Click here for a printable copy of the  2022-23 Travel Information Letter

Questions regarding the EPBBA Travel program may be directed to Scott Hussong, EPBBA Travel Director, at EPBBAtraveldirector@Gmail.com. Information will also be posted at www.epbba.org.

Registration: EPBBA registration will be held online. Players must register with the EPBBA for their grade by the end of registration period on September 15 @ 7:00 pm.

Key Program Elements:

• The Travel program is designed to give boys with more advanced basketball skills the opportunity to play against stronger competition.
• Tryouts are open to boys that attend school in Eden Prairie.  Eligibility based on school attendance is new this year based on the latest MYAS team composition guidelines.  If this affects your son’s eligibility, please contact EPBBAtraveldirector@Gmail.com as soon as possible.
• Travel teams compete in 10 tournaments that have been selected in advance by the EPBBA. Tournaments are held on weekends and games are played on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
• Travel coaches may schedule two additional tournaments.  Parents must agree to these tournaments and the added cost is at the team’s expense. This ensures that all participants in the program will participate in an approximately the same number of tournaments and also allows for all participants and their families to have scheduled “weekends off” during the season.

EPBBA Program Philosophy:

• Provide ALL participants with a positive experience
• Inspire each player to continue playing and to develop their skills
• Teach life lessons through positive interaction
• Winning is an outcome . . . it is NOT an objective

Teams: The EPBBA is sponsoring three 4^th grade teams.  They will play in “A”, “B”, and “C” levels.  There will be 8 players on the “A” team and 9 players on “B” and “C” teams.

The EPBBA sponsors up to five travel teams in grades 5 to 8 with up to 43 players selected in each grade. Players are selected for Team (1), Team (2), Team (3), Team (4) or Team (5). Team (1) will play an “A” schedule, Team (2) will play a mixed “A” and “B” or a “B” schedule, Team (3) will play a “B” schedule, Team (4) will play a mixed “B” and “C” schedule or a “C” schedule, and Team (5) will play a “C” schedule throughout the season. Teams (1) & (2) will have 8 players. Teams (3), (4) and (5) will have 9 players. 

Coaches: EPBBA conducts an interview process to determine available coaches for each team. Players are placed on teams before coaches are assigned. Every effort will be made to have coaches selected prior to the posting of the team selections. It is possible that at the conclusion of the tryouts a team may not have a coach. In that event, the parents of the players selected will be contacted seeking a volunteer to coach the team. In the event no parent volunteers to coach, the EPBBA will attempt to hire a paid coach. The cost of the paid coach will be the responsibility of the participants on that team. Exhibiting good sportsmanship and the development of players and their basketball skills are our primary points of emphasis. The playing time policy of the EPBBA is that each player will play at least half the game of every game in which the player participates. Coaches are not required to play each player equally and coaches do have the right to bench player for disciplinary reasons.

CLICK HERE for the Head Coach Travel Application

Travel Practice and Tournaments:

• It is expected that participation on a Travel team will be the player’s primary extra-curricular activity during the Travel season.
• We will LIMIT our teams to three (3) events a week, which is typically two (2) practices and one (1) tournament or three (3) practices.
• Practices will start in mid-October and the season concludes with the State Tournament in mid-March.
• Participation in other activities should not conflict on a regular basis with the Travel tournament and practice schedule. Parents will be given a tournament schedule at, or before, the first practice of each team. EPBBA will not schedule tournaments or practice over Thanksgiving weekend, during the Christmas/New Year’s break, or over the President’s Day weekend.
• Participating in Travel basketball is a significant time commitment from the player and his family. The EPBBA wants players and families to be aware of this and take it into account as they consider participating.

Tryouts: All boys who are interested in playing Travel basketball are required to participate in the tryouts.

