Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays to all of our players and their families.  Hopefully the time off will be a good chance to catch up on rest both metally and physically.  We will look to get back to the grind at practice on the 27th in preperation for our Holiday Tournament.

12-22-11 @ Duluth Marshall

Bus Leaves at 330.

Bring Whites, water bottles, good attitudes, and either food or money for after if you wish.

UPDATE:

Unfortunately the Pine City Boys Varsity were unable to walk out of Marshall with a victory.  We fell behind quickly at the beginning of the game and were unable to claw back.  This has been a trend in our games so far this season and we will look to get quicker starts and more energy and passion from our players at the beginning of games. 
The JV/C squad was able to come out with a very impressive victory at Duluth Marshall.  They continue to grow together and get stronger every game.

12-20-11 @ East Central

The bus will be leaving at 445PM.  Please do not forget your jerseys, water bottle, and a good/winning attitude!

UPDATE:
Pine City was able to go into East Central and come out with three wins.  C and JV both played well and were able to defeat their opponents.  The Varsity team came out very slow and sluggish and fell behind by 10 at half.  They were able to battle back and really put the pressure on the last 8 minutes.  It lead to an eventual 52-47 win.

Volunteer--Toys For Tots

The C team will be volunteering for Toys for Tots on Friday (12-16-11) from 315-5 at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church.

The JV and Varsity teams will be volunteering for Toys for Tots on Saturday (12-17-11) from 830-10 AM at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church.

UPDATE:

There will be an optional shoot around after volunteering at Toys for Tots for 1 hour at the Elementary School on Saturday.

Team Pictures

The C, JV, and Varsity teams will be taking Team and Individual pictures on Friday, 12-16-11.  Picture order forms were given after practice on Wednesday.  Please come prepared for pictures with uniform and picture order forms.

12/13/11 @ Isle

JV/C team will again be playing together.

Bus leaves at 4.

Film directly after school.

UPDATE:

The Pine City Boys Basketball team was over matched in most fazes of the game on Tuesday night.  The final score of the game was 90-43.  We will look to rebound from this in preparation for East Central next Tuesday in East Central.  We will take the extra days of practice to get our bodies and minds ready to go.

12/9/11 - Ogilvie @ Home

We will again be combining the C team and JV team tonight for the JV Game.

There will be film after school at 315 for all Varsity players.

There will be a "6th Man" meeting directly after school in Coach Allen's room.

UPDATE:

The Pine City boys basketball team came up just short losing by two in OT.  The boys played very hard and are taking steps in the correct direction.  We start a three game road trip before the holiday break next week starting @ Isle.

Players New Tradition

The players have started a new tradition for the Pine City Boys Basketball Team.  Every Saturday a group of players gets together at a local restaurant to have breakfast together before practice.  It is players only and run by the players.  The numbers are continuing to grow and we hope that this tradition continues not only for this year but for years to come.

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12/6/11 @ Onamia

There will be no C team game tonight.  The C team players will still be joining us and will be sitting JV.

We are meeting after school in Coach Allen's room for film before we leave at 4:15PM.

Make sure to bring your White Jerseys, Warm-ups, Water Bottles, snacks, and any other necessities.

UPDATE:

The Pine City Boys Basketball Varsity Team fell to Onamia High School 68-61 in Onamia on Tuesday Night.  The boys fought hard but were out rebounded by Onamia and this played a huge role in the outcome.  A comeback mounted in the second half but unfortunately fell short in the end.  The team will be moving on quickly and begin getting ready for Ogilvie on Friday at home.

Schedual Update

Due to complications, there will be NO  meal on December 5th and practice will get out at 5 instead of 530.

Jamboree

This Saturday December 3rd the Boys Basketball Team will be participating in several scrimmages and one exhibition game.  All games are at Pine City High School for our team.  The times are as follows:

11:30 AM--Scrimmage against South Ridge
1:00 PM--Scrimmage against Onamia
2:30 PM--Scrimmage against Ogilivie

8:15 PM--Exhibition game against TBD

Hope to see you there!!!

Thank You!

A big "Thank You" goes out to Mr. and Mrs. Jusczak, parents of current 8th grader, Kole Jusczak.  They were gracious enough to purchase Subway for our players in between Saturday practice and participating in our Alumni Tournament.  Thank you again for your help and support!!!

