Gosh, where do I begin? Went to
the Sparks Tournament this weekend. They are charging
$13 per adult to attend the games on Saturday and Sunday
(combined, or $8 for one day).
I'm bad at math, but I think that comes out to $26 per
couple. Think about that. After 4 such
tournaments, a couple would be out $104. Man, that's
crazy! It's really getting out of hand. I have
an email out to the Sparks organization to try to get a
statement out of them explaining the exorbitant admission
fee. As soon as I hear something, I'll post it here.
You know, the danger is that they're really damaging the
sport with this. These charges can turn families off
to AAU entirely. They'll pull their kids out of it.
Less kids, less teams. And it'll become more a league
for affluent families than for all people. I mean,
it's already kind of like that now. There are a lot of
underprivileged families who don't do AAU because of the
strain on their family budgets just to meet a participation
fee of anywhere between $400 and $800. Now, add onto
that steep admission fees to games.... $26 is dinner
for two at a good restaurant. It's really out of hand.
And it's not just the Sparks. This is happening all
over.
Above is a kind of highlight reel of the Tigers 8th graders
taken from a game at the Sparks Tournament. If they
are not the best 8th grade team in the state, they are right
up there. All of the girls should make it onto high
school teams next year. Some onto varsity spots, and
one or two might even end up varsity starters as freshmen.
All of our videos are hosted on YouTube. And right
now, there is an ominous problem with our account.
YouTube is obsessive about copyright infringement by people
posting videos. Obsessive. It's literally
"three strikes and you're out." Three pulled videos
and they close down the entire account and you are
permanently barred from ever opening a new account. In
the past, they flagged the video of Mary Teoli singing the
National Anthem for copyright violation! The
Star Spangled Banner is public domain!!! I
fought it and won. But just the fact that I had to
dispute it....
Now, the latest flag is on an older video. It's the
clip of the Ursuline girls celebrating winning the State
Title in 2012. The problem is that you can hear
Queen's "We Are the Champions" in the background. The
University of Delaware ALWAYS plays that song over
the PA for like an hour after the game. You can't
escape it. So, it's all over the video. I am
disputing this flag (or "strike") on the grounds that the
usage of the song is covered under the "fair use" exemptions
under copyright law. The specific exemption I'm
arguing is that the song's appearance is "incidental and
fortuitous reproduction, in a newsreel or broadcast, of a
work located in the scene of an event being reported.”
In other words, I didn't choose to have the
song playing. It was simply there. And it was
happening during a newsworthy event. I also was not
profiting (nor was anyone else) in any way due to the song
playing, or due to the song appearing in the video ever
since.
So, there's some amount of danger that our YouTube channel
could be shut down if the copyright holders win their
"strikes" on my videos.
Ain't life great?
(05-20-13)
The Name's
Bond. Taylor Bond.
I am very
proud to announce that Taylor bond has officially signed a
letter of intent to play basketball next year at Morgan
State University. Taylor has put so much work into her game
over the past 4 years and has really become a tremendous all
around basketball player. Both Coach Cherelle and I are so
proud of Taylor for her accomplishment and even though we
were unable to coach her this year, she still holds a very
special place in our hearts!
Dan
Pisani
Taylor
with her parents.
Taylor
with Dan Pisani and Cherelle Dennis.
Taylor in
December 2011 as an iPOW winner.
(05-13-13)
We've Got a Couple
of Camps for You to Think About
This
next one is from Sanford's girls' varsity coach, Marcus Thompson.
Coach Thompson is a two-time State Champion coach who has had
many of his players land D1 rides.
This next camp, which happens
sooner, also comes to us from Coach Thompson. It's a very
exciting event from Nike. The following is an excerpt from a
letter I received from Coach:
Jim,
A year ago I accepted a one year assignment as the
president of DIBCA (the Delaware Coaches Association).
In this capacity, I made a pledge to myself that I would
do all that could to elevate Delaware basketball by not
only introducing our kids to the larger world outside of
Delaware basketball but also by exposing the world to
the quality basketball that we have in Delaware. For
about 15 months, I have set out on this mission.
This brings me to some exciting news for our state.
About 45 days ago, I was approached with an idea of
bringing an official Nike Pre-Draft Camp
to the state of Delaware. I originally thought the idea
would hardly be possible, but the logistics luckily
ended up working in our favor. The group of trainers
would already be in our area for another event on the
weekend so it was just a matter of securing a venue.
Mission accomplished.
So, Delawareans, we have made it happen! Nike is
coming! Let's take advantage of this excellent
opportunity for our state and kids to have this quality
event in our home state. Let's sell out the event so
that we can encourage this and like events to come to
our area. There are only 100 spots available for both
girls and boys from 6-12th grade. Here are a few specs:
Nike Pre-Draft Camp
When: June 2nd
Where: Sanford School Sportscenter
Why: NIKE- Promote & Introduce Elite
Training to the community at large
Please go to the website, read
the motivation for Nike to have the PDC and sign-up...
