• Athletes & Parents:

    Tryouts for the Southside Elementary Basketball Team is usually very difficult, for both coaches and athletes, and it is the coaches that make the painful decision of who is selected and who is not.  Our tryout process is a three day event. Due to busy schedules and gym time availability each athlete must come ready to go.  Some girls have been actively involved with basketball, and it shows, while others on a limited basis.  Our team will consist of a 12 girl roster.  Every player selected for the girls team will know her role, understanding some may get more playing time than others. 

    In every tryout, there will be some players that stand out as obvious picks for the team; they have been working on their own to improve their game, and it shows.  The difficulty for the coaches is in deciding who will fill the bottom half of the roster.  For instance, one player may have fewer skills than another, but shows more potential.  Other players have weak skills, but show an enormous amount of heart, drive and coachability.  Still, other players, who have poor attitudes, lack of team work and hustle, will be sure to fail.  The coaches will evaluate each athlete to come up with the team roster.

    The most important attribute for the tryout period is a sense of fairness among the candidates.  Just as all girls have had the same opportunity to participate in summer camps and practice on their own, so will all girls be ran through the same tryout process with equal time to show what they have to offer.  Every girl will be ran just as hard, shoot the same amount of shots, pass the same amount of passes, and be challenged the same mentally.

    Players should come to tryouts with the mindset that they are going to try their hardest and give it their all.  We will be monitoring:

    • fundamentals
    • attitude
    • physical condition and willingness to condition
    • willingness to work with others
    • coachability
    • shots made
    • scrimmage play

    We will consider all these items and meet privately and face to face with each girl at the end of the third day of tryouts.  At this point each athlete will know if she has made the team or not.  Remember!  This is a tryout process for basketball only, not life.  We know everyone wants to play. However, some have more basketball abilities than others.  It is better to have tried out and failed than to have not tried out at all!

    Thanks for participating!