Grading Day Information
BMB Basketball has over 30 teams and as we continue to grow its will get increasingly harder to have new players placed into teams of similar skill and ability.
​
GRADING DAY MAIN PURPOSE
The main reason for holding grading day at the end of each season is to view the NEW players to club to see where to fit them, are they an A grade player or an E grade player.
By placing your child in a team with kids of equal ability and understanding with a coach who is capable of challenging your child but also making the sport fun is vitally important at Domestic level. First and foremost, domestic is supposed to be fun. A grade teams geerally for the more competitive kids that want to transisition into rep a coached to win and taken a little more seriously. Grading day is important to place kids in the best situation for them to enjoy and develop skills, and lessons that will help them be better people as well as better players.
​
To best allocate them to a team where they don't feel overwhelmed or out of their depth, or to a team where they are getting frustrated by the lack of skill of their team mates. We are human and may not always get it right but we can assure you we are doing our best for every child joining Officer Basketball Club.
​​
Brett has coached professionally in the NBL1 league, the tier below the NBL and is very experienced in issues that can arise and is very well adepdt at knowing where and who kids should be playing with.
Playing with friends is always important but we also want to encourage players that don't land in their friends team to go and support their friend, cheer and praise your friends successes, don't be jealous and negative towards them. Go cheer for your friend and support them if they are in a different team, they in turn should support you. While both players can make new friends and we can build a great club atmosphere and support for each other.
​
Where possible we try to allocate players to teams with their friends if that is what they would like but also try to keep teams players with the same birth year to avoid having to split them in winter season, when most players needs to move up an age group. There are a number of variables that can affect these placements and restrict how much movement we can make.
​​
For example a player requesting to move up a team may not be able to if all the above teams have 8 players in them already, why 8 players? Given the 40 minute timing rules of domestic basketball 8 is a good number to ensure all players get a good amount of court time. 8 is also the magic number because if you have a child away sick for example, and another one fouls out of the game, you still have one sub on the bench. If you only have 6 then you end up playing with 4 on the court. Having 9 players to a team happens occasionally due to certain circumstances but is always communicated to the coach and team manager who relay to their team and make sure everyone is happy with an extra number and the fact that the kids will play less on a Saturday, for example if 10 friends all want to play together and aren't concerned about playing time we would allow it.
​​
Coach availability and training days and times also play a part in who plays where, family logistics may mean we can't move you into a higher team as you cant make training when the coach is available. We aren't going to move a whole team around for one player. As families you are worried and concerned for your child, as a club we are concerned with over 250. So think about how hard your logistics are and multiply by 250 and that is what we as a club are dealing with when allocating players to teams. We understand how hard it is if you have multiple children and will try to accomodate that also but understand and be patient as we have a lot of things to consider when adding and moving players in and out of teams.
​
We are taking all things into account when allocating players to teams, we have an experienced group that organize these things and have thought of all angles and options well before a decision is made, most of the time in more difficult circumstances to help families we will contact them directly to try and work out the best scenario for your child.
OPPORTUNITIES AND PATHWAYS
​
​If you wish to move up into a higher team or are thinking about joining the Pakenham Warriors and Playing rep basketball, then you need to email the club at admin@bmbbasketball.com.au when grading day times and day is announced and request an opportunity to move up and inform us that this is what you want, not before as the email will get lost amongst the hundreds we get.
​
If we don't get a request or you don't ask your coach how can we possibly know, we assume you are playing with your friends and happy doing so.
​
BMB Basketball Academy
We also have our own Basketball Academy, which is run by Brett McKean who also volunteers his time to help run the club, is not only the CEO but also leads player and coach development.
The Academy is part of our clubs pathway into Rep Basketball and beyond, the academy has a U.S College pathway and promotes players to learn to coach and offers player the opportunity to do paid coaching work as they progress through the academy, the academy is also looking into running its own strength and conditioning training at the academy.
Providing a holistic approach to player and coach development to provide great pathways into working and job experience, college scholarships and more.
​
To view Brett's coaching history and background and list of achievements please visit the academy website click here -----> BMB Basketball