weekend tournaments

[CYO Butch]

The joke around here used to be that CYO stood for "Kill Your Opponent". They have done a lot to clean it up, and it now is a pretty great environment for players, coaches, and officials, at least below the in-season HS divisions which are still being brought back from the dark side.

Tournament teams, on the other hand are virtually always about winning, and feeding the coach's ego. The kids tend to be more talented, but the games look more like mini-NBA games than team games. Since these teams typically have a pretty short life, teamwork is put behind individual athleticism. A girl I was lucky enough to coach when she was in 3rd and 4th grade has been on many tournament teams since then. She is now a freshman in HS and while she is very good, she has not really learned a whole lot from those teams since her 5th grade year - the last year she had a coach who really cared about the kids. This girl was one of the best natural athletes I have ever seen, but she lost out on many years of learning the teamwork of the sport because of her exclusive play on tournament teams.