Travel Program Overview

The SHYBA Travel Program is designed to allow the more serious and talented players to play in a competitive environment, in order to rapidly advance their skill levels and understanding of the game of basketball.  This will allow the more competitive players to prepare themselves for the local high school basketball programs, through enhanced coaching, increased and focused practice time and a highly structured game schedule against other local basketball organizations.

The SHYBA Travel Program competes in the Inter-County Basketball Association (ICBA, www.icbabasketball.com), which currently includes more than 350 teams from approximately 50 Organizations representing the Greater Philadelphia area.   SHYBA enters four Boy’s Travel teams at the 10, 11, 12 and 13-year old levels, and four Girl’s Travel teams at the 10, 11, 12 and 13-year old levels.   We enter only one team of ten players at each age-level, so that our Intramural Program is not hampered in any way through the depletion of players or qualified coaches.

The SHYBA Travel Coaches are screened and selected by the Travel Commissioner and approved by the SHYBA Board.   It is imperative that SHYBA Travel Coaches have an advanced understanding of the game of basketball through their prior playing and coaching experience, and are able to efficiently plan and conduct practices, communicate effectively with players and parents, and create an overall environment that provides the proper balance of learning, motivation, fun, competitiveness and fair playing time.

Unlike the SHYBA Intramural Program, equal playing time in games is not a requirement for the Travel teams.  The amount of playing time will vary from player to player, and is based on talent level, attendance and involvement in practices, attitude and team-oriented play.   In addition to the regular SHYBA registration fee, there is an additional fee for all players who qualify for the Travel Program.  This additional fee covers increased practice time, uniforms, ICBA entry fees, Tournaments and Referee fees.

Each Travel team will have two or three practices per week throughout the season, and the practices can be held on any day of the week.   Practices will begin in mid-October and the SHYBA Travel season concludes in mid-March with the ICBA Championship weekend.   Consistent attendance at practice is very important and should be taken into account prior to tryouts and committing to a Travel team.