Evaluation

The tryouts will be conducted by, and the teams will be selected by the EPBBA. Participating as evaluators in the tryouts will be the Eden Prairie High School Varsity Basketball Staff and others including EPBBA Travel Director, EPBBA Board members, and Travel team coaches. All evaluation sessions will include evaluators independent of the Travel program and independent of the specific grade being evaluated. Travel team coaches for their specific grade may be asked to participate as evaluators in the final tryout session

It is important that parents and players understand that the evaluators are looking for the players that will make up the best basketball teams and not just the tallest players, the fastest players, or the players that are the best shooters. A successful basketball team includes players that can rebound, play defense, pass the ball, shoot the ball and are willing to play within a team framework with a positive attitude. Parents should encourage their sons to attempt to demonstrate all of their basketball skills during the tryouts. Players demonstrating abilities in all facets of the game and that demonstrate the ability and willingness to play as a member of a team, and not as an individual, will be more highly-rated in the evaluations than players concerned only with making as many shots as possible. Evaluations from prior year’s Travel coaches may also be taken into account in the selection of players as needed.

Format in 2022

The tryouts consist of two sessions

• All players will attend both sessions on September 18th & 25th.
• At the conclusion of the second evaluation session, cuts will be made and teams will be formed.

Notification

• The rosters for the Travel teams will be posted on the EPBBA website.
• The approximate time that the results will be posted will be announced at the conclusion of the first and second tryout sessions.

Tryout Dates and Times: Tryouts consist of two separate sessions. A player must attend both sessions to be selected for a Travel team.  Situations preventing attendance at one or more sessions should be communicated in advance and will be addressed by the Travel Director and the EPBBA Officers on a case-by-case basis. These situations may also be handled under the injury and illness rules detailed below at the discretion of the EPBBA. Tryouts will take place at the EP High School Activity Center or Main Gym (EPHS) on:

Sunday, September 18th and

Sunday, September 25th.

The specific tryout schedule for each grade is outlined below.

2022 – 2023 Travel Tryout Schedule

Below are the dates for the 2022 tryouts at the EP High School Activity. Players should report to EPHS at their designated check-in time. Tryouts are held on two separate sessions and a player MUST ATTEND BOTH SESSIONS to be selected for a Travel team.  If you do not make a travel team, your registration will remain active for our in-house program and you will be assigned to an in-house team.

Parents are not allowed in the gym during tryouts unless they are participating in the evaluation process. There are no exceptions to this rule.

Details about a mandatory parent information meeting will be communicated separately.

If a player is unable to participate due to injury or illness, the parent of the player must contact the Travel Director prior to the tryout session. At that time the EPBBA rules governing placing injured or ill players on a Travel team will be reviewed with the parent. Players that are injured or ill at the time of tryouts may still be placed on a Travel team at the time of the initial team selection. The primary factors involved in making this determination include:

Anticipated recovery time: If a player is not expected to be able to participate in basketball until after December 14th, they will not be placed on a team at the time of the initial team selection but may utilize a mid-season evaluation when they are physically able to play.  If a player is not expected to recover until after January 30, they will not be placed on a team and will not be able to utilize a mid-season evaluation.

A player’s past participation in the EPBBA: A player’s former coaches will be consulted to obtain an evaluation of the player and the level of his play. This may involve discussions with both Travel and In-House coaches.

The EPBBA in its sole discretion will determine if players are allowed, or required, to participate in a mid-season evaluation. Mid-season evaluations consist of a player participating in practices with the team at the level they desire to try out for. The Travel Director, EPBBA Officers and the coaches from the specific grade level will watch the player participate in a practice or series of practices and if the player is determined to be better than 50% of the players on the team, he will be placed upon that team for the balance of the season. The player will pay the full Travel fee regardless of the length of the season remaining. A player may try out for a team at one level and if not placed at that level, may be placed on a team or try out for a team at another level. Players participating in mid-season evaluations may also be placed on teams to replace players originally selected but injured subsequent to tryouts. Players missing tryouts for reasons other than injury, illness or unforeseeable family emergency may not utilize the mid-season evaluation process for placement on a Travel team. Unless a player is bedridden as a result of injury or illness, they must still attend the tryout session even if they are unable to participate. The EPBBA reserves the right to require confirmation from the player’s doctor as to the extent of his injury or illness and the anticipated recovery time.

