The 10th anniversary of the McDonald’s All American Girls Basketball Game is set to take place March 30, 2011. Since the first McDonald’s All American Girls Game took place in 2002 at Madison Square Garden, 216 of the country’s most promising female athletes have played in prep basketball’s most prestigious event. Current and future greats include Seimone Augustus (2002), Ann Strother (2002 Game Co-MVP), Sylvia Fowles (2004), Candace Parker (2004), Courtney Paris (2005 Game MVP), Tina Charles (2006 Game MVP) and Maya Moore (2007). More importantly, the girls’ participation in the Game has helped children and families in need all across the country, since every year, proceeds from the McDonald’s All American Games benefit Ronald McDonald House Charities.

On February 10, McDonald’s will announce the 2011 final roster of 24 Girls (12 East and 12 West players) during the annual Selection Show on ESPNU, airing at 4:30 p.m. CT. Then on game day, tip-off begins at 6:30 CT at the United Center in Chicago and will air live on ESPNU. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster.com.

McDonald’s All American Girls Game Facts:

• Since 2002, UConn (17) and Tennessee (17) remain tied for most McDonald’s All American Girls recruited – Duke (13), Maryland (12), Rutgers (12), UNC (11), and Stanford (11) are close behind.
• Since 2003 (the first NCAA class with female McDonald’s All Americans), every NCAA national champion has had at least four McDonald’s All Americans on the roster, except Baylor’s 2005 squad that had none.
• In 2004, Candace Parker shocked the nation when she became the first and only female to win the slam-dunk competition at the POWERADE Jam Fest, two nights before the McDonald’s All American Girls Game.
• Former Lady Vol, Alexis Hornbuckle, holds the all-time points record with 22 in the 2004 Girls Game; Meighan Simmons had 21 in 2010; and 2002 standouts Ann Strother and Shanna Zolman both scored 21.
• More than half (61) of the 120 female McDonald’s All Americans from 2002-2006 played (or currently play) in the WNBA. All 216 players attended (or attend) NCAA programs as student-athletes.

You can follow NY Liberty team players Shameka Christon, Essence Carson, Sidney Spencer, and more overseas as they play to help their European teams win. From Poland to Turkey, and France to Israel, these players can handle the ball anywhere on the map!

Check out this week’s overseas update here: http://blogs.msg.com/gameon/2009/11/17/liberty-hoopla-overseas-update-1117/

Any winning coach will tell you that in order to achieve success both on and off the court, it’s important to establish your own coaching philosophy.

Having a sound set of values not only keeps you focused and helps you to emphasize the right skills and techniques throughout the season, but it also gives your players, parents and colleagues a sense of what kind of program you intend to run, and who you are as a coach and mentor. Because, let’s face it, as a coach you have the unique opportunity to make a huge impact on the lives of your players. And that’s nothing to take lightly.

So here’s a quick look at how you can develop your own winning basketball coaching philosophy and start your season off right.

Step 1: Decide on your personal coaching goals. What is it that you hope to achieve as a coach? Are you in it to make a difference in the players’ lives? To satisfy a personal desire to win? Take the time to really think about why you’re doing this and what you want to get out of it. It’ll be quite helpful on those drives home after suffering a tough loss.

Step 2: Determine what life lessons you want your players to learn throughout the season. We’ve all had a coach or mentor that taught us something about the human experience that we can still apply in our lives today. What lesson will you pass on to your players? The importance of teamwork? That honesty is always the best policy? Decide now and make an effort to “impart your wisdom” in various ways throughout the season.

Step 3: Decide what you want your players to gain from their basketball experience. In addition to the life lessons that they will learn, what else will your players take away from their time on your team? Will they forge new friendships with people that they otherwise wouldn’t interact with? Improve their level of play? What will the overall experience be for your players?

