Development Squad 2011-2012 Season

Development Squad Lead Coach: Tyrone Kinch
Contact via email on kinchmode@talktalk.net

Assistant Coach: Jade Kinch

Our development session is the first stop for newcomers to the club. This session is where our coaches work individually with both new and current club players to improve individual skills needed for National League Competition.

Players wishing to join the club are asked to attend these sessions to allow our coaches to assess playing ability and potential. Time is spent ensuring players are suitably equipped for National League Competition.

Training sessions:

Saturdays: 10am until 12pm

Venue: Nechells Community Sports Centre, Rupert Street, Nechells, Birmingham, B7 5DT

Additional Skills session Mondays: 6pm until 7pm

Venue: Nechells Community Sports Centre, Rupert Street, Nechells, Birmingham, B7 5DT

Citywide League Fixtures and Results:

Mid-season report:

The development team has a mixture of ages and abilities. We have the Minis Development (age 5 - 11) led by Marc Lacey and then we have the rest, age 12 -16.
This report is focussed on the older group, but a key priniciple with the teams is to help each player reach their potential and not hold them back, so several of the minis have played in older age group games in the first half of the season.

Minis Development comments - The Minis have had a few games against Yardley, Baverstock and Bournville during the early part of the season. The core of the minis team are all under 9, supported by 2 older players who are under 11. The have played excellently during these games. The have a great focus on team defence and a desire to win the ball.

Skill session - In September, we started a 1hour skills session that has been very popular with the Minis. It is obvious that those who have attended this session have improved greatly. The greater understanding of the game and the better the execution of the fundamentals has been noticeable in training and in the games.

Older Development -

U13 - This team has at it heart, Henry, SK and Rhizwahn. The remainder of the team are Jameel and Lewis (both u11) and the following minis - Tyrece, Darius, Johannes, and Lewis.

The team have trained well and played matches against Baverstock and Handsworth. Considering the team is so young, they performed excellently against Baverstock in defeat, but turned on the defence to win against Handsworth, who are a considerably taller team.

U16 - Games against Handsworth, Redditch, Yardley. Again the team is made of of younger players you are under aged as a means of encouraging development. So Henry, SK, Rhizwahn, Jameel and Lewis are joined by Taha, Lamar (captain), Brad, Daniel, Ammar, Samad and Vishal. The Handsworth game was a friendly that was an encouraging win pre-season and highlighted many areas for improvement. The Yardley game was a better performance and a deserved win. The most pleasing game was the heavy defeat to a much older and experienced Redditch team. We tried to play good offence and defence and made it hard to Redditch.

The first half of the season has been a success. All of the player have improved. Overall, passing, ball handling, shooting, rebounding and real desire to be better at defence has set good foundations for the teams.

We now need to increase the involvement in the Skills session across all development players as this will surely help them all to grow further.

Saturday 17th December 2011
COB U13s v Handsworth Hurricanes U13s

COB once again was represented by a mixture of Under 11 players and 3 Under 13 as the core of the team. The Handsworth team were physically bigger than us, but the team were not put off by this at all.
During the first period COB missed a lot of layups and shots near to the basket, so we trailed 0-4. The second period we found a way to the basket and we scored regularly - baskets by Henry, SK, Jameel, Rhizwahn and Johannes. Our defence became more aggresive and we chased every loose ball. We started to win more rebounds, but failed to score off our offensive rebounding. However, we went into the half 10-6 up.
The 3rd period was a repeat of the first where we struggled to score again, but our defensive effort stopped Handsworth from scoring too. We finished the game off by keeping Handsworth to just 4 second half points, scoring 6 ourselves - SK, Jameel and Ty closing out the game.
Our under 11's played very well utilising the space and working hard to get open. The main positives were the aggressive defence and the spread of scoring. Everyone showed good improvement throughout the game.

Final Score - COB 16 Handsworth Hurricanes 10.

Saturday 10th December 2011 - Bournville came to visit.
At short notice we agreed to welcome the Bournville team into Nechells. They were unable to access their court so we arranged some friendly games.
COB Mini's V Bourvillle (Under 11)

A fast and exciting game to watch. COB won 30 - 20.

COB Development U16 V Bournville

Both teams uses this as an opportunity to play some younger player. All of the COB team were under U15. Many were in their first game for the club at this level.

The was a great opportunity to see what the players could do.

COB had a very slow start as Bournville quickly opened up a 10 point lead. COB rallied and started to play better defence and managed to play some interesting offence. Ammar made some good assists, Brad got too the hoop, Rhizwahn, Lewis played better defence and Samad, Vishal and SK showed very positive signs for the future.

Final Score - COB 14 Bournville 26

Next game - Saturday 17th December at Nechells. COB U13 V Handsworth U13.

