AAU Basketball is indeed the devil

I absolutely agree. In fact, I think it shouldn't be allowed.

 

93,
In your state, does the high school association have some sort of rule about how much high school coaches can work with their kids in the off-season?
In this state, a high school coach cannot have more than 50 percent of his team (potential varsity candidates for the next season) on any off season team he coaches.

 

I would think a lot of the AAU shit would get cleaned up pretty quick if state associations would allow coaches to coach their kids in summer league ball.

 

Like I said - the one thing that most associations get right is that coaches can't coach their kids during the summer and fall. The worst thing that happens is when too few people have too much control.

 

Summer ball would be a lot cleaner if scholastic coaches were working with these kids instead of the two-bit hustlers who flock to AAU.

 

I'm sure, but this was years ago for me. I'm out of the coaching biz until the little girl in my avatar starts kicking, shooting, hitting and ball.

 

I seriously doubt it. There are also plenty of influence-peddling scholastic coaches, and there'd be far more if they were allowed to take over the AAU circuit as well. Plenty of the high school coaches who now self-righteously tsk tsk at AAU ball would become corrupted themselves if put in that position for long--just human nature to look for the bigger better deal.

That situation is always gonna exist as long as i) you can't pay players who make millions of dollars for the institutions they choose to play for; and ii) the summer basketball circut is the primary avenue for showcasing prospects to those instutions. As long as these two two elements combine the influence-peddlers will always be drawn to summer ball like flies to honey.

 

California overruled the "association" rule a year ago. High school coaches can coach their players in the offseason, too.

Regarding the topic: I've experienced this issue regarding girls volleyball. The high school season is almost a joke. There's a three-week leadup to a two-month season. Club has a two-month leadup to a six-month season.
My kid goes to school in which the girls varsity volleyball program usually finishes in the bottom half of its league. The league is rated as mediocre in an area. The area is a hotbed for the sport in which hundred of girls get Div. I scholarships.
Our coach, who is a walk-on, told us at the first parents meeting: "I will not require your daughters to play club ... but they pretty much have to play club."
It is more important to play club than high school.

 

See, I hate that. "You don't have to play club, but if you don't play club, you wont play here.

My daughter played 3 sports, she was terrific at softball, was OK at volleyball, and filled a spot on the basketball team. She wasn't awful, maybe a 5 and 5 kid, but she wanted to play basketball because there was no pressure and she could just play with her friends, which was all she wanted. She could throw in the low 60's as a freshman and we had to argue with the softball coach about letting her play other sports. she was tall and could hit and the volleyball coach was always in her ear telling her she had to "get her priorities straight" or she would never be successful. And the basketball coach told her she would never amount to anything in life...in life mind you...if she didn't commit to the sport.

All she wanted to do was play with her friends. She was serious about softball, so she traveled. She was not as serious about the long term prospects in the other sports, which drove those coaches crazy. By her junior year she had quit playing basketball and her senior year of volleyball was one long argument, because on the weekends she was at softball tournaments instead of getting ready for the club season.

She coaches now, and every time a kid comes to her worried about playing another sport she tells them it's fine...and as a dad, it's fantastic to see her on the field just having fun.

 

Indiana has completely open summers, with two moratorium weeks.

The good: It allows a team to iron things out and experiment in the off-season and bring new players up to the varsity level early. Within a school, programs usually share athletes and their "summer" usually lasts 3-4 weeks at most (most programs have it where basketball/baseball/softball get June, and football/soccer/volleyball get July). It also was intended to reduce the influence of non-school travel teams, but essentially the sports that rely on travel for almost all of their development (soccer, volleyball) use that to pretty much monopolize kids. I've seen kids in tears over threats given them by travel coaches ("you show up at my 6-hour practice that I scheduled on two days' notice and is the same day as your basketball game or else you won't go to nationals"), worried that they wouldn't just get cut by their travel coach, but face consequences from their HS coach, who would rather have them playing travel and play one sport year-round than play another school sport.

The bad: It forces specialization. Because the summer is so open, kids are forced to make choices. And the travel teams in minor sports feed on that and force them to make choices, often at the expense of their school teams. Where I am, several suburban basketball teams are getting murdered by travel softball, travel volleyball & travel soccer. The high school teams aren't doing anything in those sports in the summer, but there are so many conflicts created with the high school teams that do (e.g., basketball) that they just quit their "extra" high school sports to appease their travel coaches and specialize.

In basketball (and to some degree, baseball), AAU seems to be in conflict with high school. In other sports, it seems to work in concert with high school. It's bizarre.

 

It would also pull the multisport kids in all sorts of different directions (as if that isn't happening already).
Of course, a lot of those summer leagues/captains practices are officially voluntary but unofficially mandatory as it is.

 

Just read the thread. $575 or even $1,000 is cheap. Wait till you see the costs down the road. AAU was supposed to be an honorable program, and used to be. I've had some HS coaches who coaches the school's team as their PT job. Their FT job was coaching AAU.