Step 4: Define the meaning of success for your team. What does success mean to your team? Is it winning a certain number of games? Is it making it to a certain level of tournament play? Or are you more concerned about working effectively as a team? Create a set of attainable goals for your team and strive to achieve them.

Step 5: Determine what skills your team needs to learn or improve upon in order to achieve that success. Once you have defined “success” for your team, decide how you’re going to get there by evaluating your players and determining what skills they will need to work on. If your team’s idea of success is to keep your opponents from scoring above a specific amount of points each game, then you will most likely focus the players’ efforts on basketball defense strategies and proper basketball rebounding techniques. Be sure that for every goal that you’ve set, there is a distinct and reasonable means of attaining it.

Once you develop your coaching philosophy, write it down for your own reference; and more importantly, make it clear to players and parents alike from Day 1. By establishing and effectively communicating your principles, you’re laying the groundwork for a dynamic winning strategy that’s second to none.

Choosing the right program for your child is more important and more difficult now more than it ever has been before. When I was a kid, youth basketball teams were practically unheard of and the few teams around were mostly recreational, just to have some fun.

Today, youth basketball is everywhere and it’s more competitive than ever! As a basketball coach and someone that studies the game daily, I can tell you there are some serious issues with youth sports and the effects they have on kids. You wouldn’t believe how competitive coaches and parents make things for a bunch of young kids.

Unfortunately most basketball coaches just mimic what they see on TV and mimic what college and pro coaches do with ADULTS. This is a terrible injustice for young kids. Most coaches just don’t know any better. There is NO specific training available required for youth coaches. This is a problem that we face today.

That is why the “coach” that works with your child is the most important thing to consider when choosing a basketball program for your child. In fact, this is important for all youth sports.

To help you do what’s best for your child, here are 8 things to look for in a youth basketball program and a coach…

1. The coach should keep practices and games fun! The coach should understand that adults might dwell about a loss for days, while the kids forget about the loss a few seconds after the game and they’re just thinking about where they can get some ice cream. To keep kids motivated coaches need to keep things fun by running an upbeat and fast paced practice. There should be very little standing in lines. They should run plenty of fun drills and games that teach skills at the same time.

2. The coach should focus 99% on player development. This means the coach should spend almost no time teaching set plays or patterned offense. That’s a waste of practice time. Instead teach the kids fundamentals and run a simple motion offense.

3. The coach should play man to man defense. No zone defense and no presses. Young players need a foundation to build from and teaching simple man to man is the way to go. Playing zones and full court presses teach young players terrible habits that are very hard to break when they get older.

4. The league should not allow full or half court presses. A press just takes advantage of underdeveloped kids that aren’t strong enough to beat the trap. This does NOT teach situational basketball. It just teaches bad habits and is a waste of time! They should focus on fundamentals and player development (mentioned above).

5. There should be NO three pointers. Young kids aren’t strong enough to shoot that far away. They end up just “chucking” the ball and develop bad shooting form. This bad form sticks with them for life. If they allow three’s, the coach should not practice or encourage those types of shots. It’s very important for young players to learn proper shooting technique.

6. For young kids, the rims should be lowered. Let’s face it. Young kids simply don’t have the strength to shoot with a full size ball at a 10 foot rim with proper form. I can’t tell you how many kids have ruined their shooting form by shooting at a 10 foot rim at a young age. Kids should be shooting with a small ball at a lower rim (7-9 feet, depending on their age).

7. The coach should understand that kids have not developed spatial awareness and depth perception that adults have. You just can’t expect kids to do certain things in a game. The coach should also understand that a player makes 2 decisions every second on the court. That is 20 decisions in just 10 seconds. Expecting a child to make the right decision on the basketball court all the time is not realistic. And yelling at the child will just hurt their confidence and hinder their long term development.

8. The coach should NOT let losing bother them. The coach should get satisfaction out of teaching the players life lessons and basketball fundamentals that help them in the future. The coach should look forward to seeing the players in 5 or 10 years and enjoy watching these kids succeed when they are older.

