12.12.12

CYO Basketball Scheduling – How We Do It…

The Basketball Scheduling Process is a mystery to individuals and I have always wanted to write about it so that people would understand that it takes time to put the schedule together and explain that the process is predicated by several factors:

1. Registration of teams must take place. Registration of teams requires the Athletic Director from each club to come into the office and register the teams with CYO where we make sure each team has certified coaches, proper number of players, payment is made for individuals, etc. Fall Sport championships are going on during the beginning of registration for basketball.
2. BXB Jamboree must be registered, scheduled and played as this helps teams determine which league they should be in the schedule.
   1. For each grade and gender there are four levels of play.  Blue, Green, Orange & Red.
   2. Blue: Highest level – very competitive
   3. Green: competitive yet not as advanced as Blue
   4. Orange: developing skills and fundamentals.
   5. Red: Several players who have not played and have few skills.  This level is great for this group as they receive a lot of playing time.
   6. Register 65 High School Basketball teams as part of the process
      1. Some of this process is done on-line, some of it requires the team representative to come in to CYO.  Player uniforms are handed out at the coaches meetings.
      2. BXB Commission comes to the office to bless the seeding process of the teams, which is determined by where the team finished last year and the composition of this years team.
      3. After the jamboree for 3,4,5,6,7,8 is completed, coaches and AD’s have until Monday at noon to let CYO office know if they want to change leagues.
      4. CYO then begins to schedule the first week of 3&4 bxb as they play a week earlier than the other teams because their tournament starts a week early.
      5. Assemble coaching packets for High School, third and fourth graders and hand out at a coaches meeting.
      6. Begin scheduling the rest of the schedule for 3,4, and add 5,6,7,8.
      7. The scheduling process for some 350 teams takes a while to complete.
         1. We give ourselves a week to accomplish this simply because this is all the time we can allot ourselves after the jamboree and before we get the schedules out.  If we had a day or two more, we could do more checking for errors.
         2. Once we begin the scheduling of teams into leagues and place them in the grid, we cannot make changes to team leagues.  This is like putting together a quilt.  Once we sew the teams into place, they are VERY difficult to extract.  We draw the line to changes at noon on Monday after the jamboree.

10. When we are actually inserting teams into the schedule this is the order:

1. We go week by week
2. We go through the entire schedule giving home teams home games as long as

i.     They made their gym available that Saturday

ii.     They can play the game in their gym (can’t play 7&8 grade boys in small gyms)

iii.     They have a gym!

1. Then we go back through the week the second time and give the visiting team the game if

i.     They made their gym available

ii.     They can play the game in their gym

iii.     They have a gym

iv.     It hasn’t been filled with their home games round 1

1. Then we go back through the schedule and place the games in gyms that are available.
2. There is not a single club that has room for all of their home games EVERY week.  Every club has games facilitated by other clubs.

11. FINALLY it is the night to hand out the schedules.  We work right up to that moment hoping we will get a chance for dinner before the meeting!  The schedules and coaches information is stuffed into packets and handed out at the meeting.

12. The process began November 5^th this year and was finished December 12^th

All of the leagues are woven together into one huge schedule.

If everyone had to help with this they would have a much better understanding of why it is time consuming!

Jolie keeps questions answered at the office and helps with behind the scenes work on the schedules.

Stuffing the packets – Jeff and Stacey help stuff all the packets.

Packets are stuffed with schedules, sorted and packed for the meeting

Working on the basketball schedule

Games checked and checked again