Alumni Tournament Results

We had a good number of Alumni join us for our Alumni Tournament.  We also had three teams of current players play against our Alumni.  We look forward to this again next year and we hope to see our alumni at our games this year supporting our current Dragons!

Our Winning Team was "Wicktor's All-Stars"

Our Second Place team was "Drizzle"

Alumni Tournament

We are having a Pine City High School Alumni Tournament on Saturday, November 26th starting at Noon.  Please contact Coach Allen (kallen2@pinecity.k12.mn.us) or Coach Hussong (jhussong@pinecity.k12.mn.us) for more information.

UPDATE:

C/JV/V First Practice

Our first practice will be on November 21st at 6AM at the High School Gym.  We are very excited about getting this year underway.  We are coming in with a new attitude and implementing a new work ethic for our student athletes.  We had a good turn out sign up to play at the high school level and we can't wait to see them show up on Monday!

UPDATE:  Reminder, if you come late to morning practice and the front doors are locked, the east side doors to the gym are open.

Opening Letter

I congratulate you and your son on the decision to take part in the 2011-2012 basketball season at Pine City High School. This will be a great opportunity for your son to grow as a person in a setting outside of the classroom. I promise that myself and my coaching staff will work diligently to help your son grow both on and off the basketball court. To do this however, we must have ground rules (See other side of paper) that will apply to ALL student-athletes in the program because “there is a right way to do something and then there is every other way.” As a program we will follow the school's policy on grades.

*JV and Varsity: The student-athletes will turn in grade reports once a week to either Coach Allen or Coach Brever depending on what team they are on. The grade reports can be picked up in Coach Allen's classroom Monday-Thursday and must be turned in every Friday. If there is no school on a Friday, it will be due the next week. We must also remember the most important aspect of a “student-athlete” is that the student comes first. In the idea of “student-athlete”, the Varsity members will be doing a “book report” that will be due on January 27. The book will be assigned to them by Coach Allen.

We will have pregame meals (JV and Varsity) on days before games after early practices only at 6PM in the 7^th Grade Commons. The meal dates are Dec. 5, Dec. 8, Dec. 19, Jan. 9, Jan. 19, Jan. 23, Feb. 2, Feb. 16, Feb. 23, and Mar. 1. Please sign up to help provide food for these events with Coach Allen (kallen2@pinecity.k12.mn.us). This is a family event, please bring your families with you to meals.

*C, 8^th, and 7^th: The coaches will be checking school-view to keep up on the student-athletes grades.

We will also be having a “program meal” open to ALL teams and families on Nov. 22 in the 7^th Grade Commons at 6PM.

Our hope is to have several volunteer opportunities for our student-athletes. Be on the look out for working camps as well as other community service chances.

Game day attire will be decided upon by each individual coach. Please see him for information on this topic.

One of the purchase we were able to buy this year for the teams were new practice uniforms. Your son will be issued out equipment, uniforms, and other items that belong to the school and the basketball program. A detailed list will be kept of which players have what equipment. This equipment is expected to be returned in the same fashion and condition it is given out in. If equipment is lost or damaged, it will be your responsibility to replace it.

Unfortunately we will be unable to purchase team shoes. We ask that shoes worn by our players at games be predominately green and white. Please see your coach with any questions or problems.

Communication is a large part of our program. We, as a coaching staff, ask all players with problems to please schedule a meeting with their respective coach to try to work out any misunderstandings. If this meeting is not successful, a meeting will be set up with the parents, student, and coaching staff. The parent meeting can not occur until the student meeting has happened. We have also started a blog that will help with communication. The website is: www.pinecityboysbasketball.blogspot.com You can sign up to follow the blog or sign up to receive email updates.

Thank you again in advance for your commitment and support. We look forward to the things to come this season!

