25-26 McFarland Basketball's Academy League (4th/5th)
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Purpose: This league is designed for players who have played in our PDP (K-3rd) league or similar leagues such as Little Colonels, Little Pioneers, SOAS, G-League, etc. and are ready for the next step. The Academy is for experienced 4th/5th grade players and/or teams (boys or girls) who have developed solid individual skills and are ready to learn tactical skills as well as learning more advanced team concepts & strategies. The Academy League is not for beginners and is designed to transition players from entry level leagues to more competitive play, such as AAU basketball and middle school basketball. Players should be ready to start progressing into pressing/being pressed, double-teams, learning team offenses & defenses, zone concepts, etc. Sign up individually or as a team!
This 12-week league is competitive with an emphasis and focus on long-term player development.
What makes The Academy unique?
1. Opportunity to train and learn from David McFarland and his outstanding staff each week while incorporating team time to tailor to your team's needs. No other competitive league in the area offers practice time to their teams
2. Customized, competitive scheduling. We try to set up great match-ups for your team while trying to provide a variety of opponents to play as well (not just a round robin/automatic rotation between opponents).
3. Progressive roll-out of defenses (man-to-man, 2-3 zone, 3-2 zone, 2-2-1 press, diamond press) throughout the season to gradually expose players to new concepts. This will allow coaches to better focus their practices on particular team skills. By doing this, players will have a better opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of team skills before being exposed to additional team concepts.
4. Played on age-appropriate 9ft rims (recommended by the NBA & USA Basketball) to allow players the opportunity to develop good finishing and shooting habits. Save time and money of having to undo bad habits in the future from shooting on 10ft rims before physically being able to do so with good technique.
5. Coaches and players who are focused on player development instead of just winning. We want the player’s to learn great habits that lead to success now, and more importantly, in the future as they play at higher levels.
REGISTRATION: Friday, August 29 - Wednesday, October 1 (or until sold out)
4th/5th Division (Coed + New! Girls Only Teams - see below for details)
SPACE IS LIMITED! Sign up early to ensure your spot!
PRICE: 2 payments of $160 per player for 9-player team with team training
Customizable discounts available for team sign ups (i.e. no jerseys needed, # of players on team, etc.). See details below.
Family Rate: $5 off each additional family member on the same order
General Admission:
$5 Adults
$3 Seniors & Middle/High School Students
Free = Elementary Students & Younger
Scorekeeper and Bookkeeper = Free Admission!
The website does charge a $3 service fee per transaction. If signing up more than one player, register all your players together in the same checkout to save on the website service fee instead of doing separate orders.
Team Options Available (signing up as an entire team at once through your coach):
# of Players on Team
- 8-Players = $350/player
- 9-Players = Base price
- 10-Players = $295/player
Games Only (No training or practice)
- 8-Players = $190/player
- 9-Players =$175/player
- 10-Players = $165/player
No Jersey Needed = $10 off per player. Your team must have a home AND away uniform to do this option or all players have the same color McFarland jersey
Team Payment = Teams have the option to submit one team payment via Zelle to save on the 3.4% processing fee.
ACADEMY DIVISION:
Coed
- Same as previous seasons.
- Boys and/or girls teams.
- Girls can sign up for this division if they would like to play on a co-ed team.
Girls Only Teams
- Play with an all girls team
- Goal = 4 teams this year
- Would play some girls and some competitively scheduled coed games. Will tailor to each team's needs as best as possible.
- 4+ girls teams = will have separate girls and co-ed tournament
- If we have less than 4 Academy girls teams = would still maximize the number of all-girl match-ups, competitively schedule other games against coed or other girls teams within our 3rd-5th leagues, and then have them play in the coed tournament that we competitively structure to give the best match-ups possible.
TEAM PLACEMENT
- There will be 9 players per team.
- For the Academy, we recommend getting a group of friends together with 2-3 people teaming up to coach. You can add a few free agents to your group if needed as well. Just let us know asap.
- If you have a large group of friends/team (4-5+ players) that want to play together and have a coach(es), email [email protected] asap to hold spots for you before your particular division is full (spots will be held for a week to give all team members a chance to sign up). Remember everyone must sign up individually before that division is full in order to ensure their spot.
