Goal:

The goal of All-Net is to provide the highest level of competition for top players to prepare them for Middle and High School teams. NJB, unlike other club teams is community based and is made up of the top local players who are likely to be playing together at school.

Playing Time (parents/players):

When Coaching at the All-Net level coaches often play 7-8 players throughout the game, while 2-3 players receive little or no court time. Playing time will vary from team to team, and game to game, but unlike Division, there is no playing time guaranteed, and to be competitive it is not practical to provide equal playing time on a Saratoga team when the opponent may be playing their top players the entire game. Parents/Players who believe this will be a problem should play Division where playing time is more controlled.

All-Net is run under H.S. rules and in similar fashion playing time is determined by the coach. A coach may distribute playing time evenly among players, or limit it to as few as the top five depending up on the situation and players on the roster. This is one of several distinctions between All-Net and Division...

When deciding whether to join All-Net the following should be considered:

Benefits:

• All-Net teams play with High School rules
• Players practice and play against the best competition NJB has to offer
• The game schedule runs almost a full month longer than Division, with the season starting earlier and ending later than Division.
• All-Net teams receive more practice time than Division both in number of practices and length of each practice.
• All-Net teams have use of a full court to scrimmage on. This can be considered a substitute for game time for those players who do not play on Sunday (game day), and coaches are encouraged to dedicate up to ½ of their practice to scrimmaging.
• Drills, strategy and fundamentals are taught at a higher level, as expected of players that have aspirations of playing for their Middle and High School team.

Risks:

• Playing time in games will vary and it is possible some players will average less than 4 minutes a game.

It is advantageous to have ten players on a roster in order to scrimmage, but coaches may form teams with fewer players (8 or 9), and ask for ‘practice players’. A ‘practice player’ is one who plays in Division, but attends the All-Net practices on a regular basis. The use of ‘practice players’ is encouraged if those players are expected to receive little or no court time in games.

Note to Coaches

In Saratoga, we strongly encourage coaches to provide a reasonable amount of playing time for each player, in particular in games where the outcome of the game is clear (we are losing, winning by a large margin, or the game is close only because the opponent is playing their 2nd team).