She's also playing in a church league and she's much more advanced skills wise than most of the girls in that league. If you've never been exposed to organized ball (besides school teams) there are a couple different flavors of organized ball.
Church/Rec leagues: these are leagues that cities, gyms, and churches organize. The YMCA and YWCA often have leagues during the winter. Perhaps the most well known church league is Upward Bound http://www.upward.org/.
The level of competition and organization depend on the group organizing. Call around to see which league has the most teams. This is a good indication of how well the program is run. My daughter plays in a Upward league that has had as many as 8 teams in the girls division IN HER AGE GROUP alone. I've talked to other player parents that their entire program, both boys and girls in all age groups, had 8 teams.
At the club level, usually consisting of traveling teams, is the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) and United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA). USSSA originally was a softball league but opened up to other sports in 1997. AAU is much older closely linked to Junior Olympics and colleges. Both have the same overall goals and in our local area, the team participate in each other tournaments. AAU is the more recognized "brand" but joining an AAU program won't get you closer to a scholarship than if you played for a USSSA team.
The level competition and quality of the program vary from club to club. I've seen some club teams that are nationally recognized and others that would have a hard team against some of the Upward teams my daughter has been a part of. With the top level clubs, there seem to be 2 sets of different goals: Some run their teams to win games and tournaments. Others seek to develop individual players and worry less about winning (with the belief winning will come with more fundamentally sound players). You have to do your research. Does the
club boast of team accomplishments or of their players who have made it to the college and pro level?
There's other club level organizations like
- USJN - United States Junior Nationals
- PTS - Prime Time Sports
- YBOA - Youth Basketball Organization of America
- GBA - Girls Basketball Association
- MAYB - Mid America Youth Basketball
- USBA - United States Baskeball Assoc
Which is more popular depends on your geographic region.
Then you have your middle school and high school programs.
Anyway, my daughter plays AAU most of the year but also plays in an Upward league. Playing upward is very fun for parents and players. It's design to give a "big league" feel but trying every player to get equal playing time. My daughter has dominated her league this year and it's boosted her confidence. We've also been working a lot of her fundamentals. She's taken her game to higher level and is turning a lot of heads.
The coaches and players that would pay her no regard before, are now becoming her good friends and mentors. While I'm pleased she is being accepted, it's frustrating to see her deal with finding a new group of friends and seeing her old friends look at her differently because they are still warming the bench. She still chooses to pair up with her buddies during drills but it's becoming clearer that she passing up some girls that used to be better than her.
I guess you could liken it to a kid suddenly becoming popular in school and having their old friends get mad at the kid for it.