Unacceptable Actions	Consequence
Late To Practice (Unexcused)	1. 3 in 3 (Conditioning Drill)
*Arrangements must be made before the late	2. 5 in 5
practice for it to be considered excused. It can not be	3. 7 in 7
made afterwords. Emergencies are an exception.	4. 10 in 10 AND miss a game
	5. 10 in 10 AND miss 2 games AND meeting to determine future
	6. Off the team
Missing Practice (Unexcused)	1. 5 in 5
*Arrangements must be made before the missed	2. 10 in 10 AND miss a game
practice for it to be considered excused. It can not be made afterwords. Emergencies are an exception.	3. 10 in 10 AND miss 2 games AND meeting to determine future
	4. Off the team
Detention/Referral/Technical	1. 3 in 3
*Detention must be told to the Coach by student	2. 5 in 5
receiving the detention. If Coach finds out	3. 7 in 7
through other means, punishment doubles.	4. 10 in 10 AND miss a game
	5. 10 in 10 AND miss 2 games AND meeting to determine future
	6. Off the team
Late To A Game/Game Bus (Unexcused)	1. 5 in 5
	2. 7 in 7 AND miss the game
	3. 10 in 10 AND miss 2 games AND Meeting to determine future
	4. Off the team
Miss A Game/Game Bus	1. 7 in 7 AND miss another game
	2. 10 in 10 AND miss 2 more games AND Meeting to determine future
	3. Off the team
Missing Book Report (Varsity Only)	*10 in 10 AND miss a game
Not Coming Prepared to Practice/Game Day Attire	*3 in 3 (Every time)
*No practice gear, basketball, shoes, etc. *Not dressed in appropriate game day attire.
Inappropriate Actions and/or Language	*25 push-ups (Every time)
Missing Grade Report (JV and Varsity Only)	*3 in 3 (Every time)
*Grades are due every Friday to your Coach.
Grade reports can be picked up in Coach Allen's
classroom any day of the week.
Lost/Damaged Equipment, Jerseys, or items	*Replaced in full by participant responsible

*Consequences for poor attitude and disrespect will be determined by each Coach.

ALL Team Meal

We are having a basketball dinner at the 7^th grade commons on November 22 at 6 PM. This is open to all players and families involved in our basketball program grades 7-12. We hope to see you there and kick off the season right.

We ask that you bring the following based on your students grade level:

12th Grade: Please bring a desert to pass and a package of water

11th Grade: Please bring a dish to pass and Paper Plates

10th Grade: Please bring a dish to pass and Napkins

9th Grade: Please bring a dish to pass and utensils

8th Grade: Please bring a dish to pass

7th Grade: Please bring a package of soda

Thank you and hope to see you there!

Opening Basketball Meeting (9-12)

Our informational basketball meeting is before (715AM) or after school (300PM) on 11-10-11.  Any and all interested boys wanting to play basketball between grades 9 and 12 should plan to attend.

UPDATE:  We are hovering around 40 students that initially signed up to play.

After School Open Gym

Starting Monday, October 31st we are having open gym after school until 430PM for Freshman-Seniors.  We will have the gym and weight room available on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.  We encourage students to get into the gym and utilize this extra gym time.  The last day for these open gyms will be November 10th because Girls Basketball will start their practices the following week.

7th and 8th Grade Basketball

7th and 8th Grade Basketball will begin practice on Monday October 31st after school at the Elementary Gym.  Please see Coach Rademacher or Coach Weiss with any questions.

UPDATE:  Our first 7/8 boys basketball practice was yesterday at the Elementary Gym.  It was a good start to the year but we hope that if there are more 7th and 8th grade boys who are thinking about coming out that they talk to either Coach Allen, Coach Rademacher, or Coach Weiss about coming out.  We would love to have more participants in the program!

Donating Basketballs

The Pine City Boys Basketball team was able to donate six basketballs to the Pine City High School Physical Education Program.  Coach C. accepted the six basketballs on behalf of the Physical Education Program.

Thank You Pine City Hoops

A big thank you goes out to the Pine City Hoops Program for donating money to buy new 7th and 8th grade practice jerseys for our program.  This is a big step for us being able to better outfit our players and will help us look more unified and respectable for years to come!

Fall Open Gym

Open Gym is available to ALL Pine City Students every Saturday from 9AM-11AM.  9/17/2011 was our first day of open gym.  We had eight students show to play at our first open gym of the year.  The next open gym date will be 9/24/2011 and it will be held at the High School Gym.  Open Gym will be every Saturday from 9-11 at the High School until further notice.

