Hello ACYBA families.  Thank you for your involvement in our youth basketball program.  We serve over 400 kids who live or go to school in the Robbinsdale School District, ranging from our Kindergarten instructional league through 8th grade travel.  It's a large undertaking and it cannot be done without the involvement and commitment of all our families.

Basketball is a wonderful sport that teaches kids many things.  As the President of our Board, I have tried to make a concerted effort to emphasize overall skill development of all our players, rather than strictly focusing on wins and losses.  To that end, the Board has  specifically invested in skill development. In the last few years, we have started our K-2 developmental program, where we strive to provide age-appropriate instruction and exposure to basics of the game.  Our house program has worked in the past with groups like the Minnesota Timberwolves to provide skills clinics for our house players.  And we have invested in skills-only practices for our travel programs both through Minnesota School of Basketball and experienced instructors we bring in-house.

We have also initiated a theme for the program: ATTACK.  We have asked our coaches to focus on this theme and emphasize it during the season.  We also ask that parents consider these elements and encourage their players to focus on them this year. The theme focuses on an overall development of a basketball player and consists of the following elements:

- ATTITUDE & EFFORT:  There are only a few things we can control in basketball.  Attitude and effort are the most important.  If the kids don't put forth the effort or have a good attitude every time the come to practice or games, they won't learn anything and, in fact, they negatively impact the rest of their teammates.  Every time they step on the court is an opportunity to improve.  Bring a great attitude and give maximum effort, and the rewards will follow.

- TEAM: Basketball is a team game.  It's not tennis or golf.   We're trying to teach the kids to work and succeed as a team.

- TOOLS: The kids will be given the opportunity to develop the skills, or tools, to improve as a basketball player.  This is the key.

- AGGRESSIVE: A large part of the game is aggression.  Both learning to play with aggression, but also learning to control aggression.  This ties closely with the attitude and effort the kids bring to every opportunity. 

- COMMITMENT: Playing basketball involves a commitment from everyone involved, including players, families and coaches.  Thank you to everyone for making the commitment. But playing basketball, including through ACYBA, is not a right.  If there are attitude problems or issues in the classroom, players can lose playing time or the right to be part of the team.  Meaning,they fail to keep their commitment to their teammates. 

- KIDS: Maybe most importantly, we all need to remember that every player in the program is a kid.    Even the 14 year-old eighth graders.  They're all kids and they play the game for fun.  We hope they don't put too much pressure on themselves.  We hope parents understand that we're trying to develop ball players for the long term.  And we hope our coaches keep in mind the game is a kids game and it's supposed to be fun. 

The video to the right, sort of sums up what I envision with our program.  Of course we want to win games.  That's a skill that is important to learn.  And we have had great success in the past.  But winning games and championships is not all we are focusing on.  As Coach Van Gundy says in the video, we need to decide whether  we're involved in this program in order to win games or develop basketball players.  We have decided that we're going to develop basketball players.  Winning will be a natural by-product.  

We hope all players and families enjoy their experience with ACYBA.  We're always open to suggestions and help from the people benefiting the most from the program.  If anyone wants to become more involved, please contact me to talk about ways to help lead our program into the future.

Sincerely,

Mike Skram
ACYBA Board President