Hopkins Boys Basketball

HRBBA is a volunteer-run organization offering boys in 4th - 8th grades a basketball program where they can develop skills and knowledge in a competitive atmosphere. Players must live or attend a school within the Hopkins School District 270 boundaries to participate.

After careful consideration, the HRBBA Board has determined that we will delay the 2020-21 Registration and Tryout process by approximately one month.

Please be assured, we recognize the importance of basketball in our children’s lives, and our goal is to get our players back onto the court as soon as possible.  That said, we are committed to following the safest known protocols and consistently monitoring the COVID situation in our community to determine the best way to start a season successfully. Our primary concerns in all our Board decisions are for the health and safety our players, our coaches, and our families.

Additional items the board considered in the decision to delay:

• Uncertainty Surrounding our School Situations
  As Hopkins Area Schools restart at the end of August, our children will be in different learning models dependent on ages. Our desire is to allow our HRBBA families several extra weeks to acclimate to their new learning environments prior to asking for their commitment (financially and physically) to basketball.
• Uncertainty Surrounding the Winter Sports Season
  The MSHSL has not yet announced their intentions for the Winter sports season.  Given the massive changes we’ve recently seen with Fall Sports, we believe that this delayed start to our season will give us the best perspective on what a full Winter sports season may look like.
• Registration Costs
  There are non-refundable costs associated with the Registration process. Should we begin our registration process and then need to cancel our season, each HRBBA family and the HRBBA Association would incur a non-refundable registration fee.

Revised Timeline:
At this time, our revised timeline is as follows:

• Registration Opens October 2nd
• Tryouts Week of October 19th
• Practice Begins Week of October 26th
• First Tournament Nov 21st and 22nd

This revised schedule should have minimal impact to our full season schedule.

Changes to the 2020-2021 Season

As with most things during these challenging times, we expect - and are planning for - our season to look a little different.  While we can’t anticipate all the changes at this point, we’d like to share what we do know:

• No Gate Fees at our Hopkins Royal Rumble Tournament
  Many Associations are moving to a “No-Gate-Fee” model with their tournaments, offering Free Admission.  This reduces the number of volunteers needed to staff, reduces exposure between guest, and eliminates the handling of money.  (We do anticipate having limited spectators able to access all tournaments during the Winter sports seasons.)
• Slight Increase in Registration Fees, including Scholarship Fees
  Moving to a No-Gate-Fee model raises the costs for our Association to participate in other tournaments, and reduces our income from Admissions at our own Royal Rumble Tournament.  Gate Fees are one of the biggest sources of fundraising for our Association. That, combined with the risk of lower concession proceeds at our tournament, will require us to raise our Registration Fee by $50.  We wanted to communicate this to our families early so there are no surprises.  Keep in mind – you will likely not need to pay Gate Fees at other tournaments either, which may be a savings for your family overall.
• Repurposing Last Year’s Uniforms
  In an effort to keep costs as low as possible, HRBBA is adopting a strategy used by several neighboring Associations – using uniforms for more than one year.  We anticipate reordering uniforms in 2021-22 and then every other year going forward.  From a sizing perspective, most of our players should be able to utilize their HRBBA uniform last worn in March 2020.  There will be an online store for players new to the league and returning players who have lost or outgrown their uniform pieces. More information on uniforms will be provided at registration. All players selected for teams will receive a new HRBBA Shooting Shirt. We know this is a change from prior years, but we feel this is a necessary move to control as many costs as possible and given the uncertainty of the length of the season ahead.
• Online Registration
  When opened, our Registration will be ONLINE ONLY.  No day-of walk-ins or paper registration will be accepted. Our Board members will be available to assist anyone who needs help with this process – more information to come.

During this delayed start, the HRBBA Board is committed to continuing to:

• Closely monitor the COVID situation in our schools and community.
• Communicate with other basketball associations to share plans and best practices for keeping players safe.
• Communicate with our HRBBA families.  We know you are receiving lots of lengthy emails right now, and it can be difficult to keep up.  But we want to make sure to keep the lines of communication open, sharing updates when we have them.
• Meet as a Board as often as needed to address any changing conditions.
   

Parents - We appreciate the support of our HRBBA families and are as eager as you are to get our players safely back to the gym.

Players – Don’t let this delay stop you from preparing for your season! While the weather is great, get outside to the driveway and work on dribbling drills, shoot hoops as often as you can, get your conditioning started.  We can’t wait to see you back on the courts, hopefully soon!

Questions?  Comments?  We understand.  We want to hear from this community, and we are here to discuss these changes with you.  Please direct any questions to hrbbaboard@gmail.com and one of our Board members will follow up with you.

Stay up to date on current info!  Website:  www.hrbbabasketball.net   Facebook: Hopkins Royals Boys Basketball Association

Please stay safe & healthy, and GO HOPKINS!

Registration opens soon for the 2021 Royal Rumble Tournament

Dates:  January 8-10, 2021
Location:  Hopkins High School and nearby Junior High Schools
Spots will be limited - reserve your team's today!
 

Visit our Tournament Page for information and Registration!

Join the HRBBA Board! The HRBBA Board is made up of a group of parents who are committed to making the players' experiences the best they can be through HRBBA.

Service on the Board can be done in a variety of ways:

• As a full-time member who attends every meeting and focuses on a specific area or task
• As a part-time member who assists with special events like tournaments or coordinating Varsity Night
• As an Ad-Hoc member who assists the Board when they can

All manners of help are welcome and needed to ensure our organization can thrive in 2020-2021 and beyond.

Talk to a Board Member today to learn more.  Contact info can be found on the Board Page 

We are excited to introduce our new HRBBA FOCUS Program.  This program is multifaceted and is designed to demonstrate and promote the importance of our HRBBA core values.

FOCUS stands for:

F - Fighting Spirit
O - Opportunity Seeking
C - Concentration
U - Unrivaled Attitude
S - Sportsmanship

For continuing updates to our FOCUS Program watch our FOCUS Program page!

Email List:
To ensure you are receiving all email communications from HRBBA, please become a member of our website. Instructions to do this are provided here. 

Calendar Links:
For NGIN instructions on how to add an iCal team calendar link to your smart phone, click here.  

Hopkins Royals Boys Basketball Association is always looking for interested coaches for our Boys traveling basketball teams.  Candidates should possess the abilities to work with motivated boys (Grades 4 through 8) to develop basketball skills and play games in a competitive environment.  Practices are held two nights a week for 4th grade and three nights a week for 5th - 8th Grades.  There are tournament games on weekends.

For more information, please email Justin White at: Coaching@hrbbabasketball.net