The winter season is our prime time, when we focus extensively on instilling team concepts. We don't neglect individual skills, as they're crucial in youth basketball, but a significant portion of our practice time is allocated to fostering teamwork.

We plan to organize teams of roughly  9-10 players, each guided by a dedicated coach and assisted by a parent. Given that a coach might be responsible for 2 or 3 teams in a season, scheduling conflicts are inevitable. This is where we rely on the parent assistant to step in and oversee games. We firmly believe that at this age, practice sessions hold more value, and we prefer the coach to lead these sessions, with the parent assistant taking charge of the game if the head coach is unavailable for any reason.

Given that this is a competitive league, team composition will be based on tryouts and player ability. We will form teams from the top down, which means that the best players will be assigned to the top teams and so on, rather than distributing players evenly among teams.

To participate in the season, you'll need to register for tryouts. These tryouts will be used to assess players for both the fall and winter seasons. If you're new to ESA, attending at least one day of the tryouts is required. If you don't attend, your chances of being placed on a team are slim, and you'll be assigned to a lower team if there's room.

If you participated in the ESA winter 23-24 season or spring 24 season, you're not required to attend the tryouts, however it's strongly recommended for optimal player placement. Regardless of whether you attend, you must register for the tryouts.

The tryouts are completely free. They'll be held on two separate Sundays; August 11th and August 18th. If you can't attend on either of these dates, please let us know. The deadline for registration is August 4th.

The tryout schedule is as follows:

3:00 - 4:15 Girls 3rd - 5th Grade

4:15 - 5:30 Boys 3rd - 5th Grade

5:30 - 6:45 Girls 6th - 8th Grade

6:45 - 8:00 Boys 6th - 8th Grade

Once tryouts are over and your player has been selected for a team, you'll receive an invitation through PlayMetrics no later than September 4th. Please remember, you have a 48-hour window to accept this invite, otherwise, your player may forfeit their spot. 

If your player wasn't selected for a team, don't worry! We'll send you an email to let you know. This email might also contain a special offer for your player to join a team as a practice player. It's a fantastic opportunity to stay engaged, improve skills, and potentially secure a spot on a team in the next season.

If you didn't participate with ESA during the 23-24 winter season, you'll need to buy a uniform set. More details will be provided as we approach the season.

Registration is CLOSED!