Fall League Schedule/Format

I know there has been rumblings of "no release of information" with regards to Fall League. In thinking about the situation I think of the sound heard most often when a HS fan enters a gym in NH for a HS basketball game:

The sound of dust falling from the ceiling.

HS basketball has had a significant decrease in promotion and publicity, with the exception of web sites like the Forum and the Notebook. Outside of an occasional big game at BG, Trinity, Milford or Conant, atmospheres at HS gyms on Tuesday and Friday nights can be referred to as a "ghost town", as apathy with student bodies becomes more of the norm these days. Sure, the parents and hoop nuts will always show up, but NH as a whole has been lacking the last few years in promoting and publicizing HS basketball. When the UL has a 1 or maybe 2 paragraph blurb in their Wednesday or Saturday papers on a big game in the Queen City the night before, then it doesn't take a genius to see how HS basketball continues to lose the fan who is on the fence about becoming a bigger fan. Lack of information leads to apathy and a chipping away at the foundation of circle of fans that could become greater, but are stagnated with an increasing lack of publicity.

Conant has been a great story in HS basketball these last few years. They have won the last 5 Class M titles. WGAM and others say try to get out and watch this program because they play an excellent brand of basketball with a good system. Most fans can't get out and watch this team. Conant has joined the Fall League this season and will be playing some interesting D1/Class L opponents. I find this very interesting along with:

- Fall League will be played at Rivier and Memorial High School every Sunday from 7:30 to 11:30 am. There are more teams added to the league this season. Milford and Londonderry are 2 of the significant added schools along with Conant.

- How about these games for tasty matchups: Milford - Dover, BG-Central, Trinity-BG, Milford-Conant, Dover-Conant and Memorial-Central.

I will be the first to admit these games don't mean much in the general scheme of things. Key players do soccer/football and sometimes the lineups for some teams look like a JV squad. It is fun to watch a good game here or there when the lineups are right or the matchup dictates a little more intensity on the court. One only has to look at the championship game participants in all the classes last season and realize some of them, like Milford didn't even do fall league last year or some like Winny weren't that impressive in their fall league participation. I get this aspect and I think the informed basketball fan gets this also. What we all would like to get is the cool genesis of finding out about a solid freshman like Dimitri Floras from last year or given the events of the first few days of school this year, answering the questions of: "Who the heck is going to play, transfer or be on what team this coming season?"

I think here on the NH Sports Forum we pride ourselves on good discussion of HS sports. We stay away from personal attacking and inflammatory postings. We treat leagues, teams, coaches and players with the respect they deserve for their passion and energy they have in entertaining all of us with their basketball skills.

Games start tomorrow at Rivier and Memorial. West plays Trinity at 7:30 am at Memorial. BG plays Bedford at 8:30 am at Memorial along with Milford-Dover at 10:30 am. At Rivier, South plays Merrimack at 7:30 am and Noth-Salem follows at 8:30 am. There are other games tomorrow, but I don't want to make this the official Fall League site. Feel free to send me a PM to find out a scheduled game or set of games. Will I make posts about games? I might depending on how a certain game turns out. I might decide not post anything at all if teams are constantly depleted by soccer/football players not showing up to games. In the end I cherish being given the choice as opposed to not being given a choice.

I wouldn't want the sound of dust falling from HS basketball gyms to become louder and louder.

So does anyone have scores for any of the games. I doubt the coach would have an issue with just posting scores. Anyone? Milford beat Dover but I didn't remember the score sorry.

I don't have any scores, but I do know David Madol played for Memorial in the 11:30 game against Concord.

How did Concord look? They look like they have some size and some athletes. Curious to see how they played against a good class L team in Memorial.

Conant beat Hollis/Brook, Trinity beat West, Merry beat South and Trinity beat West to highlight some of the opening Sunday action.

Trinity beat West twice just kidding, T&F

Central beat Chelmsford by a lot

I know Alvine is going to have a hard time finding kids to field a squad for his fall season. I've heard soccer and football coaches are not allowing their players to suit up for the basketball team in the Rivier League. Is his common practice around NH? I would assume so but was curious...

A great opportunity for some of the younger kids, but they'll be going up against much stronger competition if other schools don't have similar rules about in season fall sports players.

Heh Tully, sometimes when you lose a game it feels like you lost 2 games. I hope that didn't happen to West against Trinity.

At Memorial this Sunday at 7:30 am there is the eye-opener special: Memorial vs. Central. I don't think the players will need a visit at Dunkin Donuts to get ready for this ready made expresso matchup, but I sure will.

Asst, I would say a majority of schools have a policy where football/soccer coaches don't want their players playing in Fall League basketball games. I think it's a good policy. Even a young and healthy teenage body can only take so much physically.

You would think most schools would have such a policy. I am all for multi sport athletes but don t think a basketball player (or what ever player) that plays football should play in any fall basketball games what so ever. 6 days a week is a pretty full schedule for the fall.

Come on guys these are kids. I cannot even think of a day when I was in high school when I wasn't at a park or at the gym playing something. I mean lets keep these game sin perspective. They are one hour games running time where most of the kids are barely playing half to 2/3s of the game. It is Sunday morning so it is on a day where they would not be doing any high school sports at all.
My son is in a situation where he is playing soccer but he knows he will be playing college basketball not college soccer so this one game on Sunday is a way to try to keep his skills and timing from completely dissolving over the Fall season. Are we really arguing that he should have to choose?

Remember they also have academics to deal with and the body must rest from time to time.

That s a great example, sunday morning would be terrible for a football player after playing both ways on saturday with the soreness at it s peak. Every situation is different but not really fair to the team that is in season especially if it is a key player. Practicing is one thing but playing in a game is another.

It is one hour...If you do not have an hour to do something on Sunday chances are your academics are not the problem your study habits in general are. As far as being a key player on a team I can respect that if the team is a contender, my sons team is not which is why I may feel differently about it than if the case were reversed and this was Winter season and he was playing basketball and wanting to play indoor soccer. I mean your talking to a dad that would never let his kids ski before the playoffs were over! lol

I think it would be more then an hour. Also some these student athletes are taking AP courses that require a lot of time outside the classroom. Some student athletes are looking for a highly selective school to go onto and not to just play a sport.

The body, even at that age, does reguire a recovery time.