North Dakota Preps

I just noticed that Grafton only has one (1) senior and one (1) junior on this year's team. I'm a bit surprised by this as the program usually has decent numbers (and talent) in each grade. Does anyone have any insight into what's going on?

Could it be that Grafton now has girls hockey and this is drawing away a lot of girls from basketball. It seems when town get hockey its harder to fill basketball rosters kids seem to like to play hockey.

I think its more of a work thing. The coach there expects players to put in the time and effort during the offseason, and if a younger player is better than you they are going to play. Kids expect results and playing time without putting in the effort or bc they are a senior now. They have a good group of soph. right now that will be tough in a couple years.

Most programs go through a rebuilding phase at some point, even if they have numbers. Grafton also lost a would-be-senior player who relocated due to parent's job. It happens. And the kids who are the better players and put in the work in the off-season should be getting playing time, regardless of their grade and/or last name. This is varsity where teams play to win and need to put the best players on the floor to get that done.

I think the reason Grafton isn't getting good numbers of girls to go out is based on the school size. This may seem counterintuitive but here goes. We all know that if kids expect to play high school basketball, they need to start on traveling teams from the time they are 8 or 9 years old. If you don't, there is no chance you make the team.

In smaller schools, you basically are guaranteed that if you put in the work you will make the A squad at some point in high school. Minimal chance of not playing, because the class sizes are so small. But in schools the size of Grafton, kids can put in years of preparation on traveling teams, in camps, grade programs, pick up games and still get beat out by other kids who are just more talented. Kids (and parents) see this happening, so they just decide to be part of something else.