| Register

Arlington County Department of Parks and Recreation

Home
About Us
- Contact Info
- FAQs
Coaches & Volunteers
- Sign-up
Flag Football
- NFL Youth Flag Football
- Youth Flag Football Resources
Basketball
Youth Indoor Soccer

Arlington County House Basketball - Grades 3-8

The House Basketball League for grades 3-8 offers practices and games starting mid-November through early March. Players of all abilities can play in this program. Teams are coached by parent or community volunteers. This youth basketball league program is for children who live or go to school in Arlington County.

Grades 3-8 registration for the 2025-26 season is now open!
Registration will close on Thursday, October 2nd at 11:59pm

Youth Basketball is open only to Arlington, VA residents (see below).

Fees

3rd Grade Developmental League – Registration for the 2025-26 season opens Monday, August 25th and close on Thursday, October 2nd at 11:59pm.
4th – 8th Grade Leagues – Registration opens Monday, August 25th and close on Thursday, October 2nd at 11:59pm.

Income-based fee reductions are available to qualified individuals for all Arlington County programs. Children who receive reduced lunch pay 50% of the basketball registration fee; children who receive free lunch pay 25%. Children eligible for fee reductions can register online but please do NOT complete the payment section and contact your league commissioner to make payment arrangements at the discounted rate. Individuals requesting fee reductions also may register in person at the Arlington Sports Office, or via mail. You can find more information about fee reductions here.

All Fee Reductions for youth sport leagues must be manually applied. If you have a fee reduction and need to apply it, please follow these steps:

Complete the registration for the winter house basketball program and add the order to your cart. You can access the website here: Arlington County Youth Basketball Leagues
Do not complete payment for the program, please email your league manager directly once the registration is in the cart.
We will go into your account and adjust the fee to reflect the fee reduction.
Once you receive an email from your league manager informing you that the fee has been adjusted, please log back into your account and pay the adjust fee.
Please note, that your child’s registration for the program will not be completed until the adjusted registration fee is paid.

Refund Policy: There will be a $20 cancellation fee for all refunds.

Note: Our credit card processor adds a 2.5% surcharge to all credit card payments. Arlington County does not receive any portion of this fee. Debit cards are processed as credit cards and incur the 2.5% fee. A $20 cancellation fee will be subtracted from cancellation refunds.

Rosters

Players rostered on Arlington Travel Basketball are eligible to participate in the Arlington House League program, but each team will be limited to a maximum of one (1) such player. Travel and high school team basketball players can play a maximum of two quarters per game.

Note: Players designated as “practice players’ with Arlington Travel Basketball (ATB) do not count towards House basketball's roster limit of one ATB player PER roster but these players are restricted to a maximum of two quarters of playing time. Additionally, Travel players and practice players may not play on the court at the same during during House basketball games.

Players are not allowed to “play-up;” they must play with their current grade.
Team rosters are limited to a maximum of 10 and a minimum of 8 players in the 3rd-12th grade leagues.

Commissioners will assign additional players and make every effort to ensure each roster has preferably the maximum and at least the minimum number of players, to promote competitive fairness.

Team Formation

Participants will be placed on teams based on the school district in which they live or attend school.

For grades 4-8, returning players on 2025-26 rosters who wish to remain on that team are given priority on 2025-26 rosters until 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, October 2nd, 2025. Players may include the name of the coach or friends in the “requests” section of the registration form, but we cannot guarantee placement on a specific team.

3rd grade teams will be formed randomly based on school districts. Players in grade 3 who participated in the Saturday Morning basketball program will NOT have priority to return to previous team.

This is a no-cut program; all players who register by October 2nd, 2025 will play. Late registrants are accepted on a space-available basis.

Team Personnel Listing

Register Now

Positions

2025-26 Winter House Basketball League

Head Coach An adult who volunteers to operate team's practices and games compliant with league rules. Also, responsible for team communications and logistics unless delegated to Assistant Coach or Team Manager. (Must be 21 or older to coach Grade 9-12)

An adult who volunteers to operate team's practices and games compliant with league rules. Also, responsible for team communications and logistics unless delegated to Assistant Coach or Team Manager. (Must be 21 or older to coach Grade 9-12)

Assistant Coach

Team Manager An adult who volunteers to handle team communications and logistics on behalf of the Head Coach. Does not need to be on site for practices or games.

An adult who volunteers to handle team communications and logistics on behalf of the Head Coach. Does not need to be on site for practices or games.

+ Sign Up

League Commissioners

Grades 3-5
Mariah Leonard
[email protected]
703-228-1818

Grades 6-8
Brandt Jeffers
[email protected]
703-881-5312

Equipment

Uniforms: All players on teams in grades 3-8 will receive reversible uniform jerseys as part of their registration fee. Please be sure to indicate the appropriate size on your child’s registration form.

