Dear ,

We’re just two weeks away from Opening Day! 🎉 As the holiday season is upon us, we hope this newsletter brings clarity and cheer while helping everyone get ready for a fantastic season of basketball.

📖 LEAGUE LINES

📸 Photo Day – January 11th

Mark your calendars! Photo Day is scheduled for Sunday, January 11.

• Team photos are mandatory and will be taken 30 minutes prior to your game.
• Players should arrive 45 minutes before game time.
• For individual photos, parents must complete an online pre-order form (see details below).

👕 Uniforms

Uniforms were distributed to coaches last weekend and delivered this weekend.

• If your player did not receive a uniform, contact your coach immediately and try it on this weekend.
• Important: If a parent requested the wrong unform size when registering their daughter, they will be responsible for covering the costs of ordering and delivering a new uniform in a different size ($50).  If there is a financial hardship for this, please contact the league president - president@whgbl.org
• Report any uniform issues to the team's Head Coach by Sunday at 11 PM so replacements can be arranged before Opening Day.  There league cannot guarantee a uniform will be ready before the first game of the season if a uniform is ordered after this Sunday night.
• Players must have a legal uniform to participate in official games.

📅 Schedules

Game schedules are now live on the league website!

• Visit the appropriate Team Page to view the game schedule.
• In addition to Sunday league games, teams may have halftime scrimmages and/or exhibition games.
• Attendance by players is expected for all games, scrimmages, and exhibitions.

🏀 COACHES’ CORNER

Coaches, please keep emphasizing to players the league's 10 Core Leadership Values!

• Minors & Juniors Division: Focus on the Player Skills Checklist in the Coaches Guidebook for the Minors and Juniors players.
• Ensure players are confident with:
  • Layups, dribbling, ball handling
  • Pass-and-cut offense (i.e., "the 5-out offense")
  • Game basics: jump ball positioning, free throw set-up, and proper inbounding alignment.

⚖️ RULES REMINDER

Speaking of inbounding…

• Mid-quarter substitutions are NOT timeouts. Coaches MUST have players ready to enter the court immediately.
• Officials will enforce throw in rules to maintain game integrity and enhance pace-of-play:
  • If the offense delays inbounding, the referee will place the ball on the floor of the inbound area and start a 5-second count.
  • Failure to inbound within 5 seconds = turnover.
• For further details, review NFHS Rule 7, Section 5, Article 1 (page 55) in the rulebook.  To see the rulebook - click here:  RULEBOOOK

🌟 SPONSOR’S SPOTLIGHT

El Pollo Guapo

Each week, the league will spotlight one of its sponsors to keep readers informed of these important supporters of the league.

El Pollo Guapo is a neighborhood rotisserie joint featuring whole roasted chickens, fresh sides, rice bowls, tacos, and salads. The star of the menu is the bird! An antibiotic, hormone free chicken that is brined and marinaded with the highest quality ingredients and slow roasted to perfection. To complement your chicken we offer fresh sides like Brussels sprouts, chicken fat potatoes, hand cut fries, an assortment of house made sauces, local sodas and drinks and a fun atmosphere to enjoy it in!  

We want to be a place for everyone and feature the majority of our menu to be gluten free and customizable for vegans and vegetarians. 

In addition, we offer affordable and delicious catering that could suit anything from a family party to a wedding. Don’t miss our wings on Super Bowl Sunday! 

To see the Catering Menu - Click Here:  CATERING MENU

Our team would love to work with you to pick out your next favorite meal or customize your catering event.

Not sure where to start? Check out any of our 4 locations (Glastonbury, Hartford, Newington, and Charleston, SC). Feeling lazy but craving Guapo? You can find us on UberEats and have it delivered right to your door!

www.elpolloguapo.com

Support the businesses that support our league!

💭 FINAL THOUGHTS

We are incredibly proud of our players and volunteer coaches! With:

• A new website,
• A fresh logo,
• A new uniform vendor for Juniors & Seniors,
• Exhibition games with other towns, and
• Halftime scrimmages with local high schools and colleges,

…the league is growing stronger than ever!

​​Enjoy the holiday season, and thank you for being part of this amazing community. Let’s make this season unforgettable!

Take care,

Shawn Daly

"Teaching leadership skills through the fundamentals of basketball"