3rd December: Baverstock V COB U13 Development

What a day... We managed to arrange a friendly between the 2 teams under 11s teams that was the warm up to the main game. A close game where COB played very well but were just beated 26 -22.
The little time that we had before the U13 game was a real blessing as it gave us time to get the team together. We started the day with only 3 of the originally planned team, but just before game time we had 2 more arrived. So we had SK, Henry, Rhizwahn, Jameel and Lewis (the last 2 are Under 11 players). We also added Tyrese, Darius, Johannes and Miles, who had just played for the U11s along with Lewis.
This was the first U13 game and a lot was learned from this game. Lots of positive things happened. SK took some rebounds and got the scoring going. Henry got his first points in a game. Jameel, Lewis and Rhizwahn all played very well on defence and scored a few also. The main positive thing was that everyone got more confidence and improved during the game. For a long time we played as individuals, but the more we introduced the more junior players the better the passing got and they scored some good points too. Johannes hit a very good shot of a pass and Tyrese was always involved when he was on the court. Everyone did well and we will play the younger players again in future games.

Final score: Baverstock 47 - COB Dev 26

Next game: Saturday 10th December COB Dev U11 V Bournville and COB Dev U16 v Bournville Location: Nechells Time: 10am

Saturday 26th November 2011
City Wide Trangular U16 event - COB V Yardley V Redditch

COB V Yardley
A close game from the start, with both teams really going for it. COB a large bench of players who were mainly under 14, but most only played one game previously.
Early in the game Ammar and Lamar were a thread on offence. The entire team played quite well on defence, but at times lost concentration and allowed easy baskets. The lead changed many times during the first 3 periods, but the final basket of the 3 saw the last lead change as COB made the significant break. SK hit a long 2 at the very start of the final period and then Lamar closed out the game. Lamar top scored with 16 points. His speed and agility was a constant problem for Yardley.
Final Score COB 22 Yardley 14

COB V Redditch
Redditch arrived a little late, but after a quick warm up they were ready to go. The COB players looked over and worried at the size and athletisim of some of the redditch players.
Redditch were a more experienced team and they were able to put together runs of scoring that enabled them to start each half quickly. In this game, Lamar's speed was of less impact, but the ball handling skills of Brad really did make redditch think. The defence was actually better in this game. The main challenge was keeping the ball on offence.
Final Score COB 11 Redditch 51

Yardley V Redditch
Due to some earlier problems this game was greatly shortened.
Final Score Yardley 2 Redditch 10

Thank you to the referrees - Rusarn and Lungisa from our U15 who did very well... Keep the whistles close by as all teams were happy with your contribution. Also thank you to Jade and Nathan on the table

19th November: Handsworth Hurricanes v CoB Development

In preparation for the season that starts next week we had a friendly game at Handsworth. We played a mixture of our U13 and U16 in this game.
We had 7 players who were available for this game - Daniel, Brad, Taha, Lamar (captain), Rhizwahn, Henry and SK.

The focus for this game was to develop out team working on both defence and offence. It was pleasing to see that eventually we started to work together.
P1 - Very slow start. Everyone was only focussed on scoring as individuals and we dis not work together. We were outplayed by Handsworth.
P2 - Lamar took the game by on and scored several individual fast break baskets, going coast to coast. The defence was slowly improving, but second best on rebounds.
P3 - At last we started to pass ahead and move the ball better.
P4 - We actually saw some excellent ball movement and some better team defence.

Top scorer was Lamar 16 points. Coach highlight was 2 passing moves from our half to their basket that involved all players on the court during the final period.

Final Score Handsworth 16 COB Dev 44

Next Games
COB U16 Dev v Yardley and Redditch. Date: 26th November. Venue: Nechells. Time: 10am.
Baverstock v COB U13 Dev. Date 3rd December.

COB Minis Season Tips off

The youngest group of player at the club are the Minis. The Minis are school year 6 and under (5 to 11 years old). They train during the Saturday morning session and they have also taken advantage of the skills development session on a Monday.

After a long period of preparation, the season gets underway in November. This season the team will follow the same format as last year - shorten court, lower baskets with a size 6 ball. The games will be triangular events against Yardley, Bournville and Baverstock

Development Team Update

U13/16 Friendly V Handsworth Hurricane on Saturday 19th November 2011. Venue: King Edward VI School, Handsworth (use Hall Road Entrance) Time: 11am

Next League Fixtures

COB Dev U16 V Yardley V Redditch on Saturday 26th November 2011. Venue: Nechells CLC. Time: 10am

Baverstock V COB Dev U13 on Saturday 3rd December. Venue: Baverstock School

COB Dev U13 V Handsworth Hurricanes 17th December 2011. Venue: Nechells CLC. Time: 10am