Fall sports haven’t even made it to their halfway points of the season yet, but, of course now is the time to think about basketball because before you know it, Grist Mill, Dimmick and Polk Valley parks will be covered in snow. Travel team tryouts and team announcements are barely three weeks away. So, if you haven’t already, it is time to register for the 2018-2019 Saucon Valley Youth Basketball season at www.svyb.org/registration.
If you are undecided about whether or not you want your child to play, let me share my story and experience with both basketball and the SVYB program.
When my family and I moved into the Saucon Valley School District our sons were in kindergarten and preschool. Almost immediately, we signed them up for tee ball and soccer. Baseball was always my first love and soccer seemed like the sport you were just supposed to put your kids in, if they were going to play anything. We loved those experiences and we still do.
While baseball was my first love, I was never very good at it. I couldn’t hit a fastball to save my life. Regardless, I still played it and loved it. However, it was basketball that became my second love. It was a sport I picked up quickly and was something I was good at. It became how I spent time after school, on weekends and whenever I got a chance. In college, it was how I caught up with my high school friends during the summer. We would meet at the local park, which had lights, and we would play until the cops came by and reminded us the park was closed. Some of my best memories of growing up occurred on the basketball court.
Basketball was important to me then, but it would become even more important to me over the last several years.
It wasn’t until my older son was in second grade that I saw that Saucon Valley had a youth program for basketball. I wondered how I had missed that the year before. I signed up my sons almost immediately, hoping they would get as much love and enjoyment out of it as I did. I also volunteered to coach, wanting to be a part of their introduction to this game. And while I believe that was accomplished, the basketball program became so much more.
For me, the Saucon Valley Youth Basketball program is something very special. Yeah, these days I am pretty biased towards the program, but in that first year we absolutely fell in love with it. At that age, the kids played in the elementary school cafeteria on 8½ foot baskets with coaches–moms and dads–reffing the games (and by reffing, I mean doing their best to get some semblance of a game out of first and second grader chaos). As the season went on, watching these kids go from barely being able to dribble a ball to actually making baskets was really just amazing. And when we were in that cafeteria, with parents so close, cheering on their little sons and daughters, you couldn’t help but feel a part of a community centered around this game.
That feeling has grown through the years.
Watching some of these kids that I coached and coached against back when they could barely get the ball to the basket, become stars on the court in such a short amount of time is amazing and fun to watch. And to have those short polite exchanges of “hello’s” and “Little Jimmy played great today” between parents develop into full friendships between them simply deepens that feeling of community.
Parents excitedly take photos of the 2017-2018 LVKBL Horn Biddy Champions, from left to right: Ryan Keeney, Michael Magnotta, Joe Petersen, Noah Weiss, Nick Albanese, Caleb Albert, Landon Huber, Joey Dries, Tony Salgado and Chase Best.
Last season our 3/4 Boys travel team won their league championship. It was a special moment as the community rallied around the team as they stormed through the playoffs. Coincidentally, the championship game was on our court, which was dressed up in red and black in celebration of this group of boys who worked hard all season to win our second championship in three years. Watching them win it all was a truly wonderful moment.
However, the great part about Saucon Valley Youth Basketball is that success is not measured in this type of victory. It is measured in a first-grader getting their first basket in their final game of the season and celebrating like they had just won a championship. It is measured in the smallest girl on the team in 3rd/4th grade rec leading her team in points and into victory. It is measured by a 6th grade girl working hard year after year and finally making the travel team in her final year in the program. It is measured by a 6th grade boy who decided to play basketball for the very first time and helped his team to the playoffs.
Winning is always nice, and we get more than our fair share of wins, but that is not our focus. Our focus is on playing good, fundamental basketball and having fun. Yeah, championships are nice, but they are a small moment in a season filled with so many other moments. Those last second shots (made and unmade). Those strange moments of confusion over who was supposed to guard that kid. Those last practices filled with excitement before the Christmas break. Those moments on the bench teasing the coach and cheering their teammates. We strive to have a program that, when the kids look back at it years from now, it will be those times when they were out on the court and just playing basketball with their friends that they remember more than the wins and losses.
So, who’s ready to play?
Saucon Valley Youth Basketball apparel
Registration is open until Oct. 15. It is open to all children, boys and girls, at all skill levels from 1st to 6th grade (registration for 7th and 8th grade boys will open around the middle or end of November). This year, we are giving away free SVYB logo magnets for all registrations as well as offering OPTIONAL SVYB T-shirts and shorts for sale that will compliment the league-supplied uniforms. Please go to www.svyb.org for more information.
About the author: Tom Keenan is president of Saucon Valley Youth Basketball.
