Garden City Basketball - Proposal

What are we doing with youth basketball in Garden City?

Why do we have confusion of times for the coming season at St. Paul’s?

This past spring Garden City Basketball attended a Village Recreation and Cultural Affairs Commission meeting. We presented the success of the previous season and discussed a number of issues related to the upcoming 2009-2010 winter season. Leaving that meeting, whether correct or not, our program had the impression that Garden City Basketball would probably have a starting time in the afternoon (potentially noon). Upon seeing an article for the GCAA announcing the possibility of their program operating 8am -4pm on Saturdays at St. Paul’s, we became concerned about exactly what time we would be allocated gym space by the Village. The formal allocation for space by the Village, which is based upon enrollment, has still not been done and will not occur until late October or even early November. Out of concern for the participants in our program, we are protecting our program from what we see as an unfair and potentially unusable allocation of time. Needless to say, Garden City Basketball is doing everything it can to protect its program from extinction and there is a lot going on behind the scenes. No intramural basketball program in Garden City has ever been assigned a start time at 4 pm or later on Saturday at St. Paul’s.

A very positive development, we believe, is a proposal that Garden City Basketball made at the September 8th Recreation Commission meeting. The proposal is for cooperation in the sport of youth basketball in the Village of Garden City. The goal is to eliminate (not to have) overlapping/duplicate/similar programs between Garden City Basketball and the GCAA. Garden City Basketball is suggesting to the Village for the GCAA to provide the majority of basketball in the Village. We recommended that Garden City Basketball reduce its programs to “bookends”. Garden City Basketball would provide all Kindergarten, 1st grade, and 2nd grade programs and the anti-drug & alcohol Boys 7th grade and higher “Friday Night Lights” program. The GCAA would provide travel programs for boys & girls 3rd grade and higher and an intramural program for boys 3rd to 6th grade and girls 3rd grade and higher. In addition, the Garden City Basketball program would release back to the Village almost 300 hours of court time that we would recommend be provided to the GCAA for travel practices, intramural skill & drill clinics, and any other events they choose to offer.

If accepted, this approach could have the typical Saturday intramural program looking something like the following:

• 8:00am - 10:00am Garden City Basketball K, 1st grade, and 2nd grade

• 10:00am - 11:00am GCAA girls 3rd Grade

• 11:00am - 12:30pm GCAA girls 4th/5th Grade

• 12:30pm - 1:30pm GCAA girls 6th thru 8th Grade

• 1:30pm - 2:30pm GCAA boys 3rd Grade

• 2:30pm - 4:00pm GCAA boys 4th Grade

• 4:00pm - 5:30pm GCAA boys 5th/6th Grade

Some of the many benefits we see are that:

• many GCAA programs could grow from 60 minute to 90 minute sessions

• age groupings could have a single start time and not be split over multiple time periods

• parents would not have to call one another to discuss what program their children wanted to play in versus what their friends were thinking of doing

• school facilities could be used for practice and not games

• for Saturdays in December, the village may close the St Paul’s field house at 6pm saving on staffing costs

• for Saturdays in January through March, St Paul’s could be available for Lacrosse clinics once again as it used to be at 6pm

As we have done for three seasons, does Garden City Basketball wish to operate a full program and provide weeknight clinics? Yes we do. We are planning to offer a full program this season. However, we believe that reducing our program to our nationally recognized K-1-2 program, providing the community service of keeping 7th grade boys and older off the streets on Fridays, and having the GCAA operate the majority of basketball in the Village is in the best interests of children, parents, the Village of Garden City, and both of our programs.

We look forward to the board of the GCAA discussing this proposal and await the direction we will be taking for youth basketball.

Garden City Basketball thanks the hundreds of participants and volunteers that have helped make our program the success that it is today.

If you have any questions regarding our proposal, please feel free to contact John Skramko ( jskramko@optonline.net ) or speak with a GCAA board member.