The biggest problem is that too many coaches and parents are overly concerned about winning. That really hurts the kids and the game of youth basketball. Sure you play to win, but you coach to develop players for the long haul.

What most parents don’t understand is that if their child doesn’t love the game, they will never be great. Putting them through rigorous training and really tough coaches at a young age will just drive them from the game. Do you think Michael Jordan would have loved the game if his parents pushed him and his coach yelled at him every day in practice?

Hopefully these tips help you find the right program for your child. To help you better understand what to look for, I urge you to check out these tips for youth basketball coaches and parents.

It’s easy to forget what its like to be a kid and end up living through your child’s performance on the court. It’s easy to do but not what’s best for your child. Don’t worry about winning, just put them in a position to learn basketball skills and have fun.

A few additional resources on coaching and parenting in youth basketball:

• Coaching Your Coaches: A Guide to Coaching Fundamental Basketball
• Basketball Manual for Parents & Youth: Teaching Sons and Daughters the Fundamentals of Basketball
• Coaching Youth Basketball with Faith and Fundamentals
• Coaching Youth Basketball: A Baffled Parent’s Guide
• BasketCases: How Youth Basketball Parents Can Lower Their Blood Pressure and Keep Their Sanity
• Teaching Kids Basketball with John Wooden (Sharing His Philosophy of Teaching Basketball Starting with the Basics)
• CoachDeck Basketball Drill Cards

It has been quite a year for the former University of Tennessee athlete – historic. While that description has become over used in the hyperbole of the sports media, it is fitting.Los Angeles Sparks forward Candace Parker won a national championship, along the way helping lead the U.S. women’s basketball team to the gold medal in Beijing.

She is also only the second woman to dunk in an official match, and the first to repeat it, throwing down again in the next game.

It’s not surprising that she recently collected the AP female athlete of the year award to go along with earning WNBA Rookie of the Year and the MVP honors in the same year, making her the first player to win the three awards in the same year.

“Wow, that’s amazing,” the 22-year-old Parker said. “It’s been a great year from so many standpoints. I haven’t really had a chance to sit back and let it all sink in.”

Greatest of all time? We still have to wait. But Parker is on her way. The more appropriate question is whether she is the one to champion women’s sports in the modern era?

As the top draft choice, Parker’s Candace Parker base basketball salary of $44,064 – was less than a Nashville Police Officer with a college degree.

Compare that with what the first player selected in this year’s NBA draft will make: more than $4 million in the first year. And the difference in endorsement income is even wider.

The reasons for the gap are obvious in that support for male sports is more larger.

The remaining question is whether Candace is able to attract the level of attention and corporate sponsorships to add some zeroes to the paychecks of the world’s top female athletes.

The sky is the limit for Parker. In her first season, the Sparks did not make it to the finals but she is left to dream of titles, awards, and possibly a career that could go down as the best of all time.

Jay Hicks is a freelance writer, found primarily at PreRaceJitters.com, a popular online track & field magazine.

• Set personal goals for each practice – even if they are small
• Practice as if you are in a game/competition
• Listen to your coach – your coach is giving you corrections to help you improve, don’t take them as personal affronts rather note that your coach cares enough to take the time to help you get better
• Ask questions – If you don’t understand the purpose behind a particular drill or set of instructions, ask for clarification or additional help

Image details: San Antonio Silver Stars v Los Angeles Sparks served by picapp.com

Whenever the Olympics roll around, you hear quite a bit about the professional sports leagues and how many of their players will be representing various countries at the Olympics. The Women’s NBA is no different. At last count 30 WNBA players (current and former) will be playing in Beijing for their respective countries. Here is the latest list (from the WNBA site):

