Register now for Winter (Jan-Feb) season activities. This is an especially important part of the season as as soon as teams are formed they can immediately start practices as Winter season basketball activities for many players is usually team preparation for AAU Spring /Summer tournament season as well as our normally very active recreational/competitive Spring Jr NBA Season (Mar-May)
Another weekend of fun games with passionate players, coaches and fans competing and playing hard!
We typically follow the rules guidelines established by USA Basketball – Jr NBA but have been tweaking the rules this season since we have more of a mix of rec and competitive teams who are usually better separated into 2 divisions of 4 or more. This season we have 5-7 team division configurations with some teams being formed and brought by coaches and other teams with a mix of new and experienced players assigned to coaches by the league. We are trying to allow the competitive teams to play at their level while trying to provide a competitive balance for newer less experienced players at the 12U and below levels.
It seems like it is a split on deciding what is best when dealing with full court press and using zone defense schemes. In general USA basketball directs most 12U and below activity be limited to man to man defense only and no to limited full court defense. The reasoning is to allow the developing players to apply their skillset and athleticism to compete vs using coaching schemes to exploit weak players with traps, double teams and zones that most players at that age are not physically developed enough to overcome. Once players get to 13/14 they are usually physically developed enough to be able to make passes that can overcome traps and double teams. At this level Coaches should manage subs and encourage the players, not admonishing their players and whining to the refs.
For teams with 10U-12U players with lots of experience and exceptional skill, we prefer them to play normal basketball rules to prepare them for higher level basketball, so for coaches we will have a Zoom meeting to discuss Monday night 10/19 8pm
When we are out of the COVID pandemic and back to a normal season we will have fully formed competitive and rec divisions.
Please remember that we must comply with SJCS guidelines that we established in our facilities use contract so please do not jeopardize our opportunity to play in an amazing gym. If you are sick please stay home and if you come to the facility you must complete the COVID certificate before entering and wear a mask unless you are an active participant.
On your device go to bluechipelite.com/covid to get your certificate each time you enter.
Lots of exciting games for the first week of Fall Season with several buzzer-beaters and close games. There were a few lopsided games but the losing teams continued to battle to the end and we look forward to them getting more practice in and competing harder to get regular-season wins and place well for the championship tournament.
Coaches, please continue to be cognizant of the fact that this season there is more mixing of competitive and recreational players on our teams, with some teams having more, newer to basketball, recreational players, so please watch the sportsmanship. Lets work as a basketball family, looking to provide the best competitive experience for all our players. Our most skilled competitive players will have the opportunity to represent Blue Chip and compete against fully competitive teams from other clubs and academies across North Florida.
When we are out of the COVID pandemic and back to a normal season we will have fully formed competitive and rec divisions.
Please remember that we must comply with SJCS guidelines that we established in our facilities use contract so please do not jeopardize our opportunity to play in an amazing gym. If you are sick please stay home and if you come to the facility you must complete the COVID certificate before entering and wear a mask unless you are an active participant.
On your device go to bluechipelite.com/covid to get your certificate each time you enter.
Teams should arrive at least 15 minutes early ready to check-in.
Each team must provide a scoretable representative at every game.
UNIFORM The representative needs to make sure all players are in proper full uniform and are not wearing any jewelry. Players without full uniform (jersey and short) may not play unless an exception is made by the director on staff. Players wearing undershirts must only be white or black, no off color shirts.
SCORESHEET The representative should have/make a list of all registered players in attendance and their jersey numbers, obtain the official scoresheet from the scorers table and transfer all player names and numbers to the proper home or away side. FAILURE TO PROVIDE A SCORETABLE REPRESENTIVE ON TIME WILL RESULT IN STARTING THE GAME ASESSED WITH A 2 SHOT TECHNICAL FOUL.
On the Bluechipelite.com website the schedule lists Home team first then away team. Home always wears white and if sitting at the scorer’s table, the home team sits on the left bench and warms up on the opposite court to the right of the scorers table.
The home representative will run the scoreclock and the away representative will keep the scorebook. Both representatives will be responsible for resolving any score/foul/timeout issues and any dispute will be moderated by the league representative on duty and final decision will be made by the director.
Training tutorials are below. The scoresheet we will be using for Jr NBA is a simpler scoresheet, where stats are optional. The primary purpose of our sheet is to track score, running score, personal fouls, team fouls and timeouts.
Jr NBA will have two 16 minute halves with a running clock where the score clock operator will only stop the clock on dead balls in the last 1 minute of each half, on timeouts and on delays due to injury or equipment malfunction, but only at the direction of the head referee.
10 Weeks ago we were unsure if we were going to be able to get a full season of basketball in for our players. But thanks to our amazing players, coaches, parents, staff and fans we made it! Along with the normal challenges that running a youth sports organization presents…. In 9 weeks during this delayed season full of unprecedented new challenges we
Thanks again to everyone involved and we hope you continue to join us in making the basketball experience for our community’s youth athletes so good that they choose the game of basketball as their #1 sport!
Coach Laettner enjoyed watching and evaluating the top 30% performing players for Summer season. We had visits from school coaches scouting players and watching game tape. Great job to the players for giving us more exciting games for us to watch!