- No worries at all if you are a free agent needing to join a team or pair up with other free agents to create a team. Free agents will be placed on teams based on requests, school, and roster availability. We will need at least two volunteer coaches for each of these teams. The great news is with the training is coaches won't need to plan anything for practices (just help reiterate what we are teaching) and reinforce those concepts in games.
- We will make every effort to accommodate requests to play with a friend or group of friends or a certain coach based on available spots.
TEAM TRAININGS
- Once a week starting the week of Monday, October 27th
- All trainings held @ the St. Henry Athletic Complex (SHAC)
- Mondays or Wednesdays at 7:20PM based on coach's availability
Trainings will focus on both individual and team offensive & defensive fundamental skills. After the first week, team time will be incorporated where coaches can work on specific needs for their team (15-20 minutes) on things that we have worked on or things they would like to add. Our staff can assist with that aspect as well if needed.
Note: When signing up individually (not a full team), we cannot guarantee which night your player(s) trains on due to all the logistics involved. We definitely try to accommodate requests if at all possible (and most the time able to do so), but sometimes there is logistical no way to do so with all the factors involved. A training schedule will be posted when all teams and coaches are finalized. Please keep in mind that weather may cause trainings to be rescheduled for different dates, times, and/or location.
GAMES
- Games will be held on Saturdays @ Next Level in Wilder, KY with start times between 9AM - 5PM
- First game is Saturday, November 8th
- Tournament the weekend of February 7th. Possibly play Friday evening, Saturday (8AM-7PM), and/or Sunday depending on the number of teams.
- Game Day Set-Up:
- Playing time is not equal. It is at the coaches' discretion. Our recommendation to coaches is to rotate players in close to equally during the first 32-35 minutes of the game and then play who is playing well/situational the last 5-8 minutes.
- Teams will get a minimum of 2 minutes to warm-up, but typically will have 5-10 minutes depending on when the game before finishes.
- Games will be (2) 20-minute running halves with the clock stopping the last minute of the game on dead balls and whistles.
- Only defenses that have been added to our curriculum at that point in the season can be utilized in games. See link below for more details on this and the rest of the game rules.
- Based on the NBA and USA Basketball Youth Basketball Guidelines, the 4th/5th division will play on 9ft baskets with a 28.5" basketball in order to give players the opportunity to continue to develop good habits with their shooting form and finishing technique.
- Competitive Scheduling: We do our best to do competitive scheduling while offering a variety of teams for your team to play...meaning we try to set up match-ups where the teams are evenly matched as best as possible. For example, if we have 8 teams in a division, we will not schedule the best team against the 8th best team if there is a large gap between them as this wouldn't benefit or be fun for either team.
23-24 The Academy League (4th/5th) Rules & Modifications
DATES
1) Week of Oct. 27 (No games that weekend)
2) Week of Nov. 3 (Game #1 on 11/8)
3) Week of Nov. 10 (Game #2)
4) Week of Nov. 17 (Game #3)
- No Trainings or Game Sessions the week of Nov. 24 for Thanksgiving
5) Week of Dec. 1 (Game #4)
6) Week of Dec. 8 (Game #5)
7) Week of Dec. 15 (Game #6)
- No Practices or Game Sessions Dec. 23-Jan. 5
*Note: January 2-5 may be used as a last resort for weather make-up trainings or games.
8) Week of Jan. 5 (Game #7)
9) Week of Jan. 12 (Game #8)
10) Week of Jan. 19 (Game #9)
11) Week of Jan. 26 (Game #10)
12) Week of Feb. 2 (Tournament 2/6-2/8)
- Make-up: Week of Feb. 9 and Feb. 16
Dates/times are weather permitting. Make-up games may be during the week or two games may be played on a weekend depending on the number of cancellations and gym availability.
COACHES
We will need a head coach and at least one assistant for each team (max of 2 assistants).
- Coaches will be required to complete a volunteer background check before coaching with a team or submit an up-to-date AAU coach's membership card.
- Background checks are completed all online and good for two years.
- The cost of the background check is $20.50. Each head coach will receive a $25 credit each season they coach. A team's assistant coach will also receive a $25 credit each season (or $12.50 each if a team has two assistants - maximum of two assistants per team). These credits will be issued upon the completion of the season.
If you have any questions at all, feel free to email David at [email protected].