Evaluation Philosophy and Policy

CMBA believes in having players play on teams compatible with their skill level. Where numbers warrant more than one team in an age category CMBA will hold evaluations to determine player placement. The desire is to generally field as competitive a team as possible with the available players. Accordingly, players will be placed on the team for which their abilities are most compatible.  This will result in an A, a B, a C, etc team, with the A team comprising of the better players as selected by the Evaluation Team; notwithstanding special circumstances which may arise from time to time.
 
Each season CMBA will have a volunteer Evaluation Team who will evaluate players.  The Evaluation Team, in conjunction with the Board will take the evaluation results and determine player placement and suggest team placement within Calgary Minor Basketball’s divisions. Decisions of the Evaluation Team will be as unbiased as possible.
 
The Evaluation Team in consultation with the Board will consider special circumstances; however, the final decision on player placement will be at the sole discretion of the Evaluation Team and the Board.           
 
Player evaluations and team placements will be conducted approximately mid-September, and are generally done in one or two evening sessions.  Ideally, two or three evaluators shall be present for each age category evaluation.  Due to time restrictions during the evaluation process, evaluators should not “coach” players.
 
No make-up sessions are available. Only extreme circumstances will be considered by the Board.
 
Remember that player skill placement evaluations are held in order to help players learn and compete at appropriate skill levels. There exists a large range of physical and emotional development for each age group. Our goal is to accurately determine a player’s skill level based on their current abilities.
 
Evaluator Selection
Anyone may approach the Board and Evaluation Team to be an evaluator.
It is a requirement that an evaluator has enough basketball knowledge to assist or run an evaluation (based on the Player Evaluation Guidelines); as well as understand what skills constitute a high or low rating in those drills.
Evaluators will not evaluate their own child; or wherever possible, a team or division for which they are applying to coach.
Evaluators should make the Evaluation Team and the Board aware of known conflicts involving their children’s friends and their friend’s children. In these situations the Evaluation Team, Administrative Assistant and Board will assist with the team formation decisions taking into consideration such conflicts.  The Evaluation Team in consultation with the Administrative Assistant and Board will determine who is eligible for evaluating certain divisions.

Team Selection
The Evaluation Team will combine the numeric evaluations from both sessions which take into account skill ratings and game play.  These numeric ratings, together with other factors such as athleticism and maturity, will be used to develop overall ranking of the players.
 
Teams will be made up of optimally 9 to 12 players. Exceptions will be addressed by the Administrative Assistant in conjunction with the Board.

Concluding evaluations, additions to the rosters must be discussed with the coach and approved by at least three board members. Registrations following evaluations will not be accepted if the resulting roster size will exceed 12 players.
Late registrations, following evaluation, will be evaluated by at least two board members and the coach.  If it it is determined there is space on an appropriate roster, registration may be granted.  A player who evaluates as clearly “A” will not be assigned to the “B” team; if there is not room on the “A” roster the registration will not be granted. 

When determining team selection, special factors may have to be considered such as:
 

1. High School seasons. In these instances all relevant factors such as player numbers, players' desire to play High School Basketball, the High Schools the players attend and the likelihood of being able to field a team for the entire season will be considered.
2. Positional balance on the teams; for example if a player is ranked high enough to play for the top team and their height and skill level clearly makes their position a guard, but the top team has several better guards but is low on post players, allowing a lower ranked post player to move up may be appropriate. The situation may also occur in the reverse where the top team may be post/forward heavy and a lower ranked guard may be needed for team balance.
3. Car-pooling whereby 2 or more children from different families from outside the Cochrane area request to be put on the same team to reduce inconvenience to those parents driving from outside the Cochrane area. A family that resides within Cochrane may also request that their child to be put on the same team as another family because for example, they have large families or have busy event schedules. In these situations, CMBA will try their best to accommodate their request but it is not guaranteed. Rather, parents are encouraged to meet their fellow teammates/parents and share driving duties with the other parents that also live in Cochrane.  In no circumstances will a "B" transplant an evaluated "A" player to meet such requests. 
4. Sibling requests whereby siblings request to be put on the same team to reduce inconvenience to those families with respect to driving and event coordination.  The movement of the second player will be from A to B and not visa versa.
5. These circumstances, or similar, will be addressed by the Evaluation Team in conjunction with the Administrator and the Board.

 
In some instances it may be appropriate to gather input from the coaches of the teams involved.  It will be communicated to the coaches that the Evaluation Team and the Board will weigh all factors when making their decision and their input is only one factor. Again it is a decision of the Evaluation Team, the Administrator and the Board solely.  The Administrator will then notify Coaches and Players as to team placement.
 
The Administrator in conjunction with the Evaluation Team and Board will also suggest team placement within Calgary Minor Basketball’s divisions.
 
Disputes
If a Player, Parent or Coach strongly disagrees with a placement of any Player, they may voice their concerns through the Cochrane Minor Basketball Association Complaint Procedure.
 
 (ammended May 2013 -AL)