Miami Hoop Alliance Youth Basketball League

MIAMI HOOP ALLIANCE YOUTH BASKETBALL LEAGUE "Empowering Your Program." GUIDELINES AND RULES LEAGUE GOALS Miami Hoop Alliance Youth Basketball League (MHAYBL) is here to: Create a recreational and competitively friendly environment in which kids of various skill levels compete in basketball games Teach basketball skills, rules, & strategy to our players Model and teach competitiveness with an emphasis on good sportsmanship Promote increased self-esteem among our children Promote safety at all levels of competition. Coaches and referees should strive to avoid injury whenever possible. MEMBERS AND ELIGIBILITY MHAYBL consists of teams from various cities in South Florida. Residents of the community and currently enrolled in grades 2nd through 12th are eligible to participate. Teams from other nearby communities will be considered for inclusion on a case-by-case basis. AGE DIVISIONS MHAYBL has five divisions as follows: 9-10U Division: Age cutoff date is September 1st for the current school year. 11-12U Division: Age cutoff date is September 1st for the current school year. 13-14U Division: Age cutoff date is September 1st for the current school year. 15-16U Division: Age cutoff date is September 1st for the current school year. 17-18U Division: Age cutoff date is September 1st for the current school year. (Players have the option to play at their age group as well as play up with a higher level team, but not allowed to play down.) TEAM FORMATION Each Program Alliance must have 5 teams, 1 team for each age level & a maximum of 10 players per team. Each Program Alliance will be held responsible for their own teams, coaches, and players. TEAM GUIDELINES AND RULES SPORTSMANSHIP Coaches are responsible for ensuring that all members of the team and their fans practice good sportsmanship before, during, & after the game. Coaches should: support the referees and refrain from making derogatory comments towards or about them refrain from actions or words that undercut the self-esteem of players on other teams or their own team not allow your players to make derogatory comments towards other players, coaches or referees support post-game, line up & hi-five exchange between players and coaches Good sportsmanship includes avoidance of unnecessary rough and ‘dirty’ plays. Players, coaches, and referees should all strive in this regard. Good sportsmanship also includes not running up the score. A team that is ahead by 20 points or more must pull its defense back to half court defense & running clock. FACILITIES / GYM READINESS The home team is responsible for providing: timely access to gym game referees game ball (9-10U & 11-12U = 28.5” | 13-14U, 15-16U, 17-18U = 29.5”) score keeper for official score posting PAYING REFEREES Regular Season Games for 9-10U, 11-12U, & 13-14U will use one referee per game. Regular Season Games for 15-16U & 17-18U will use two referees per game. During the Regular Season, the home team is responsible for paying the referee or referees at each game. One exception to the home team paying for the referees occurs when a visiting team does not show up for a game, resulting in a forfeiture, and does not provided notice to the home team in advance which results in the referee(s) showing up for the game. In that case, the visiting team that has forfeited will be responsible for reimbursing the home team for the full amount paid to the referees before they play again. During the Post Season, both teams are responsible for paying for a referee each. All playoff & championship games will have two referees per game in all divisions.(Referee cost per game will be split between both playoff & championship teams.) Playoff & Championship Gym – TBD. UNIFORMS All teams are required to have their own team uniforms or jerseys. Home team wears white or light side of jersey color. Away team wears black or darker side of jersey color. Players are not allowed to wear jewelry of any kind, including earrings, necklaces and bracelets. Referees will ask players to remove any jewelry or unnecessary clothes (e.g. hats) before being allowed to play in a game. Jersey numbers visible on front and back. A player with no uniform will not be allowed to participate. GAME TIMES/ARRIVING ON TIME The times listed on the league schedule are the game start times. Teams should arrive at the game site 30 minutes prior to the start of the game. Team books must be checked and signed off by the coaches before the game starts. Each team shall be prepared to play at the scheduled start of the game. Teams are required to have 5 players to start a game. A grace period of 30 minutes is allowed, after which the delinquent