Frequently Asked Questions

All East Carolina Sting coaches either already have Certification from NYSCA, The National Youth SportsAssociation Basketball governing body in the United States, Lexis Nexis NCAA Coaches Approval Program, or are in the process of receiving them prior to being assigned to a team. Each has played at a High School level or higher. Coaches

Each team will be assigned a coach who is primarily responsible for that team's training and games. Each team may also receive coaching from another member of the coaching staff or occasional guest coaches during training camps.

A player commits to playing one complete season. The season begins at various times. A season consists of a Conditioning Camp, Pre-Tryout Workouts, Tryouts, Season Tournaments and Team Camps, and a Post Season Individual Skill Camp which is optional and has age group limitations. Players are encouraged to play in November thru March League play if they do not make their school teams.

Players are expected to attend all team activities (training and games) unless there is a conflict such as an academic function or injury which prevents attendance. Teams train twice each week and have two to four games on weekends depending upon the schedule. Agility and conditioning training is also available twice per month to the 9u through­ 18u teams.  We take the common sense approach that a player's playing time is greatly affected by practice attendance, practice participation (being productive), and overall conduct.

The specific amount of playing time per game is not pre-defined nor do we practice benching players.  We trust that our coaches will follow our guidelines on playing time.  Coaches decide who goes in and comes out, and they also decide on who starts.  Coaches have a priority first,  to get every player in the game, then secondly they have a priority to keeping the team in a solid position for winning the game.  This is where it gets sticky, but realize that in a tournament in which your child's team plays three or four games, your child must be able to play at the level sustained by the team and the momentum determined by the game.  We believe that your child should be able hold her own for at least 2 minutes of game time (which could be about 4-5 minutes of real time) when she is put in the game so that other players can get a rest.  It is destructive to a team's chemistry when a player that lacks the skills to pass, dribble, run offense plays, or simply guard "their man" on defense.   Just as important, every player will have a schedule for the entire season and is expected to participate in the tournaments, even if a parent can not attend.  For example: It is crucial that a team's starting center (who just happens to get 80% of the snaps in practice) is not at a tournament.  Thus our less skilled center, who lacks the defensive presence is asked to play 15 minutes versus our opponent's starting center who will most likely take advantage of it and probably get our less skilled center fouled out of the game.