What makes a great feeder program?

 I recently published an interview with Smithville head basketball coach Eric Bennaka, who talked about how he was trying to change the culture in the school and town and build a more successful basketball program.  I thought that Eric had some great points and it was worthwhile to share on the blog.  Check it out HERE.

Since then, I saw some Tweets about the Eureka Wildcat feeder program skill nights.     The Eureka Jr Wildcat feeder program is run by Matt Benz as part of the Eureka Basketball Booster Club which helps sponsor the program.   The program is run under the careful eye of Eureka boys head coach Austin Kirby, and James Alsup, Eureka girls head coach, who are the chief architects of the program.  

It is a great success story and, again, a worthwhile read.  I have watched both the girls and boys Eureka high school teams for about six years and have always been impressed with the teamwork and cohesiveness of the teams over that time period.  They may not always have the physicality or athleticism of other teams, but they play well together and win games you might not think they should.

On the girl's side, James Alsup is closing in on 400 victories in a long career at Eureka.  Alsup's 2000 Eureka team won a state title.  CJ Herbert, an assistant for the boys when son Gunnar was on the team, moved over to help James when his daughter, Annika, played for the Cats. Revonna Hunt is the JV coach and James Daffron is the freshman coach.  The girl's coaches do a great job of getting the team ready each season and they are 197-123 over the past twelve years.  Coaches are actively involved with the feeder tryouts and skills sessions.

The boys coaching staff includes not only Austin Kirby, but assistant coaches Scott Allen (former successful Layfayette Wildwood head coach), volunteer assistant coach Rick Kirby (retired from Parkway Central with over 400 wins),  JV coach Trevor Noonan (a 6'9" center in his Air Force Academy and Univ. of Denver college days) and highly successful freshman coach Corey Choate (former Lafayette and Marquette assistant and 2020 state champion Rockwood Summit girls golf coach).  All of the coaches have contributed in some way to the success of the feeder system through skills training, player evaluation, and establishing the program pillars.  That is a heck of a lot of coaching experience when you face the Wildcat varsity and when you are developing a sound grassroots feeder program.

Here are the questions I sent to Matt and his responses.  I hope you enjoy it.

What grades does the feeder program start?

Our feeder program is limited to middle schoolers - 6th through 8th grade.   We feel like that's a good time to transition from playing with your friends to learning the high school systems.

 

How many teams are in the program?  Boys and girls?

We have 14 teams total.  9 boys and 5 girls.    We offered a spot to all 6th grade boys and girls this year (no cuts), thus forming four 6th grade boys teams and two 6th grade girls teams.    6th graders have a long way to go before high school so we try not to exclude anyone.   Of course we are only as successful as the number of volunteer coaches we have.

 

How do you recruit kids?  Through the summer clinics?  Twitter and other social media?

All of the above, in addition to flyers and our 260 player strong TeamBot database.   We are hoping to get cooperation from the 5th grade PE coaches this year to get the word out next May.

 

How much input do you get from the HS coaches?  What kind of coaching/training do the feeder coaches get?

 

·     Offense and defense systems

·     Team make-up

·     Practice organization, etc

Our program is unique in that the HS coaches actually pick the teams and we have tryouts every year, thus giving everyone 3 chances to be evaluated before 9th grade.    This means that everyone has a fair shot at making the team they want regardless of how they tried out the previous year or if they just moved into the district.     We have coach the coach nights where our boys and girls grade level feeder coaches learn the high school offense and defense systems and get some basics on the drills that the HS programs run.   Of course, in each grade the grade level coaches have to adapt their system to the personnel and age and skill level they have.    However, we don't want the grade level coaches running a bunch of set plays if at the high school level we are running 5 out and motion.   Don't want the grade level coaches playing zone if the high school teaches man to man.    The grade level coaches definitely all follow the style of the high school programs.

 

The HS coaches form teams of similar ability level.   None of the grade level coaches can just "bring in a team".  Both Coach Alsup and Kirby want the feeder selections to be authentic and allow the boys and girls in the program to get equal touches.    That requires the high school coaches to do the evaluations.     

 

What leagues do you participate in?  CNR? Another others?

Primarily CNR.    The stronger teams do play some Reebok tournaments and some teams play Park Rock league to get the gym space for practice.    Other teams use the high school or outside gyms to practice.   A lot depends on what other sports the girls on each team play and what night they can find to practice.   But primarily our feeder teams are CNR leagues.

 

 

Is the program thoroughly communicated to parents?  Objectives, costs etc

Yes we have a FAQ on our Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/EHSjuniorwildcatbasketball

 

Are there Fundraising events or mainly funded through player fees?

Mainly funded through player fees of $60 per player.   That mostly goes towards insurance, paying our skills nights trainers, and gym rentals.   Next year we plan on expanding to 6 skills nights because of the record turnout we had for the program this year.

 

What kind of skills clinics can the kids attend?

We run skills nights in September and October.   In the event we are not able to place someone on a team due to a mismatch between number of players and coaches available, everyone is still invited to the skills nights.

 

 

What’s the ratio of individual skills/team drills in a typical practice?

Probably half and half.   We definitely do individual skills and work on fundamentals and try not to overdo the set plays.   We will work a lot on teaching 5 out and motion offense.

 

How many teams/kids might be in an 8^th program and how many of those actually make the frosh team?

On the boys side usually about 20 kids are in the program and about 15 make the freshman or JV teams the next year.   On the girls side some years we are able to take the entire 8th grade Purple (A) and Gold (B) team between freshman, JV, and varsity the next year.     Both Coach Alsup and Kirby's approach have resulted in greater numbers at the freshman team level at a time when some schools can't even field a freshman girls team.   Our freshman team last year had a very successful season and many of those girls played on the Gold team all three years.

 

 

Where is the program heading?  Are there more feeder teams today than five years ago? Long range goals?

Absolutely we have never had 14 teams before and that is after a year when we couldn't even have tryouts because of COVID.   Our TeamBot network and social media presence have increased the size of our tryouts to nearly 150 kids.     The first year was really clunky and our get the word out effort has really improved.    Our long range goals are to increase access to gym space for our feeder teams and continue to allow a pathway for kids to keep playing once they get into middle school and perhaps their grade school basketball team broke up.   The HS coaches always invite our feeder coaches to bring their boys and girls to practice.     We want to be the school team that appeals to both club and recreational players through our tryout system.

 

How do you think the feeder program is contributing to the HS success?

We have really allowed the HS program to keep the numbers of interested players flowing and allow kids to get used to playing with each other before high school.     We want to give them the training with coach the coach sessions and skills nights so that they can compete as middle school athletes in CNR and not get discouraged and quit the sport.  Basketball is a team sport and playing with your future high school teammates in middle school has definitely improved the quality of our high school teams at all 3 levels.   In addition, good basketball team play requires passing which only progresses when you have teams of roughly equal talent playing together.