If participation continues to grow, we hope to have more open gym times available.

UPDATE: On Saturday, September 24, we had 9 students show for open gym.  We hope to have our numbers continue to grow.

UPDATE: On Saturday, October 1, we had only 6 students show for open gym.  This was a low number for us, with no upper-class men showing, but we hope that this is because of the homecoming dance the night before and that next weekend our numbers shoot up again!

UPDATE:  On Saturday, October 8, we had 12 students show to participate in our open gym.  Our numbers are slowly growing and we hope that this is a continuing trend.

UPDATE: On Saturday, October 15, we had only 7 students show for open gym.  We have fluctuated between low and decent numbers for participants.  We hope our numbers continue to improve-we want to give the student-athletes as many opportunities as possible to work on their game.

UPDATE: On Saturday, October 22 we will not have open gym due to MEA.  We will continue again on Saturday, October 29th.

UPDATE:  Starting in November, we will no longer have Saturday Open Gyms.  We will utilize gym time after school on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays until the Girls Basketball Season starts.  Thank you to the coaching staff and all the students who came and participated.

Carnival

On October 8th, there will be a carnival held at the Pine City Elementary School.  Members of the Boys and Girls Basketball Teams will be volunteering their time and effort to help with a "mini camp" for younger Pine City basketball enthusiasts.
The sign up sheet is currently in Coach Allen, Coach Brever, and Coach Rademacher's classrooms.  We are hoping to have 8-12 student-athletes sign up to help with this event.

UPDATE:  Now with the unfortunate canceling of the 3 on 3 tournament for our teams, we hope to have more players sign up to work the carnival on behalf of the boys basketball team.  Reminder--It would be a great transition from Open Gym (9-11) to working the carnival (12-3).

UPDATE: A special thanks to the four players that dedicated their time at the carnival event:

Noah Adams
Kole Jusczak
Scott Kleppe
Gabe Gonyea

3 on 3

On October 8 two Pine City Boys Basketball teams will be competing in a 3 on 3 tournament at The College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, MN.  Students were able to sign up for the tournament during the first two weeks of school and their entry fee was paid for by the basketball program.  This will be a great out of season opportunity for our players to see some new competition.

The teams are:

Team Velociraptor-Lizards:
Tim Belland
Brickre Fischer
Bob Pitzen
Noah Adams

Team The Chosen Ones:
Andrew Blake
Austin Pavelka
Jake Brytowski
Jordan Rarick

UPDATE: Unfortunately because of circumstances outside of our control, the 3 on 3 basketball tournament has been cancelled for the Pine City Boys Teams.  We hope to continue to have extra opportunities for our players along with our open gyms.

Summer Basketball

Over the summer we had open gym four days a week at the High School and Summer League Games two nights a week.
Those coming to the open gym were able to work on their individual basketball skills as well as put in some time in the weight room.  However, participation varied from day to day and we could have always used more bodies in the gym.
The summer league games were very successful.  We were able to play three games a night (C, JV, V) and were competitive in all games.  Players were able to play at multiple levels to see more competition.
Next summer we will have a more organized and structured work out schedule for the student-athletes to follow.  We would like to get our participation numbers up during the off season because this is when champions are made!

Introduction

My name is Kyle Allen and I am the new Head Boys Basketball Coach at Pine City High School.  I am excited about the wonderful opportunity to not only teach and coach but also live in a great community like Pine City.
While attending The College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, MN, I majored in Secondary Education Social Studies and History.  I was fortunate enough to play Men's Basketball at CSS from 2005-2009 while helping to achieve two regular season UMAC conference championships and three UMAC conference tournament championships.
After a short coaching stint at CSS, I was recruited to teach and coach in Texas.  My first year I taught at League City Intermediate School and coached 7B Football, 8A Basketball, and 7/8 Track.  After that year I moved to South Houston High School where I taught A.P. US History and was the Head Assistant Boys Basketball Coach.  We had a record of 26-11 (9-1) and won the 22-5A Conference Championship for only the third time in the 50+ year history of the school.
My wife and I made the decision that we would like to make our way back to the Midwest and jumped at the opportunity that came to us at Pine City.  We are very excited to join the Pine City community.