Coaches

End of the Season Basketball Party ideas: 

  • Ice Cream party in a convenient location
  • Meet for a burger, wings, pizza, etc (players w/ or w/out parents - may want to give the restaurant a heads-up)
  • Go Watch a local high school team play. (kids need local heroes too)
  • Go Watch a local small college team play. (often group/team discounts)
More inexpensive ideas:
  • Have your get-together after the last game - give the parents a heads-up, at the gym, order some pizza and hangout. 
  • Meet at one player's house and watch a good college basketball game on TV as a team (potluck dinner, burgers, ice cream, etc)
  • Have a mom's versus sons game (my 3rd grade boys loved it)
  • Have a sons versus dads game (my 6th graders had more fun with this than anything!)
  • 2-2 or 3-3 tournament for your team (random draw teams or handpick
Other cool things to do:
Let the kids dream. Go around the room and ask the players if they could play at any college, where would they? Let the kids have fun with that then turn around and ask who their favorite professional basketball player is...Everyone loves to dream. 
Take a team picture and make sure everyone gets one (even the coach!)
 
Share with them what the importance of the following: decisions they make, attitude on and off the court, trying hard in school and encourage them in education. Also, this is a good time to let the kids know how much fun you had coaching them and make yourself available to them for the future if they want help or pointers in the game. 
 
Life is what you make it. Hopefully the influence you've had on the players has been positive and greater in the grand scheme of life than you'll ever know. I still remember some of the positive statements and comments some of my youth basketball coaches made to me even at an early age. If no one else says this (I'm sorry) but THANK YOU for coaching and giving back to the game of basketball.
 
It's fun for the kids to leave the party with something - for some that's a trophy, others may be a certificate of participation, the team picture, even a dvd of the championship game. 
 
PS If I have left any obvious ideas out or you'd like to submit one, please email adg706@gmail.com.