Posted: 2/23/06
TIMEOUT
Good weekend for youth sports
By Luther Dorr
Last Saturday and Sunday were a good example of the use of gymnasiums in Princeton as between 1,000 and 2,000 people descended on Princeton.
The Princeton Youth Basketball Association had tournaments at the middle school gym on both days and on Sunday the Princeton Youth Wrestling Association, with Princeton Community Education sponsoring, put on its annual youth tournament.
There were 410 kids entered in grades kindergarten through eight Sunday at the high school and, at least for a time, about twice that amount in fans made up of siblings, parents, grandparents and friends.
There was competition on at least three mats, with as many as four matches going on at one time on each mat. "Organized confusion"?would be a good way to describe what was going on at the school.
Over at the middle school there was a tournament for fourth and fifth-grade girls teams on Saturday, and tournaments on Sunday for sixth- and seventh-grade girls teams.
There were eight teams in each tournament each day and the crowds were so large that the PYBA had gone through half of its concession stockpile about midway through the first day. That stockpile was supposed to last through last weekend and this coming weekend when there will be similar tournaments for boys teams.
If you don't think youth basketball has improved immensely in recent years, take a look at the play this weekend. The skill level of seventh-grade teams in both boys and girls competition, for example, is well beyond what it formerly was.
Meanwhile, the Princeton girls 12-and-under hockey team, which finished first in the regular season for District 10 in Class B, won its first playoff game Sunday, 6-0, and continues play this week. And there are probably other Princeton Youth Hockey Association teams competing.
How things have changed for kids playing basketball
I?made the trip to Target Center last week to watch Princeton beat Dassel-Cokato in a boys basketball game. Two nights later I?made the trip to Becker to watch the boys team take on, and beat, a Bulldog team that is higher in section standings than Princeton.
On the way to Becker I?drove by a farm in rural Sherburne County where I had a lot of my training as a basketball player in sixth, seventh and eighth grade.
These days kids play 20, 30, 40 or more games in each of those grades, depending on where they live. My training at that age level consisted of shooting on a hoop without a net on a gravel surface at our house, and at the previously-mentioned farm.
My friend and I?shot incessantly on winter weekends at a hoop (this one was about 11 feet up) attached to a farm building. We'd leave our mittens off as long as possible and then put them on for awhile, meanwhile trying to dribble on uneven ground covered with snow that had sometimes turned into ice. Then we'd go inside for awhile to warm up and then go back outside and continue shooting, or playing one-on-one.
That was my training for high school basketball which I began playing in ninth grade without having played in a gym. I?was so happy to get in a gym then that I?would shoot at noon, after practice, and at night. We didn't shoot in the summer back then because it was baseball time. Only when it came time for college basketball did I?shoot in the summer.
I thought of that while driving to Becker, and of the kids from Princeton who got to play two nights earlier in the arena where the Timberwolves play. What a great thing for those kids! Here's hoping they realize how fortunate they are to play on traveling teams, play at Target Center, and play nearly twice as many games in a season as we played back then.
Second chance for boys hockey team in Duluth
The middle of the season for the boys hockey team gave reason for optimism, and then came a 1-6 finish, the opposite of the direction a team wants to be going at the end of the season.
But Princeton lost only 5-4 in Duluth early in January to Duluth Denfeld, the team Princeton plays tonight in quarterfinal section hockey. Coach Todd Frederick says it wasn't so much a matter of his team playing poorly as it was the other teams playing well. But I?know he didn't expect a 1-6 finish to the regular season.
I was at that Denfeld game and Princeton, with one of its top players injured and out for that game, played the Hunters evenly. You'd think that would happen again but the key will be which team has improved the most since then, and the team that gets the bounces. Luck can be an important part of playoff hockey where there are usually lower-scoring games.
The 3-point shot: Is it good or bad for prep basketball?
Back in 1988 when the three-point basket was introduced to high school basketball in Minnesota, one of the talking points for doing so was that it would open up play inside and take away some of the physical play.
By and large, high school basketball is more physical now overall than it was then. So the three-point shot hasn't eliminated that.
A couple years ago I?saw a study that showed the free throw percentage nationally had dropped a little each year since the three-point shot was instituted. Some say that's because players are practicing threes, not free throws, and I?tend to agree.
The Princeton boys team has hit 29 percent of its threes this season, compared to 37 percent for opponents, and has come out on the short end of threes in many games.
You so often see threes taken quickly, with no regard for the game situation, especially after the other team has hit a three.
I'm not sure threes have been as good for the game as promised, although it's fun to watch at times when someone gets hot. I'm so old-fashioned I?wish threes weren't jacked up just because they're available.
Here and there . . .
Two brothers who are PHS graduates are on different college teams in different sports. Dane Larsen is a junior outfielder/designated hitter at the University of Nebraska-Omaha and Karl Larsen is a freshman defenseman at the University of Stevens Point-Wisconsin. Dane recently had four hits and drove in two runs in the second game of a doubleheader as UNO?beat Regis University of Denver, 8-7. Karl has been in 17 games at Stevens Point . . . The North Branch boys basketball team that Princeton beat so easily last week began the year 6-5 and 3-0 in the North Suburban Conference but hasn't won a conference game since. It was Princeton's third straight win over North Branch, a thorn in Princeton's side for many, many years . . . Scott Roehl (18.2) and Tessa Gronli (16.0)?are listed among the top metro scorers in the Star Tribune.
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