Coach Laettner and staff are almost finished with season evaluations and will be sending tryout invites to our players who are basketball focused and want to improve their game, play in more competitive teams, divisions and represent Blue Chip at North Florida AAU tournaments and potentially play on our flagship teams. Only select players will receive an invite so keep an eye out for an email late Monday evening for a Thursday tryout. Check your spam and if your player doesn’t receive an invite tell them to work harder next season and stand out from the crowd with their sills and fundamental skills and teamwork. For players who think they should have been invited or already have tournament experience fill out a tryout form here and we may queue you up for our next open tryout.
For those who may not be familiar with Coach Laettner and the tremendous opportunity our player has by having him as part of our community for at least the next 5 years: (he wouldn’t like us to brag on him but he’s)
Our Director of Coaching and Basketball Development, Coach Christian Laettner, and Staff is looking forward to watching the best ballers in the league compete on All-Star Sunday 8/30.
Player invites will be sent directly to players by Wednesday evening.
This event is designed to showcase and prepare our players for upper-level competitive play and tournaments so the games will be AAU/USAB tournament format of four 8 minute quarters with dead ball clock stoppage.
Players on the winning teams will be declared our Blue Chip All-Stars for this season and will be posted on social media and our websites. We also know our Blue Chip, Middle School, and High School Coaches will be watching in person and on our game tape.
ALL entrants, except those ages 8 and under, will need a $5 ticket to participate or spectate. any proceeds from this event will be placed in the set aside for hardship scholarships that will help fund exceptional student-athletes whose families have come under a demonstrated financial hardship. We currently have $180 in the account as a donation from an awesome family whose player could not attend our summer camp but refused a refund. We are blessed to have such a giving community!
This will be a very exciting and fun event. If we have extra time at half we will also have contests for spectators. Tickets will be released by this Friday.
Game Times will be: 10U @ 1pm – 12U @ 2PM – 14U @ 3pm – 16U @ 4pm
Another amazing GotNEXT NBA2k Style Streetball Tournament with some of the top ballers in North Florida!
Teams will be seeded based on their regular-season record and the tournament will be single elimination.
All-Star teams will be announced Aug 24th and will play in the All-Star Game at the conclusion of the Jr NBA Tournament, which looks to be late Sunday afternoon-evening. Exact times are TBA. Players are chosen based on Season Evaluation, Coach feedback, skill rank at their current natural position and availability.
This should be a super fun event for us to watch as this season’s best players will showcase their skills for our community and our AAU Club, Middle and High School Coaches. This will be a very competitive event and will follow AAU/USAB guidelines with four 8 minute periods w/ dead ball clock stoppages.
This is a free event for our players and $5 for all spectators
Our Director of Coaching and Basketball Development, Coach Christian Laettner, and Staff have been evaluating players on game day, through tape and feedback from coaches and we are planning on having a Blue Chip All-Star game day at the end of the season. It should be super fun and will be a chance for Coach Laettner to come in and watch all of our top players show off their skills. More details to come.
We are back in the process of developing our coach certification program and working on training our Jr NBA rec coaches with basic certification and also developing volunteer and paid staff who want to gym train and practice weekly and coach up our teams of players out of the player pool who will be competing in local & AAU tournaments and leagues throughout the coming year. If you have an interest please email us for the next steps in your coaching path with Blue Chip Elite.
Currently, the 8-10pm slot this Thursday is secured by 7-8th grade does not turn 15 by Sept 1st division. The 6-8 slot is still waiting to be taken. We have a 5-6th grade not older than 13 by Sept 1st team in and some players looking for a team. So High Schoolers or another set of Middle Schoolers could jump in and grab it so spread the word. Lots of people have sent us messages saying they are going to pull up, but it’s based on who completes registration first.
There were a ton of barn burners in 18U division this year and playoff weekend was no exception. Sunday was amazing and The Warriors played back to back and were able to outlast the FC Rattlers to win the trophy. This is a great group players that we enjoyed watching and developing over the years and it is bittersweet to see so many of our 18U players now moving on to College and their adult lives. Good luck to you all and we hope to see some of you back as coaches in the league soon! Check out their exciting championship game below.
It was an emotional weekend as we had to say goodbye to one of our long time coaches Todd Mullins and his wife Cami and sons Brody and Champ. Blue Chip would not be on the path it is without the passion that Coach Todd poured into these players. Wish Todd well as he moves back to his hometown in Indiana to take care of his elderly father and we hope that we will see him back on our courts coaching at some time in the future.
Our Director of Coaching and Basketball Development, Coach Christian Laettner, and Staff have been evaluating players on game day, through tape and feedback from coaches and we are planning on having a Blue Chip All-Star game day at the end of the season. It should be super fun and will be a chance for Coach Laettner to come in and watch all of our top players show off their skills. More details to come.
We are back in the process of developing our coach certification program and working on training our Jr NBA rec coaches with basic certification and also developing volunteer and paid staff who want to gym train and practice weekly and coach up our teams of players out of the player pool who will be competing in local & AAU tournaments and leagues throughout the coming year. If you have an interest please email us for the next steps in your coaching path with Blue Chip Elite.
