Planet Roundball

FROM THE PRB.COM "IT'S ABOUT TIME" DEPT.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
As you know, every year the San Pedro Knights promote their two annual tournaments, the BAD BOYZ AT THE BEACH tournament in June and our DUEL IN THE DESERT in Palm Springs with our good friend, Rich Goldberg and ARC every spring.
Every year has seen a steady rise in participants in both tournaments.
This year, in Palm Springs, our tournament will have 94 teams competing.
Next year, the DUEL will easily go over the 100 team mark, as it was only limited this year from going over 100 teams by lack of available rooms.
Let's all make sure we make our room reservations early next year.
As for this year's edition of the BAD BOYZ, registrations look especially good, as once again, tournament participation has grown each year.
The first year, 45 teams. The second year, 58 teams. The third year, 75 teams.
This year, our pre-registration commitments are already at 60, with over 3 months still to go. Thank you so much to all of you who have already commited to us.
The Knights anticipate our registrations for this year will top that magical 100 mark for D-1 competitors. With 90% of these registration BOYS teams, we have begun to concentrate on securing ties to GIRLS organizations and are confident that we can add another block of teams in that area.

Now that we are secure with our tournament registrations for the top tier of travel clubs, the Knights would like to also begin promoting and concentrating on a legitimate Division 2 addition to our tournaments.

Next year, you all will see an active effort on our part to provide a D-2 in Palm Springs to provide an opportunity for those lower level players (i.e. baseball, soccer, volleyball players) in basketball to travel and have a good time also.

THIS YEAR, the Knights would like to attempt to provide that D-2 division for this year's edition of the BAD BOYZ AT THE BEACH.

Flyers will be going to the parks and recs, YMCA's, and Boys Clubs, as well as an effort to contact members of the Asian leagues, the Alpine leagues, etc.
This will be a viable alternative to playing the "same old teams" and will be a great chance to test the waters for pure traveling against all comers.

The only barrier to providing such a D-2 division, of course, is the fragile egos of overzealous coaches themselves who feel the need to win, win, win. Towards that end, there will be tremendous effort on our part to screen out such "competitors".
With the heads of such quality competitors such as SGV, ARC, AVAC, and NJB involved in this project with us, a D-2 team can be sure that even though a team may carry those famous names, the teams from them will be strictly D-2 in competitve levels.
The Knights will also create a Board of Directors made up of those leaders of those very same stalwarts of travel ball; ARC, SGV, AVAC, SoCal Cavs and SE Warriors; to act as an advisory board on the validity of each and every D-2 entrant's application for that division.
The Knights will try to ensure that each entry and acceptance into this new D-2 division will actually be harder to obtain than a simple entry into D-1.

Additionally, with this alliance of travel ball directors involved, any team trying to "sandbag" in the D-2 division simply to win or embarass others will be immediately be known to all of Calilfornia's tournament directors who wish to create a D-2 for their tournaments.

There must be a start towards creating a true D-2 division and the Knights will be the first to volunteer to begin the process of bringing that to fruition in travel ball with the BAD BOYZ TOURNAMENT.
Towards that end, the Knights have secured the Warrior Center in Cypress to host such a D-2 tournament in addition to the San Pedro-Palos Verdes-Torrance venues. All finals, including D-2 will be tried to be held in one of the beautiful Palos Verdes gym sites.
If your organization has an interest in this D-2, and you are a LEGITIMATE D-2 organization; please e-mail Dan DeBenedictis at: s.p.knights@ca.rr.com or myself at: spkdirector@sanpedroknights.com
Please let Dan or myself know if you have begun to form D-2 teams or would like to enter a complete team as D-2 for the BAD BOYZ.
This notice will also be e-mail blasted to the entire database of PLANETROUNDBALL.COM (over 2000 addresses) over the entire state of California.
This should allow us to complete the mission.
If there are not enough teams to form a D-2 division, your teams WILL NOT be thrown into a D-1 bracket. You will simply be notified early that there were simply not enough QUALIFIED teams in a certain division.
The vision is to one day see a true D-2 at every major tournament hosted by the larger clubs in youth basketball with enough quality competition on both levels.
Thanks all.
Bob Uchida
San Pedro Knights (SPK)

DON'T FORGET TWO GREAT TOURNAMENTS COMING UP FROM TWO GREAT ORGANIZATIONS!

First up, the Southeastern Warriors/SPK are hosting their 2nd Annual Cinco de Mayo Spectacular Tournament in the city of Whittier on the weekend of May 3-4.
Over 80 teams are anticipated, with the likes of AVAC, SoCal Cavs, SGV, and others already registered.
With SE Warriors directors David Medina and Joe Rodriguez hosting, the Cinco de Mayo Spectacular should once again provide great competition and a wonderful and friendly family atmosphere.

Second is the AVAC 4th Annual Sizzlin Summer Classic in the city of Lancaster on the weekend of June 21-22.
Gary Thomas and Todd Thomas always produce the classic combination of tough competition and smiling faces to all who venture into the Antelope Valley.
This is the largest of the summer tournaments with a list of teams that always totals over 100.
This is a yearly DON'T MISS tournament for many, many travel clubs.

PLEASE SEE BOTH FLYERS AT THE TOP OF THIS PAGE!

SEE YOU ALL SOMEWHERE SOON!