AAU Coaches at HS games forming teams for 2019

[SJF]

Just getting everyone's feelings and opinions on this subject. Since its still early into the 18/19 HS season and HS Coaches and their players are still in most cases trying to get things figured out should AAU Coaches already be contacting potential new players for next summer! I know there is no rule but morally should 14-17 year old kids who are trying to focus on the success of their HS teams even be bothered with AAU Coaches coming to their games and recruiting them! I mean give them a chance to enjoy the HS experience! As a HS Coach this would drive me crazy seeing my kids being distracted by some greedy AAU Coach who is concerned about having enough players for their summer team! To me its ok if a AAU Coach has an existing team and he or she is just contacting them to let them know of some scheduling for Spring or Summer so parents can make plans or get Vacation scheduled but going to HS games and bothering kids before games and after games just should not be done! As adults be smarter! 

[dmm88]

I've said this time and time again........NO AAU coach should be able to contact a kid until the final day of the TSSAA boys state tourney. Same for middle/elementary's that play basketball. 

[SJF]

12 hours ago, dmm88 said:

I've said this time and time again........NO AAU coach should be able to contact a kid until the final day of the TSSAA boys state tourney. Same for middle/elementary's that play basketball. 

There seems to be a feeling among most of AAU Coaches that school ball is not important! But they are wrong! 

[Charger64]

1 hour ago, SJF said:

There seems to be a feeling among most of AAU Coaches that school ball is not important! But they are wrong! 

Very true!

[oldschoolhoops]

While my opinion may be an unpopular one, I actually think AAU play has, overall, been a detriment to school associated play in the last 15-20 years. I know that the off season play is viewed as beneficial to the development of players, and it CAN be, but it can also NOT be beneficial.

For instance, over the last 20 years, the value of a player on a high school team seems to have become tied up in what AAU squad they play with during the off season. 

Also, AAU "franchises", if you will, have become an aggressive breeding grounds for illegal recruitment of players to different TSSAA schools. 

Finally, I don't know what the original intent of AAU play was, but in my time I always viewed it as just a time to get better and stay in shape(I think this could also be accomplished if a young lady spent time at the gym individually and joined the track team to boot, but that's for another discussion). I also believe it's incredibly beneficial if high school teams can stay together for AAU instead of everyone just trying to join some kind of all star team. As it sits, it appears to this spectator's eyes that the climate of AAU has become one in which "me ball" players are created. 

There are exceptions to every part of this. Not all AAU teams are trying to recruit players, not all teams are trying to run an all star squad, and not all teams are into the flash of "me, myself, and I" play. It just seems to me that these are some of the issues that have arisen from off season play.

I would finish by saying that the most fun I ever had playing basketball was during AAU, and for most of my high school years, we formed teams from our high school squad with no outsiders. We got better together and had a blast doing it. Therefore, I'm not anti-AAU whatsoever, but rather just disappointed in what it has become from my point of view.

Edited December 11, 2018 by oldschoolhoops

[SJF]

4 hours ago, oldschoolhoops said:

While my opinion may be an unpopular one, I actually think AAU play has, overall, been a detriment to school associated play in the last 15-20 years. I know that the off season play is viewed as beneficial to the development of players, and it CAN be, but it can also NOT be beneficial.

For instance, over the last 20 years, the value of a player on a high school team seems to have become tied up in what AAU squad they play with during the off season. 

Also, AAU "franchises", if you will, have become an aggressive breeding grounds for illegal recruitment of players to different TSSAA schools. 

Finally, I don't know what the original intent of AAU play was, but in my time I always viewed it as just a time to get better and stay in shape(I think this could also be accomplished if a young lady spent time at the gym individually and joined the track team to boot, but that's for another discussion). I also believe it's incredibly beneficial if high school teams can stay together for AAU instead of everyone just trying to join some kind of all star team. As it sits, it appears to this spectator's eyes that the climate of AAU has become one in which "me ball" players are created. 

There are exceptions to every part of this. Not all AAU teams are trying to recruit players, not all teams are trying to run an all star squad, and not all teams are into the flash of "me, myself, and I" play. It just seems to me that these are some of the issues that have arisen from off season play.

I would finish by saying that the most fun I ever had playing basketball was during AAU, and for most of my high school years, we formed teams from our high school squad with no outsiders. We got better together and had a blast doing it. Therefore, I'm not anti-AAU whatsoever, but rather just disappointed in what it has become from my point of view.

Spot on!