State of High School Basketball in Southside

[BoKnowsSports]

Piedmont used to be the best Double A district in VA. Football, basketball (girls and boys). What is it going to take to get it back? Skill and player development is lacking behind the players in Roanoke and Lynchburg that Piedmont teams used to beat consistently. Needs to be a summer league in the area and teams need to venture out to college team camps/open periods outside of the area.

 

[Ampipe_High]

Southside Virginia used to have several schools inside and outside of the Piedmont that used to be dominant in multiple sports and are now are competitive in just one or none. It's been a few plus years since I have lived down that way, but I feel that the push of some coaches for athletes to focus on a single sport and/or AAU teams have killed a lot of the sports down that way. A lot of athletes that should be playing multiple sports are now only playing a single sport. Personally, I feel that playing multiple sports makes you a better athlete. Kids are now just focusing on baseball or basketball and giving up playing other sports. I don't see many football players just focus on football and that could be because there aren't any summer or AAU leagues for the sport. The best you could do is 7 on 7 and even though those can be competitive, they only focus on skill players, which typically also play basketball, track, baseball, etc.... There are even AAU coaches that discourage basketball players from playing for their school. I know that when I was down there that we had some stud athletes that gave up football and also baseball to focus on basketball at the urging of their AAU coach and they even were hesitant to play high school basketball. Both would have received a lot of attention in football and probably had multiple offers, but they chose to focus on basketball and ended up with out anything. Kids used to live and dream about playing for their hometown team, looked up to the players they watched as a kid and couldn't wait to put on the schools uniforms. Now it's all I need to be a star, I need to shine, I need to get mine. I have always told my students that you need to be an ultimate stud to get a D1 basketball offer and that averaging 8-15 points a game at a 2A or 3A school is not going to get you far. I also tell kids when they tell me that they are an athlete, I say "No, you are a basketball player (or football or baseball or track). An athlete plays multiple sports". Unfortunately, I do not see the current trend ending anytime soon.

 

[Playmaker915]

Southside Virginia used to have several schools inside and outside of the Piedmont that used to be dominant in multiple sports and are now are competitive in just one or none. It's been a few plus years since I have lived down that way, but I feel that the push of some coaches for athletes to focus on a single sport and/or AAU teams have killed a lot of the sports down that way. A lot of athletes that should be playing multiple sports are now only playing a single sport. Personally, I feel that playing multiple sports makes you a better athlete. Kids are now just focusing on baseball or basketball and giving up playing other sports. I don't see many football players just focus on football and that could be because there aren't any summer or AAU leagues for the sport. The best you could do is 7 on 7 and even though those can be competitive, they only focus on skill players, which typically also play basketball, track, baseball, etc.... There are even AAU coaches that discourage basketball players from playing for their school. I know that when I was down there that we had some stud athletes that gave up football and also baseball to focus on basketball at the urging of their AAU coach and they even were hesitant to play high school basketball. Both would have received a lot of attention in football and probably had multiple offers, but they chose to focus on basketball and ended up with out anything. Kids used to live and dream about playing for their hometown team, looked up to the players they watched as a kid and couldn't wait to put on the schools uniforms. Now it's all I need to be a star, I need to shine, I need to get mine. I have always told my students that you need to be an ultimate stud to get a D1 basketball offer and that averaging 8-15 points a game at a 2A or 3A school is not going to get you far. I also tell kids when they tell me that they are an athlete, I say "No, you are a basketball player (or football or baseball or track). An athlete plays multiple sports". Unfortunately, I do not see the current trend ending anytime soon.

You’re exactly right 8-15 points isn’t gonna get you anywhere at a 2a or 3a school . You gonna have to at least put up 30 a game to to get any looks from D1 or D2 .