2016 League Updates

It's go time in preparation of the 2nd annual Empire State Takeover summer showcase leagues! Now that April's already upon us (although it doesn't look or feel like it outside), it's time to relay all the updated information via the blog for everyone - kids & parents alike. Fitting pretty much everything below, but if there are any questions, please ask!

Nothing has changed as far as main details over the last 2+ months. The league will again take place at Union College in Schenectady, NY, with usage of all 4 available courts. Boys and girls will nearly always play on the same night - just 1 exception over the course of the summer. Both will generally play on Wednesday nights, with opening night being June 29 this year. Boys will run exclusively on Wednesdays (6/29, 7/6, 7/13, 7/20, 7/27, 8/3, 8/10), with girls on Wednesdays except for the first 2 weeks of July - in order to avoid a 7/6 date which MANY girls would miss, it'll be shifted on that week to Thursday, 7/7, and to allow for ample travel time back from national tournaments, the girls league will take place on Thursday, 7/14 instead of Wednesday, 7/13.

Every team has a guarantee of 2 games per night, with the lone exception being 8/10, which is a single-elimination playoff night. On that night, a team could either participate in 1, 2, or 3 games. Game times will be at 6:00, 7:00, and 8:00 nightly, unless a situation arises where either league has 8 teams participating - at that point, the 8 team league would have games at 5:30, 6:30, 7:30, and 8:30.

Just like last year, we will have board certified officials that do both high school and college basketball games in the winter manning the whistles at all games, both boys & girls. Costs a little extra, but as you see in AAU ball, you get what you pay for and we'll have the best!

I've received numerous questions about coaches' packet information and payment, and there have been some coaches' packet forms submitted and checks sent in so far. There's a form on the website for packet information. It can be filled out directly on the website and gets submitted directly to me - no one sees the info on it besides myself and the coaches who attend unless otherwise specified (name, grade entering, height, school, and stats/awards will be on roster pages when the time comes). It consists of detailed contact information (address, phone number, e-mail) along with basic academic and athletic info. The form can be pulled up directly from this link. Filling out coaches' packet information doesn't finish the job, but it effectively says 'hold my spot'.

The cost for participation as a full participant in the summer is $100. To keep this paragraph from dragging on, you can find full payment information by accessing this link. If the packet info says 'hold my spot', the payment writes it in Sharpie and says 'count me in'.

One more thing. I've talked about this to many of my people from farther away (Syracuse, Southern Tier, Northern NY, Mid-Hudson, Hudson Valley, MA & VT), but here's a good time to drop it to everyone. I do offer the option of being an 'alternate'. This is for those who are interested in playing, but would only be available for less than half of the season. The rate would drop from $100 for the summer to a $25 per week fee (not to surpass full participant rate). Again, it's for people who want to play but can't make it for most weeks. Let me know if this ends up being you, and we can move forward with that. I try to refrain from having loads of alternates for obvious reasons, but I'm not going to turn people that want to play away because of lack of consistent availability.

Again... Empire State Takeover doesn't have many schedule conflicts with AAU. Looking at summer schedules in comparison to EST sessions, it appears as though no one will have an AAU schedule that conflicts more than twice. 11 players between the two leagues participated in brand-sponsored circuits with strenuous schedules, namely Nike EYBL and Adidas Gauntlet. Just about 70 participants between the two leagues played for AAU teams that had regional/national exposure schedules that went deep into July. Boys - the Wednesday schedules falls off the majority of NCAA live period tournaments that teams in the region attend, which go from Friday-Sunday. Girls - only 1 league day (7/7) falls on a day where many national-level teams will be away, and the league is also worked around the USJN tournament in Washington, DC, as over 80% of league participants were there. If people miss a couple weeks because of basketball or other obligations, it's fine. It's summer, so I don't expect everyone to always be there. It's not a "AAU or this" sort of thing. Everyone that plays will be playing AAU somewhere. Even with it being year 2, I bump into the occasional AAU coach that is skeptical or paranoid with me around... don't worry, not stealing your players!

Again, it's April, so I ask everyone I've talked to about the league to start thinking more seriously about whether or not you want in, if you haven't already. I'm requesting that I get a yes, no, or alternate decision by early-mid May and payment by the May 15 area (per the early registration date). It's very important that I can provide accurate team rosters and prospect lists well in advance to send to college & prep coaches - considering all within about a 10 hour drive of Albany get an e-mail, it's time consuming. Many go on vacation for an extended period of time in late May, so I want to get the bulk of e-mails out BEFORE spring semester wraps up. The more I can build 4-6 weeks in advance, the more programs will attend. With May 15 being six weeks away, it's EXTREMELY IMPORTANT that you ask me anything & everything you're wondering about. So I'll be a broken record and say this again... Questions/comments? Please, ask away! Feel free to refer to the website for any verification, as rosters/schedules/statistics from 2015 are still on the site, along with writeups from all games, links to articles & blog posts from local/regional newspapers and other media, pictures, and even recaps of the fall events.

Jeff Mlinar
Cell: (315) 360-2730
jeffmlinar@yahoo.com

Website: www.empirestatetakeover.org
Twitter: @NYSTakeover
Facebook: Empire State Takeover