Introduction

Basketball SA is pleased to announce the formation of the South Australian Youth Basketball League – a new representative basketball competition for players aged 17 to 22.

The Youth League will feature multiple divisions, will be scheduled on Tuesday nights, and will commence in October 2010.

Purpose

The purpose of the Youth League is:

• To bridge the gap between the Junior State League and the Central ABL, for elite players aged 17-22 who are either not yet involved in the Central ABL, or who do not receive significant court time. The competition currently lacks a true development league whose main purpose is to provide an effective pathway from juniors to Central ABL, and division 1 of the Youth League will serve this purpose.
• To assist with player retention in this age bracket in all divisions. There is a high dropout rate in the 17-22 age bracket, and it is believed that a multiple division Under 23 competition providing an appropriate level of competition for all players will encourage players to stay in the sport.

It is believed that under the current structure the Senior Division 2 competition does not achieve a), and the Under 20/21 competitions do not achieve b).

Youth League Competition Structure

The Youth League will include Division 1 Men’s and Women’s competitions restricted to one team from each of the current Central ABL clubs. It will also include multiple lower divisions, each of which is open to multiple teams from all clubs currently participating in the Basketball SA district competitions, and which are graded using a promotion/relegation system where team numbers warrant.

Seasons will be aligned with the junior and senior district competition, with a Summer season from October to March and a Winter season from Match to September.

Associated Competition Structure Changes

To facilitate the introduction of the Youth League, the following changes to other parts of the district competition will occur.

• The Under 20/21 competitions will be removed
• The Senior Division 2 competitions will move from Tuesday night to Monday night, and will be opened up to multiple teams from all clubs currently participating in the Basketball SA junior and senior district competitions
• The Senior Division 3, 4 and 5 competitions will all be scheduled on Wednesday night

Division 1 of the Youth League will be treated by Basketball SA as its primary senior competition outside of the Central ABL and will effectively replace both the Under 20 Division 1 and Senior Division 2 competitions as the pathway to the Central ABL and higher levels of basketball. All clubs with Central ABL teams will be required to field a team in the Youth League Division 1 Men’s and Women’s competitions.

Basketball SA appreciates concerns surrounding the removal of the Under 20/21 competitions and will work with clubs to ensure a smooth transition of players in these competitions into the Youth League.

Player Eligibility

To be eligible to participate in the Youth League, players must be under the age of 23 on December 31 in the year the season ends. For example, to be eligible to participate in the 2010/11 Summer Season, players must be under 23 on December 31, 2011.

An option was considered to allow each team in division 1 of the Youth League to field two players in any game that do not meet the criteria of being under the age of 23.

There are valid arguments for and against this proposal. After consultation with participating clubs, it was determined that overage players would not be allowed to participate in the 2010/11 Youth League, but that this would be reviewed for future years.
Weekly Schedule
All divisions of the Youth League will be scheduled on Tuesday night. This night was chosen because:

• It is expected that the majority of the Division 1 and 2 Youth League participants will be players who currently play in the Senior Division 2 and Under 20/21 Division 1 competitions, both of which are on Tuesday nights
• It does not clash with Central ABL club trainings
• It is a night on which there is an appropriate amount of available court space at BSA and non-BSA venues
• It is a night on which there is a sufficient number of available referees appropriate to the standard of the competition
• Scheduling all divisions on the same night increases the ease of transitioning players, teams and referees between divisions.

Nightly Schedule

Basketball SA is aware of issues relating to the current policy of scheduling all Under 20/21 games at early time slots, and all Senior Division 2 games at later time slots. While the exact details of times/venues for Youth League games will not be known until after nominations have been received, it is expected that teams will receive a roughly even spread of games across time slots from 6pm to 10pm.

Timing

Division 1 and 2 of the Youth League will involve fully timed games with 10 minute quarters. Lower divisions will involve non-fully timed games with 10 minute quarters.

Multiple Games in a Week

The Youth League will be treated as a standalone competition, meaning that players will be able to play in any combination of the Senior District competition (including Central ABL), Youth League and Junior District competition in any given week, but in general will not be able to play in multiple divisions of any of these three competitions.

More specifically:

• Central ABL players who are not in the starting five will continue to be eligible to play in the next Senior Division 2 game.
• Central ABL players who are in the starting five will be eligible to play in the Youth League.
• To assist in preventing overload, players will be restricted to playing in a maximum of 3 divisions in a week. For example, this will prevent a player from playing an Under 18 game, a Youth League game, a Senior Division 2 game and a Central ABL game in the same week.

Participation Costs

Team nomination fees, stadium admission prices and referee pay rates will be set as follows:

• For the Youth League Division 1 and 2 competitions, as per the current Senior District Division 2 competition
• For the Youth League Division 3 competition, as per the current Junior Under 16-20 Division 2 competitions