Nationals Three Days Out –Yikes

Ready or not Nationals is just about here. I would like to take a minute of your time to go over some important details for you that will make your arrival go more smoothly. PLEASE READ all of this letter.

Registration – If you have not pre-registered you will need to register before you play your first game. Registration is at the Convention Center. It is the star on the map; I would recommend printing a couple copies of the map before you leave home. Map link is in the Tuesday March 4th post below. Registration is open Monday 9AM-8PM and Tuesday 9:00 AM-Noon.

T-shirts – are available at the convention center from 9:00 AM-8:00 PM Monday and Tuesday. If you preorder you must pick up your shirts by Tuesday 8:00 PM. If you haven’t preordered keep in mind every year we sell out of 95% of all sizes, colors and styles. To avoid disappointment please make sure you get there as soon as practically possible.

Pizza Party – This year the Pizza Party will be held in conjunction with the Showcase Wednesday Evening. You can purchase Pizza Party tickets good for one large one topping Pizza Hut pizza for $10. The pizzas will be delivered to the Sawyer Center every 20 minutes starting at 7:15. I highly recommend getting your tickets early because we have a limit to how many pizzas Pizza Hut can deliver. Trust me when people bring their pizza in to eat while watching the game it is going to smell great and there are no other concessions available at the Sawyer Center that night. This is truly a “snooze you loose sale”.

Showcase – Two items here:

1) The showcase will start at 7:00 and conclude around 10:00 the schedule is packed and it should be great fun. Make sure to cheer and show your enthusiasm as we will have lots of media (including the New York Times and a freelance writer for ESPN) as well as local media and the college scouts, let’s make a lasting impression.
2) Support the showcase, by the time we decided to do the Showcase this year it was too late to secure a sponsor. So we decided to design a great t-shirt that will be available at the showcase to help cover the extra $12,000 in expenses. All we ask is if you love the t-shirt buy one.
This Blog will be your connection to changes and important information during Nationals, I recommend that you assign someone from your program to check it late at night and someone else to check it first thing in the morning.
Girls 12 – The brackets posted earlier were not correct we still need 5 more 12U Team USA girls to complete the brackets so I will be posting TBA on where teams advance until we know for sure and that might not be until late Tuesday evening so hang in there we will get it posted as soon as we know.

New Record – We have 300 teams this year which breaks last year’s record of 296
Warm-up Basketballs – each team is responsible for your own warm-up basketballs and should have a game quality ball as home team will provide a basketball. Team USA players bring your basketballs.

Team Banners are required for teams that want to be represented in the Flag Procession at the Showcase. Details will be provided in the Coaches Meetings.

Brackets will be final by 11:59 tonight.

Plenty more to follow ......