports and creating an "entitlement" culture that is ruining our country...... Thanks for the great posts.

Brooke Augustin of Metro Christian is averaging 20 points per game. Has already had a 33 point performance and a 28 point game this season.

had a good practice tonight...still need some players, especially post

If you are in the 10th grade and you are 15 or 16 yrs old we have some open spots on our basketball team. We are a local team (Nashville area) and will play in 5 or 6 local tournaments. No out of state travel. We want good, serious players who want to improve their game without having to spend a lot of money and travel all over the country to do so!!! If you are interested and want more information please call me at 708-0313. If I don't answer leave a message and I will call you back. Or you can email me at twaugie@comcast.net

The 50% rule is that no more than half the number of players it takes for a starting lineup can be on a team together in the season "before" their sport begins. In basketball that means no more than 3 players from the same high school team can play on a fall league team. The reason TSSAA did this was to prevent high schools from forcing players to play only one sport. This does not apply to AAU basketball in the spring/summer but it does prevent a coach from putting his basketball team in a fall league, softball team in a winter league, volleyball team in a summer league, etc..

I think some of it has to do with expenses. I think more of the smaller teams are going to exposure tournaments and bypassing AAU altogether. As far as the lack of posting or interest I think burnout could be part of it. School ball is long and some parents/kids take a break. Others I think get involved in softball and volleyball, of just take the summer off. I think what is happening in the older age groups are that schools are controlling their athletes. I know many schools have the kids working out in weight rooms, going to team camps, etc.. and these kids are discouraged from playing AAU. My daughter goes to a private school and their team does very little during the offseason and encourage their kids to find an AAU team. We had a hard time finding a local team for her - and we live in a big city. We wound up travelling an hour away to find a team. I think there would be more interest if there was more information about these teams. I think alot of these teams operate under the radar.

I concur that there have been a lot of good posts on this topic. Girls "transfer" for lots of reasons. Some of them good or legitimate reasons and some of them for selfish reasons. There are many good kids and parents out there. Unfortunately there are many parents trying to live out their athletic fantacies through their kids. There are many "prima donnas" as well. The bottom line is that most of us don't know the true reasons for these transfers and we would be better off not judging. Speculating is okay because that's what makes these posts enjoyable. As far as recruiting - yes it does happen. How widespread or how often who really knows? I've had coaches - both private and public and AAU- tell me that if my daughter wasn't happy with her current team they would love to have her. To me that is not recruiting. It is advertisement. As far as private schools advertising on radio they have to. They do not get tax payer dollars to operate their schools. They rely mostly on tuition dollars to pay their bills. That is not recruiting. I think people pick on them because of some schools success(BA, etc). I think many of their transfers are there because they want to play for highly successful coaches and programs. They want to play a tough schedule and because these programs have successful sent kids to big colleges these kids and their families want to get that kind of exposure.

by June many AAU teams are finishing their seasons. The only ones still playing are those who are preparing to go to Nationals or some of the older "exposure" teams. You really need to start looking on message boards and the newspapers in January to find a team. Some teams will start having open gyms or tryouts about that time.

I would definitely be interested in that. You can email me any info or contact information at twaugie@comcast.net Thanks. PS. My daughter plays for a private school in Madison and I do believe Goodpasture is on their schedule. Would like to meet you.

I don't think most head coaches run AAU programs. What I think does happen is either assistant coaches will put together a program with a nucleus of middle school players that may eventually play for them, or maybe a parent of a child who is a good player will coach their daughter and some of her high school/ middle school teammates. Nothing illegal about that. That is how programs can improve and strenghten. The more these girls play the better they get. It is not rocket science. As long as these girls play of their own free will and are not "pressured" into playing it's great. If a girl wants to play softball she should. If she wants to take the summer off then fine. However if she is not "into" softball and doesn't want to take a break then AAU ball is where it's at. I live near North of Nashville and I would be curious as to what was the name of the AAU team that Mr Sharpshooter coached (if he did actually coach). I wish more of these AAU teams were publicized so you could tryout for them. It seems like most of these programs are in Brentwood, Franklin, or Rutherford county. It would be nice to know if Northern Davidson county, Sumner County, or Robertson county had any AAU programs.

Where is this camp? I know Cooper coaches the boys team at NE, but he also coaches a girls AAU team that is going to Nationals. I know most of the girls on his team are from the Clarksville area. Maybe he was there watching some of them play. I know if I were a head coach I wouldn't mind getting a little imput from him on the bench. Again, where is this camp located?

What was he caught cheating for???

If you mean an AAU team as in one that is planning on playing in State, SuperRegionals, and National AAU tournaments you have to purchase a team membership in AAU. The girls deadline has already passed for this year. Go to the AAU girls basketball website (www.aaugirlsbasketball.org). It has alot of information on it for you. You can also find a link to the state AAU website there also. If you are just wanting to start a girls team to play in local tournaments basically what you need are some girls, equipment, uniforms, and a gym to practice in. Then enter into some local tournaments. There are alot of good ones. You may find some advertised on this website. You can find some advertised in the Tennessean in the sports section under Roll Call (which is either in the Wed or Thurs editions). Also do a search on Middle Tennessee Basketball Showcase and you can find some good local tournaments that are run by a guy named Kris Hooper. My daughter has played in them and they are first rate. Hope this helps.