Twins Policy

If a family has twins and both are trying out for a travel team the parents will need to decide how they want to handle team placement for their boys with one of the following options:

1. Each boy will make the team that is appropriate based on their individual evaluation.

2. If the desire is for the boys to be on the same team, the players will be assigned to the lower of the two teams. A player will not be moved up a team to allow the boys to be on the same team.

The decision of the parents must be communicated to the Travel Director prior to the second day of the evaluations. If no decision is communicated the boys will be placed on the appropriate team based on their evaluation.

Playing Up in Travel:  

The standard for a player to play with the next grade in our Travel Program is that the player must be clearly in the Top 5 players of the next grade.  Each player is evaluated during Travel Evaluations by several independent evaluators. If a player meets these standards in the collective view of these multiple evaluations and independent evaluators, and it is deemed appropriate for their development, they will be placed on the top team in the next grade. This will not be considered until a player has played at least one year on an Eden Prairie travel team in order to incorporate past performance and coaches’ feedback.  If a player is interested in learning more, they should reach out to the EPBBA President and Travel Director. 

Travel Team Fees:

Fees for participation on Travel teams include (1) an EPBBA base registration fee and (2) a Travel Team fee of $440.00. The EPBBA Travel Team fee is collected by check or cash at the last session of the tryouts from all players. We will also destroy the checks for players who do not make a Travel Team. A team jersey and team shorts are included in the travel fee. Parents and players should be aware that there are additional costs for participation in the Travel program that are the responsibility of the participants. These costs include admission fees for the tournaments, expenses of traveling to and from the tournaments and overnight lodging and food costs at the Rochester tournament. Warm-ups, shooting shirts, caps, duffle bags or any other sports apparel are additional costs at your own expense. These costs are not included in the fees paid to the EPBBA.

Parents of the Travel team participants are required to work at the EPBBA Travel Basketball Tournament on December 2 - 4. In addition to the Travel Team fee, players will bring a second check in the amount of $100. This check will serve as a deposit for parents to work their designated shifts at the EPBBA Travel Basketball Tournament. If the parents decline to help at the EP Tournament, the $100 will be used to reimburse the EPBBA for the hiring of tournament workers. Checks from parents who work their assigned shifts will be destroyed. We will also destroy the checks for players who do not make a Travel Team.
 

Travel Financial Aid:

To achieve our goal of allowing boys with more advanced basketball skills the opportunity to play against stronger competition, the EPBBA Board of Directors has developed a Financial Aid program. This ensures that any boy regardless of financial situation can play travel basketball.

The EPBBA Travel Basketball Financial Program details are the following:

• The Eden Prairie Boys Basketball Association will offer a scholarship program to cover the full cost of the current travel fee and the base fee of $155, if the player is eligible for free or reduced school lunch.
• As part of the registration process the parent will be asked 1) if the player will be trying out for travel and 2) if they are in need of financial aid.
  • Parents will be asked to provide their free and reduced lunch form to the EPBBA Financial Aid liaison.  Upon receipt of the documentation, the fees will be waived.
  • The EPBBA requests that parents work their designated shift at the EPBBA Travel Basketball Tournament and will expect the $100 deposit at the final session of tryouts.  If you are unable to provide this deposit or are unable to work the tournament, please reach out to the EPBBA Financial Aid liaison. (EPBBAFinancialAid@outlook.com)

Thank you for reviewing this information and for considering participation in the Travel program. We’re proud of the basketball experience we offer the participants in this program and look forward to another enjoyable basketball season.
 

Eden Prairie Boys Basketball Association