The 2023-2024 youth basketball season is right around the corner, and it's a good time to remind sports leaders in our state something about Minnesota Youth Athletic Services: We are not a governing body.

Since our inception in 1991, MYAS has provided service and support to different sports communities, including basketball. In partnership with Minnesota youth basketball associations, MYAS developed and refined policies and procedures, best practices, and rules for the broader basketball community.

Beginning in 2019, associations wanted more, with many advocating for an alliance that would facilitate deeper connection and elevate basketball efforts for communities throughout Minnesota.

There was a toll on association leaders, who felt as if they were constantly having to reinvent the wheel. Instead, leaders wanted to collaborate and communicate with others to learn and adapt what could work best for their association.

Enter the Minnesota Youth Basketball Alliance (MYBA).

We are proud that in just a few years since the inception of the MYBA in 2020, we have 167 youth basketball member associations represented around the state. We embrace our role as steward and connector, and our teammates are communicating with leaders throughout the state to have a pulse on hot topics, trends, and best practices so we can share them with others. We do this through virtual outreach sessions, communication via email and social media and, of course, phone calls and in-person visits.

Constantly striving to be and do better, we're proud that associations have widely adopted the new Register Play platform, which the MYAS team believes will streamline things for all youth basketball participants and save everyone money. One of the keys to the system will be the MYBA Game Results Index (GRI), which calculates scores between opponents, and helps ensure data drives seedings for tournaments.

We also are introducing MYAS.TV, which will give others an insight into youth basketball in our state with features, community interest stories, and spotlights on teams, coaches, and leaders. We're excited to introduce, "Road to State," which will highlight specific association tournaments and enable streaming of championship games for those invitationals, as well as the Grade State Championships and Greater Minnesota Championships.

The goal is to have coverage of all the great participation that goes on during the winter travel basketball season, and to emphasize the great teams and stories that showcase the best of basketball in our state.

Again, we're not trying to reinvent anything, but maybe refresh or reboot how and what we do because our "why" remains the same: Strive to do what benefits all of our young athletes! It truly is about creating opportunities for all young athletes interested in basketball, not just the ones who are the "best."

We believe one of the important things to ensure we're honoring that high standard is to have a strong MYBA Board of Advisors, a group comprised this year of 31 leaders from all over the state. That geographic diversity fosters many thoughts and ideas, and board members then come together to vote on how the community-based basketball programming should continue to move forward.

MYBA- https://www.myas.org/myba
MYBA on Demand