Team Philosophy: To develop student athletes by providing lifelong learning experiences on and off the court pertaining to collaborating as part of a team, leadership in the community and hard work toward achieving common goals.
Player Expectations: It is a privilege to be a part of the Spring Lake Park basketball family. Members of the basketball team are expected to always represent the Spring Lake Park community with class and respect. Players will hold themselves to a high standard on and off the court and think of the team first when making decisions of their behavior.
Non-negotiable Expectations of a Panther Basketball Player -- Spring Lake Park basketball players will:
- Be Respectful of themselves, teammates, coaching staff, officials, opposing players, and spectators during game play is expected. Players also realize that it is just as important to be respectful off of the floor in the community and at school.
- Be Positive with themselves and each other in every situation on and off the floor. They realize a positive attitude is contagious and leads to better team play, trust and relationships with their teammates and coaches.
- Be Communicators: Team members are expected to communicate on the court to foster successful team play. They are also expected to communicate any issues or problems during the season with the coaching staff or team leaders. This may include absences, playing time or disagreements.
- Be a Hard Worker: Players will give maximum effort to make the team and themselves better on and off the floor. They understand that putting everything into what they do will lead to improvement as a player and person and this in turn will help the team be successful.
- Be a Student First: Basketball team members are students first and will do their best to achieve in the classroom. They are also students of the game and realize that this will help them achieve in any situation on and off of the floor.
More specific rules may be determined by coaches and players and must be followed if agreed upon. If any player does not uphold the high standards and team expectations set by players and coaches, there will be appropriate consequences determined by the coaching staff.
Team Membership:
- Varsity/JV: The best "team" will make up the minimum of 16 and maximum of 20-man Varsity/JV squad. There will be six tryout sessions for any junior or senior wanting to tryout for the team. Any sophomores or 9th graders trying out will be by invite only determined by the coaching staff. We will be looking for individuals who are willing to accept their roles either as starters, subs or practice players for our Varsity and JV teams. Underclassmen will make up our junior varsity team. After the sixth tryout session every player trying out will be spoken to individually about where they stand. If numbers exceed 20 for the Varsity/JV tryouts, those seniors who do not make the top 10 on the varsity team and juniors who do not make the next 10 will be cut.
- B-Squad: The B-squad will be primarily sophomores that are not on the JV/Varsity. If there are more than 12 players trying out, the coaching staff will determine the number of players who make the team and hold tryouts to form the team based on results after no more than 4 practices.
- 9th grade: Tryouts will be held in early November for the 9th grade team. Tryouts will consist of 4 practices with the top 20 players as determined by the coaching staff making the A or B team. Each player will be notified at the end of the 4th tryout practice and the coaching staff will be available to answer any questions. The A and B split will be determined by the 9th grade coaches during early season practices and are flexible.
Communication: The coaches will be available to the players any time they want to set up a personal conference outside of practice. The coaches prefer pre-arranged personal visits or to return phone calls for any contact with parents. Contact with the coaches can be made by leaving a message with the high school athletic office at 763-600-5149 or contact deemed appropriate by the coach (e-mail, etc.). Coaches will not be available to parents for communication on game days.
Varsity Lettering Criteria: Varsity players who are in good team standing at the end of the season and have played at least eleven varsity halves, will earn a letter.
Curfew: A curfew will be in effect for any out of town overnight trips (Varsity/JV-St. Cloud). The curfew and penalties for not following curfew will be set during those trips.
Attendance: All district and high school procedures will be followed regarding practice and games. We hope that our players can make it to every practice and every game. Unexcused absences will not be tolerated. Excused absences are those absences due to illness, injury and/or family emergency or any absence pre-arranged and communicated with the coach. Absences during the first week of tryouts, either excused or unexcused, will hurt the player’s chances of being selected for the team. Football players will be allowed to tryout late if the football season runs into the basketball season. Penalties for unexcused absences will be determined by the coaching staff. If a player has 3 unexcused absences, he will be dismissed from the team. Any varsity player leaving the team for a spring break vacation while the team is still playing in the region or state tournament will be dismissed from the team and will not be awarded a letter.
Variance from State High School League Rules: All Minnesota State High School League and Spring Lake Park High School Rules should also be followed. There is no variance from these rules.