team shall forfeit the game. If a forfeiture occurs and the other team has more than five players, the team with excess players is encouraged to “loan” players to the delinquent team so that the players may scrimmage and still get to play. REPORTING SCORES The score of each game will be reported on the MHAYBL website as soon as possible after the game is played. Scores must be sent via text message by the home team to the League Scheduler for posting. App is also available for posting scores. INCLEMENT WEATHER/GAME CANCELLATIONS When inclement weather threatens the safety of travel in the league’s region, the league will consider cancelling games for that day. Any such league-wide cancellations will be posted on the league’s website as early as possible on game day. Also, in case of a league-wide cancellation, the league will contact the referees to alert them of the game cancellations. In addition, weather conditions can change rapidly and unpredictably, team coaches who determine that it is not safe for their team to travel to a specific game venue may also elect to cancel a game even if there has not been a league-wide cancellation. In such a case, coaches are asked to: Make the determination as early as possible Contact one another, home and opposing teams – phone contact list will be provided to coaches. Contact the referees & cancel for that game. In the event that the cancellation occurs too close to game time and the referee is already traveling to the game venue, the home team must pay the referee for that game. Games canceled due to inclement weather will not be rescheduled. The league, in its discretion, may decide to schedule make-up games in the event that there are an unusually large number of games cancelled due to inclement weather. GAME RULES FOLLOW HIGH SCHOOL RULES Except where modified below, games shall be conducted according to NHSF rules in effect at the time of a game. In all disputes, a referee’s decision is final. GAME LENGTH Games are comprised of two 20 minute halves with a running clock except for the final minute of the first half and the final two minutes of the second half. Clock stops for all referee whistles. The clock also stops for time-outs regardless of when they are called. Games that have a tied score at the end of regulation are treated as follows: Overtime period will be played. 1st Overtime is 3 minutes in length, with a running clock for the first 2 minutes and with the clock stopping for all referee whistles during the final minute of the overtime. If the score is tied at the end of the 1st Overtime, 2nd Overtime period is 2 minutes. Overtime Time Outs 1 Full , 1- 30 second. Regualr Game Time Outs may roll into Overtime. Halftimes are 5 minutes for all divisions. Playoff games are the same length as regular season games. However, in playoffs, overtimes will be conducted as follows. First overtime is 3 minutes, second (if needed) is two minutes, third (if needed) is sudden death. Stop clock on all whistles will be followed in playoff overtimes. TIME-OUTS Timeouts will be awarded under NHSF rules (3 Full / 2 Thirty Second). Regualr Game Time Outs may roll into Overtime. LEAGUE GAME SCORE KEEPER For each game, the following statistics will be maintained, as they have a bearing on the outcome of a game: (a) individual fouls; (b) team fouls; (c) time outs; and (d) the running score. BALL SIZE 9-10U & 11-12U Divisions: Uses 28.5-inch ball 13-14U, 15-16U, & 17-18U: Uses 29.5-inch ball FOULS/TECHNICAL FOULS All age divisions shoot 1 and 1 beginning with the 7th foul of a half. Double-bonus for 13-14U, 15-16U, & 17-18U A player fouls out of a game upon receiving his 5th foul. Any player or coach who is assessed two technical fouls in a game is disqualified for the remainder of the game and for the team’s next league game. Any player or coach who is ejected from a game is subject to a referee statement & league committee case by case evaluation. DEFENSE/PRESSING Full court pressing, which can include trapping in the back court, is subject to the following rules: 9-10U Division: Half court pressing is allowed only during the final 2 minutes of each half. 11-12U, 13-14U, 15-16U, 17-18U Full Court Press is allowed. THREE SECONDS IN THE PAINT In the 9-10U & 11-12U divisions, the three second rule, will be enforceable at the discretion of the referee. While it will be enforced differently according to the level of the players, it should be called if it appears that a player obtains a competitive advantage by remaining in the lane more than 3 seconds. NHSF rules (standard) will be enforced for 13-14U, 15-16U, & 17-18U. TEN SECONDS IN THE BACKCOURT NHSF rules (standard) will be enforced for ALL.