3rd Grade:
Boys use size 28.5 basketballs and play on 8 ft hoops.
Girls use size 27.5 basketballs and play on 8 ft hoops.

4th Grade:
Boys use size 28.5 basketballs and play on 9 ft hoops.
Girls use size 27.5 basketballs and play on 9 ft hoops.

5th Grade:
Boys use size 28.5 basketballs and play on standard 10 ft hoops.
Girls use size 27.5 basketballs and play on standard 10 ft hoops.

6th-8th Grade:
Boys use size 29.5 basketballs and play on standard 10 ft hoops.
Girls use size 28.5 basketballs and play on standard 10 ft hoops.

Sportsmanship

Everyone involved in our program should be familiar with and uphold the Code of Conduct, officials, coaches, parents and players all have a hand in promoting this code and reporting violations. Please read the parents’ code of conduct before registering, and discuss the player code with your child(ren).

Coaches: Code of Conduct – Coaches
Parents: Code of Conduct – Parents
Players: Code of Conduct – Players

Coaches Corner

Volunteer coaches are essential to Arlington’s youth basketball program. Parents and other interested persons are encouraged to apply to coach a team. The weekly time commitment is about 2-3 hours. All coaches are required to pass an Arlington County Online Background Check.

We provide a pre-season coaching clinic, Positive Coaching Alliance training, resources, and weekly emails with coaching guidance and practice plans. Coaches can register online or email for more information.

Coaches Meeting Presentation Slides

Game Schedules

Team practices for grades 3-8 will begin the week of November 16. Players will be notified prior to November 18 by their coach about their first practice sessions. Teams practice for one hour twice a week until the winter break. Beginning in January, teams will practice for one hour a week through the end of the season.

The 3rd Grade Developmental Leagues will have 2 preseason games on December 6 or 13 and then start their league games on Saturday January 10, 2025. All games will be played on Saturdays. There are no post-season playoffs. The 3rd grade developmental league has 7 scheduled regular season games (6 guaranteed).

The 4th Grade League will play three short pre-season screening games on December 6 or 13. League games will begin January 9/10 and will be played on seven consecutive Saturdays and two Mondays or two Fridays (based on competition level). 4th grade games are played on 9-foot baskets. Two-Three weeks of post-season playoffs will be scheduled for all teams, the last weekend in February and/or the first two weekends of March. The 4th grade league has 9 scheduled regular season games (8 guaranteed) and at least 1 playoff game.

The 5th Grade League will play three short pre-season screening games on December 6 or 13 League games will begin January 9/10 and will be played on seven consecutive Saturdays and two Mondays or two Fridays (based on competition level). 5th grade games are played on 10-foot baskets. Two-Three weeks of post-season playoffs will be scheduled for all teams, the last weekend in February and/or the first two weekends of March. The 5th grade league has 9 scheduled regular season games (8 guaranteed) and at least 1 playoff game.

The 6th, 7th, and 8th Grade Leagues will play three pre-season bracket games December 6, 7, 13 and/or 14. League games will begin January 10. Games will be played primarily on Saturday with a few Sunday and/or weeknight games possible. Seven league games will be followed by post-season playoffs. The 6th-8th grade league has 7 scheduled regular season games (6 guaranteed) and at least 1 playoff game.

Games WILL be played on holiday weekends (January 1-18 and February 14-15). Dates may change (extend season) if there are snow cancellations.

House Basketball Rules

A full version of the updated Arlington County House Basketball League Rules can be found here: 2024-25 Youth Basketball Rules

A summary of the difference in rules for grades, 3, 4, 5 and 6-8 (this includes ball sizes, rim heights, defense regulations etc.) can be found here: 3rd Grade Summary, 4th Grade Summary, 5th Grade Summary, 6-8th Grade Summary. These can be helpful tools for coaches and parents in preparing for league games.

Residency

All players must be Arlington County residents as of the date of their first game. 'Resident' is defined as:

A person or family living within the geographical boundaries of Arlington County, Virginia.
A person or family whose property is bisected by the county boundary and that of an adjacent jurisdiction, such that real estate taxes are paid to Arlington County.
A person or family owning property and paying real estate taxes in Arlington County even though that person or family resides outside the county boundary.
Current employees of the Arlington County Government, and their immediate family members.
Nonresident, full-time students who attend a public or private school in Arlington County

$140.00

+ Register Now

Concussion Awareness

To help ensure the health and safety of young athletes, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) developed the Heads Up: Concussion in Youth Sports initiative to offer information about concussions to coaches, parents, and athletes involved in youth sports. The Heads Up initiative provides important information on preventing, recognizing, and responding to a concussion. We suggest that parents take this opportunity to educate themselves on the symptoms of concussions and the appropriate way to monitor them. You will be surprised as to how many signs there are that most take for granted or simply miss. Click HERE for more helpful information.