Our friend, John Noonan, Ursuline Academy Head
Coach, sent us some exciting info on his upcoming
summer camps at Tatnall. This is a great camp. Your kids will get a lot
out of it.
This is our annual reminder to AAU coaches that they
are welcome to send in monthly progress reports on
their teams. Sending photos is not necessary,
but it really helps promote your team and club if
you do send them -- especially team photos so that
everyone is included.
To all the coaches out there who put on camps and
clinics, send in your info with appropriate lead
time and we'll post it here.
DelGirlsHoops@delawaregirlsbasketball.com.
To our regular site visitors, 2 out of 3 of you
will, quite understandably, stop visiting the site
until the next winter season. We'll see you
next year. To our die-hard, year-round people,
we'll hopefully have little updates here and there,
on a weekly basis, or, at worst, every two weeks.
Stuff like AAU reports, high school summer league
action, and camps and clinics news. To all of
you, thanks for checking us out this past winter
season!
(03-18-13)
If you are looking for
any story or photo that ran on this site at any time in
the past, you will find it in the
Archives. And
we're talking all the way back to 2006. It's all
still here!
Bernie's
Water
Ice
Bernie's Water Ice
becomes the second business sponsor of DGB.com. Bernie's
will sponsor our year-end awards through at least 2013. Tom and I appreciate the faith that Bernie's Water Ice has shown in DGB.com and the
willingness and generosity of this business to help us salute
our student-athletes through our year-end
awards.
(10-08-10)
A word to any athletic director or coach (of
any
sport) who happens to visit our humble little website:
We would like you to consider Insta
Signs Plus for your needs in signs, screen printing, embroidery,
full color digital printing, ad specialties & promotional items,
awards, metals, trophies -- even stationery and business cards!
By visiting their
website, you can see all they have to offer your team, your
school, your organization or club. When you contact them,
mention that you saw them here and that you appreciate their active
involvement in local youth sports. They provide the t-shirts that go to all
of our iPOW winners.
From a
satisfied customer...
Margaret
Sullivan sporting her Tigers warm-up t-shirt made by Insta
Signs Plus.
Coach Leizear of the Tigers 10U team had this to say:
"Insta Signs Plus were very easy to work with, designed a
great t-shirt at a great price and delivered them right on
time."
On our
YouTube channel,
you can access over 100 girls basketball videos
featuring such outstanding players like Telisha
Turner, Jaquetta May, Elena Delle Donne, Kelley
Doogan, Kristin Mills, Michelle Albanese, Andrea
Hines and many, many more.
16
All photos and images are property of
DelawareGirlsBasketball.com unless otherwise noted.
Taking/copying/publishing these images without permission
constitutes copyright infringement. Permission to use photos
and images is easy to get! Just email:
DelGirlsHoops@delawaregirlsbasketball.com.
Any players,
coaches, or club administrators (from
Delaware) who want to send in articles about their teams (scholastic / AAU /
club) are welcome to do so.
Any worthy material will be posted to this site for your friends, teammates and
our readers to see.
Let the world know about your teams!
Not enough coverage here of public school
teams? You're right! So, become our first Public Schools
Correspondent.
Not enough coverage of Kent & Sussex
County teams? Become our Downstate Teams Correspondent.
Be a part of DGB! Be a
reporter/contributor to the site. If you play on a team, coach a team, or
are connected with a team as a manager, and you think you have some journalistic
talent, join our staff!WE NEED YOU! Send an email stating who you
are, what team, club or league you want to represent, and your relationship to
same to DelGirlsHoops@delawaregirlsbasketball.com. All
inquiries will be replied to.
This project is dedicated to Joe
Pennell, without whom . . .
(Photo of Joe Pennell courtesy Marshal Manlove/delawaresports.com.)
You are Visitor number
to see the site since April 21, 2009.
There were 31,990
visitors to the site from January 29, 2008 through 10:00 AM, April 21,
2009. Tom and I
thank all of you for your fantastic support of our efforts!
...And a breakdown of site visitors
by country
since March 28, 2008.
A shining ray of light that will not be
forgotten.
The 15 Greatest Players of the First 15 Seasons
of the WNBA
In alphabetical order:
Sue Bird, Tamika Catchings,
Cynthia Cooper, Yolanda Griffith, Becky Hammon, Lauren
Jackson, Lisa Leslie, Ticha Penicheiro, Cappie Pondexter,
Katie Smith, Dawn Staley, Sheryl Swoopes, Diana Taurasi,
Tina Thompson, & Teresa Weatherspoon.