On the U.S. Women’s Olympic Team

• Seimone Augustus (Minnesota Lynx)
• Sue Bird (Seattle Storm)
• Tamika Catchings (Indiana Fever)
• Sylvia Fowles (Chicago Sky)
• Kara Lawson (Sacramento Monarchs)
• Lisa Leslie (Los Angeles Sparks)
• DeLisha Milton-Jones (Los Angeles Sparks)
• Candace Parker (Los Angeles Sparks)
• Cappie Pondexter (Phoenix Mercury)
• Katie Smith (Detroit Shock)
• Diana Taurasi (Phoenix Mercury)
• Tina Thompson (Houston Comets)

For Australia

• Tully Bevilaqua (Indiana Fever)
• Lauren Jackson (Seattle Storm)
• Suzy Batkovic (former WNBA)
• Erin Phillips (former WNBA)
• Belinda Snell (former WNBA)
• Laura Summerton (former WNBA)
• Penny Taylor (former WNBA)

For Belarus

• Yelena Leuchanka (former WNBA)

For Brazil*

• Erika Desouza (Atlanta Dream)
• Kelly Santos (Seattle Storm)
• Adriana Moises (former WNBA)

For Mali*

• Hamchetou Maiga-Ba (Houston Comets)
• Nare Diawara (former WNBA)

For Russia*

• Becky Hammon (San Antonio Silver Stars)
• Kelly Miller (Phoenix Mercury)
• Deanna Nolan (Detroit Shock)
• Maria Stepanova (former WNBA)

For Spain

• Amaya Valdemoro (former WNBA)

* Many of the rosters have not yet been finalized and I do expect this list to grow somewhat.

Some Olympic team updates:

• While the US women’s gymnastics team has named two members to its squad (and will announce the rest after July 20), the Aussies are set! The AustralianOlympic Gymnastics team will consist of Dasha Joura, Shona Morgan, Lauren Mitchell, Ashleigh Brennan, Georgia Bonora and Olivia Vivian, and alternate Emma Dennis.
• The first nine members of the US Women’s Olympic Basketball squad was named last month with Candace Parker and Lisa Leslie leading the list.  Others include Sue Bird, Cappie Pondexter, Diana Taurasi, Katie Smith, Tina Thompson, Seimone Augustus and Sylvia Fowles. The remaining three members have not yet been named.
• The US Swimming Olympic Trials are happening as I write this and these athletes are fast! Records are falling! The world record in the women’s 100m backstroke fell twice in prelims Monday when Hayley McGregory broke the record with a time of 59.15 followed by Natalie Coughlin breaking McGregory’s record with a time of 59.03 in the next heat.
• Nine members of the 2004 gold medal winning women’s soccer team have been named to the 2008 Olympic Soccer team - that is half of the team! Just the experience alone will give the team such an advantage.

View the video piece about Shay, University of Maryland women’s basketball and Shay’s travels.

What is a concussion? According to Dr. Gwenn of Pediatrics Now:

Head injury can cause external injuries to the scalp or skull as well as internal injuries to the brain such as bruises, bleeding, and concussions. Any internal brain injury can be serious but concussions are the most common and can be the least obvious. A concussion occurs when the brain is shaken causing a temporary disruption in how the different nerves talk to each other, similar to a power surge at home. Symptoms vary and often include seeing stars, being dazed, blurred vision, nausea and occasionally amnesia. With more serious concussions, headache, vomiting, balance problems and changing levels of consciousness may occur. Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to have a concussion without loosing consciousness and even minor head injury can cause concussions.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta recently discussed this study at his blog and wonders if girls are less protected physiologically than boys (who have bigger heads and tend to have stronger neck muscles) or whether they just report it more often?

Either way, head injuries are not to be taken lightly and in the case of an athlete hitting her head during training or competition, it is always best to err on the side of caution and seek medical treatment immediately.

Here are some additional articles on concussions in girls sports:

• Study shows girls more susceptible to concussions than boys
• Girls Soccer: Concussion Risks
• Kids and Head Injuries
• Female Athletes Bear Brunt of Concussions
• Girls Suffering More Concussions in High School Sports