FROM THE PRESIDENT

Greetings Everyone,

Thank you for visiting the Elk River Girls Youth Basketball (ERGYB) website! We plan on using this website to be our primary communication vehicle for those interested in ERGYB. Come back often as the site content changes frequently.

Our mission at ERGYB is to “Promote girls youth basketball at all competitive levels and to provide opportunities to develop skills while acting with integrity to encourage sportsmanship and teamwork.”

Now that the regular season has wrapped up and summer is here, I would like to give a high level overview to everyone of the season and the Board’s activities.

We had 25 teams participate in the In-House program which included 216 girls. We also had 12 teams participate in the Travel program which included 116 girls. Both of these numbers increased over the previous year. We had success at all levels this year and things went well. While there are always issues that arise, the vast majority of teams, coaches and parents displayed good sportsmanship and were satisfied with the program.

Feedback from the Travel Parent Surveys administered both during the season and at the end of the season was overall positive with suggestions for improvements. These suggestions have been reviewed by the Board and will be implemented where applicable. The general consensus is that we should institute surveys for the In-House program as well beginning with the 2010-2011 season.

From a financial standpoint, both the In-House and Travel programs essentially “broke-even”, which is our goal. The Elk River Invitational Tournament was very successful for us this year with about twice as many teams participating as the previous year. This allows us to keep our program running at a reasonable cost, upgrade equipment, conduct background checks, help fund a 9th grade varsity coaching position and also help fund new scoreboards.

The Tournament is our only fund-raising activity and a huge “Thank You” goes out to the parents for your support in volunteering at this tournament and your continued support is needed to ensure a successful tournament going forward.

The Board has also gone through some changes. As existing Board members reached their term limits in May 2010, two new Board members were voted onto the Board last November and one new Board member in March to replace those leaving. In the May Board meeting, Officers were elected and position assignments were made. This can be seen in the “About Us” section of our website.

Board meetings are typically held the second Sunday of the month at VandenBerge Middle School in the Food Lab Room 244. However, they do move if they fall on a holiday weekend. The meeting starts at 6:30 pm and are open to everyone. The only exception being the August meeting when Travel coaches are interviewed and selected by the Board – this is a closed meeting.

As the summer starts, we would like to encourage the girls to focus on the fundamentals of the game such as shooting form, passing and dribbling. Regardless of the grade level or program, these skills are essential to a player’s development. The 10,000 Shot and 1,000 Minutes of Dribbling Clubs are great ways to keep improving these skills over the summer. There are also numerous camps being conducted in and around Elk River. All of these activities can be found in the “Camps & Events” section of the website.

Any ideas or suggestions that you would like to share with the Board can be sent to the In-House or Travel Director or myself. Email addresses can be found on the “About Us” page or questions can be sent to president@ergyb.org.

Have a great summer!

John Brayden
ERGYB President
president@ergyb.org