wahoo wrote:are you kidding. none of these teams are powerhouses. none of them are even rated in the top 30 teams in the state.
Like I said, they weren't powerhouses. I didn't say they played Bottineau! How do you want me to state it? Do you want me to degrade the teams in that tourney? Look, the point is, Grant Co. did the best they could with what they had. They played hard and never gave up. Again, it's all about numbers.
wahoo wrote: and there are how many class A teams and how many class B teams? my guess is that there are less than 20 girls in the whole high school at many of these schools and there are how many girls to choose from in Mandan.
That's my point. It's about numbers! If Grant Co. had as many kids to choose from as Mandan their varsity wouldn't lose to a bunch of eigth graders. Could the top ten 8th graders from Minneapolis or New York beat the Mandan Varsity girls or BHS Varsity? I don't know....maybe....it'd be fun to watch!
wahoo wrote: And how many camps do they attend and how many shootarounds and 3on3s and team camps and tourneys are they able to attend without leaving town and dishing out money for motels gas food?
IMO, this is about committment. The top B players in the state are doing whatever it takes to improve their play....just like the top A players are. They excell because they are committed to the game. Natural ability only takes a person so far. To be on top and stay on top the kids have to work hard ALL year around. This type of committment is what forms a good PROGRAM which in turn develops into a MACHINE....not unlike Bottineau, Mandan, and the other dominant schools. Devils Lake is a good example of an up and coming machine. They start the kids off young, get the older kids involved with the younger ones, set up the tourneys and camps.....they are breeding success so to speak. In other words...if you want to be the best....you have to committ. That includes EVERYONE, the parents, coaches, communities.
wahoo wrote:it is hard to even compare the top B teams to A becasue of all the population and opportunity factors thrown in.
I agree with the population thing, but again, opportunities are there IF everyone is committed. Trust me, my pocket book suffers as much as the next guy for all this basketball stuff, but it beats a lot of the alternative things my daughter could be in to!
wahoo wrote:but you can never beat class B for their ratio of enthusiatic fan support
I agree with this to a point. This is one of the advantages of a small community. Lots of relatives, everyone knows everyone, ends up supporting each other. I grew up in small town ND, I know first hand.
wahoo wrote:good for your 8th graders but how did your jv team end up losing to someone to start with?
Hey, thanks for saying something nice about the 8th graders! They work hard and deserve a pat on the back! What they did last night is something I could only dream of doing when I was in eighth grade....being in Jr. High and beating a Varsity team. They are very lucky, but they work dang hard to help create that "luck". As far as how the JV team(actually it was the sophomore team, they were listed as the JV) lost to start with....I don't know, I wasn't there, but I'm pretty sure they lost cause they didn't score as many points as the other team did! Nobody's perfect....all you can do is strive to improve.