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Where can coaches find
the Contact List to make pre-meet phone calls?
Starting with the 2005-2006 winter season, the League will no longer
publish a League-wide contact list on the League’s website. Our
principal motivation for taking this action is one of privacy. More
and more organizations that are promoting basketball camps, selling
products, recruiting for all-star teams, etc., are using the
League’s contact list to solicit coaches. Many coaches have
complained to us about these calls, particularly involving their
cell phones, unlisted home phones and work numbers.
To ensure that all teams will be at
your meet, it is the responsibility of each host team to contact the
coaches or contacts for all teams attending the host’s meet one week
in advance to verify the attendance of the visiting teams and the
start time of each team’s first game. This season for the first
time, we will be emailing this
information to host teams and including email addresses to aid in
contacting visiting teams. If you do not receive this list by email
the weekend before your home meet, please contact Terri at
terri@gnbl.org and I will resend immediately (we have
found a number of incorrect or inactive emails in our records).
Please note that if you choose to email the visiting teams, you
must receive a confirmation in return (not just a read-receipt);
otherwise you should make contact by phone.
Coaches
who want to get the name of another coach or two from neighboring
communities for purposes of setting up a scrimmage can request the
name and phone number by sending an e-mail to Terri Green at
terri@gnbl.org. All such requests
must be sent via e-mail or USPS. We will not process voice mail
requests. Responding to these requests will not be done by League
management (Terri Green or Jerry Engeleiter), but rather by the
League’s support staff.
If you haven’t submitted a particular coach’s
name and contact information (address, phone number and email) from your community as of yet, do so immediately or
his/her name won’t be accessible to us for our mailings or for
pre-meet phone calls. We do not access
this information from the online "Roster Submission" page as we
cannot be certain the person entering the information is the coach,
rather than a parent or association head who is entering info for
the team.
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How
can I get extra ribbons if I have more than 12 players at a meet?
Per League Rule A-3, each coach at each meet will
receive 12 ribbons to distribute to his/her players inscribed with
one of the following: First Place, Second Place, Third Place, Fourth
Place, Fifth Place, Sixth Place, Seventh Place and for Eighth place.
No trophies will be awarded. Awards will be purchased
centrally to achieve the best possible price break. The
process to be used for the distribution of awards for the season is described in Attachment #3 to the League
Rules.
Coaches can purchase additional generic ribbons at cost plus
shipping charges from our supplier, Apple Awards. These
ribbons are the same size and color as the ribbons received at Great
Northwest meets. Each is inscribed with the words "Great
Northwest Basketball League Meet," and the appropriate place taken
(i.e., First Place, Second Place, etc.); however, these ribbons do
not have the date or location of the meet inscribed on them. Please
contact Stacey at Apple Awards, 715-634-6860 or
stacey@appleawards.com for further information.
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How much does each meet cost?
Each team will be assessed a charge of $110 per
meet, but will also receive a credit of $65 for each team hosted
(including the host team). Teams that fail to submit a fully
completed roster as described in Paragraph C-1 of these Rules will
be charged $135 for each meet played without having met the
requirements of Paragraph C-1. For example, if a team submits
its roster on a timely basis and plays in four meets and hosts one,
it will pay receive a credit of $80 net to support its local program
($110 times 4 meets = $440 gross expense less $520 hosting credit =
$80 credit). On the other hand, if a team plays in eight meets
and hosts none, its fee will be $880 ($110 x 8 meets). This
fee is due in November, December or January of each season, within 14 days after the
League invoice is received.
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How do I get my team
into a meet opening?
Coaches can call or e-mail Terri Green at 715-749-3052 or
terri@gnbl.org to request filling a meet opening
(phone calls are preferred). Meets will be filled on a first
come, first served basis, with preferential treatment given to
existing League members, and those communities looking to join the
League next season at all grade levels for which they have traveling
teams of that gender. We will fill openings with teams of
appropriate strength for that particular meet. (For example,
an "A" team will not be allowed to fill an opening at a "C" level
meet, or vice-versa.) Click here for
Meet Openings.
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Background on The Great Northwest
Basketball League
For those of you who are not familiar with
The Great Northwest Basketball League, here is some background. The League
started play in the 1995-1996 season with 33 teams of 5th and 6th
grade girls. Eleven years later, The Great Northwest has over 1200 teams –
equally split between boys and girls.
The League boundaries
generally extend from Rochester, Minnesota, up through the eastern
suburbs of the Twin Cities, up to Duluth/Superior, over to Ashland and Hurley,
down through Lakeland-Minocqua, Antigo, Stevens Point, Wisconsin Rapids, and
Reedsburg, over to Viroqua, Westby and La Crosse. However, there are
several communities outside these boundaries who also play in The Great Northwest.
The League is really a substitute for
tournaments. Unlike many tournaments, all League meets are played in one day –
Saturday only – no Sundays. Eight teams are scheduled to play in a host
community with two courts (there is a five-team option for host communities with
only one playing surface). The teams are divided into two groups of four. All
teams play a round-robin in their group. At the end of the round-robin play,
the two teams with the best record in each group play each other for first
place, the two teams with the second best record in each group play for third
place, etc. To keep costs down, there are no team trophies, but each player on
each team gets an oversized (12” x 2 ˝”) custom-made ribbon with the location of
the meet they attended, the date and the place they finished.
League Growth
The
League has been successful for several reasons:
· By
playing four games in a nine-hour day, the players get maximum playing time in a
very efficient manner. Many existing non-League tournaments are two-day events
and thus not very family-friendly, or provide fewer guaranteed games if they are
only one day in duration.
· The
cost on a net basis is very low. Each meet will cost
a team $110, but teams receive a $520 hosting credit for each full eight-team
meet they host. All League fees, net of credits, go to purchase awards
presented at the meets, as well as pay for the cost of phone calls, printing,
postage, website communication and human resources. Host teams provide their
own officials, but keep all admission fees and concession profits.
· By centrally scheduling games, the League maximizes
the number of different teams members get to play without traveling great
distances. Prior to the League, Superior and Tomah probably never played
before. In this League, they are strategically scheduled in some place like
Chippewa Falls – halfway in between. Teams playing a 20 game schedule (5 meets)
can expect to play 17 or more different teams – and no team more than twice.
· The League seeds teams so that weaker teams are
playing only each other on a given day. The same is done with the stronger
teams. Meets are put together at four ability levels: 1) A/B+ teams; 2) B+/B
teams; 3) B/B- teams; and 4) B-/C teams.
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All of this information (and answers to
virtually any other questions) can be found
in the League Rules at this link:
League Rules
and Attachments
It is very important
that every coach in the League read and understand the Rules before
their first meet |
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