Medina Junior Basketball Association

Welcome to the official web site of the Medina Junior Basketball Association.

Wednesday March 18 11pm: The final champion has been crowned. I want to congratulate each and every team that won championships this year. Team G603 coached by Chris Markiewitz, team G1204 coached by Mike Nickley, team B601 coached by Dave Diperna, team B807 coached by Mark Hartkop, team B906 coached by Steven Pamer and finally team B1206 coached by Bill Harmon. I hope you all return for another year. Each and every one of you has a unique style and each of you are winners. Thank you.

Our MVP's are all special players. This is the hardest award we have to win and the hardest award for us to give. There are so many deserving players and so many ways to define MVP. The following players in my opinion are the best MJBA has to offer. Congratulations to Alex Butz, Richard Wysocki, Tyler Kren, A.J. Hoptry, Maria Vanadia and Taylor Friedrick. I apologies for any names I spelled wrong.

I can not tell you how much I appreciate Regina and Mike Wright for all they do. They are special people and without them the league would be greatly diminished. Eddy Gordon and Linn put in a lot of time and never once complained or turned me down when I asked them to give more. They also have a special talent, they can make me laugh, thanks! I don't know what to say about Ralph, I love him like a brother and he is my friend. He and I have been doing this for a lot of years and I can't imagine him not there.

I think we had a pretty good year. I think most of the players had fun, I know that for the most part I did. It's a long season and sometimes some of us, myself included, get so wrapped up into things that we forget that this is a rec league for children. These are children learning to be young men and women and they need this type of structured activity in there lives. They need to have fun and they need to have limits set on behavior and they need consistency, I hope in our own little way we were able to help.

I will not be updating this site again until next fall when it's time for registration. Have a great summer and hopefully I'll see you in November! Thanks for your help and support!!!!!

Tuesday March 17, 11:59 pm: Only one more night to go. I saw a lot of great basketball so far in this tournament and I am really looking forward to tomorrow nights games.

We had 5 undefeated teams going into the tournament and only one of them won a championship.

In the senior boys division we saw a number 12 seed knock off a number 4 & 5 and make it all the way to the semi finals.

We had one fan and one coach ejected from games.

We had one forfeit and one player removed from a gym.

We have one player who will not be playing with us again because of his poor conduct and bad sportsmanship.

Congratulations to coach Ita, he was named the MJBA coach of the year. Coach Ita coached 7 years for us. Many of those years he had two teams. Congratulation coach!

Congratulation to Sean Pike. Sean was named the 2009 most improved player. Sean worked hard at practice and at home to improve his skills. Congrats to Sean!

Thursday march 12 10 pm: Over the last couple of nights I saw some great basketball. Most of the games were close and could have gone either way.

This Saturday we will have lots of great basketball at both Root and Claggett so come on out and watch a game or two.

Wednesday night we had an assistant coach pick up two technical's for questioning calls. I am sorry that he will not be able to see his team play again this season.

I did loose my temper tonight over at Claggett and to anyone I offended I apologize. I believe the tournament and the pairings are fair. We do not look back to see who plays who in the regular season. In the 8th grade division we have 8 teams. No team received a bye and the top ranked team plays the 8th place team, 7 play 2 etc. All ties, and I believe we had four teams with the same record in this division were settled by flipping a coin.

I want to thank the boy's on my team for giving there best effort. We won 2 games and lost 6 in the regular season and we lost tonight in the first round of the tournament. Yet I am very proud of the way they played all season. It would have been easy to give up after our first 4 games but they didn't and I am very proud of each and every one of them. I wish I would have done a better job with them. Go SPARTANS!!!!!

Tuesday March 9 0:01 am: I saw some great Basketball on Sunday and tonight. On Sunday I saw what I think was one of the best games MJBA has to offer. With virtually no time left on the clock a player lofted up a prayer and his prayer was answered. It was a thing of beauty. Tonight in the 9th & 10 grade boys division I watched an overtime stunner then a one point win over a team that only had 3 players left on the floor at the end of the game. March madness you got to love it.

Of course along with the good we had to have some bad and some ugly. We had a seniors boys game turn into a forfeit when the team could only field three players. If that wasn't bad enough after the game was cancelled we had an ugly incident in the stands that ended with the police having to be called. I feel sorry for everyone that was involved. Sometimes I wonder if its worth the effort

One of the things I have noticed is that we are losing a lot of players to other sports and band. I will never understand signing up to play a sport then not showing up when the team needs you most. We will address this issue next year.

Saturday March 7 9:30 pm: I just updated the tournament link with most of the pairings. I didn't do the 8th grade boys yet. they will need to wail until tomorrow night for me to update the site. I don't know who won what games on Saturday and I won't know until tomorrow.

The tournament pairings were done by team record. Whenever we had a tie I tossed a coin. I am sorry to the coaches that asked for special requests. There was just no way I could grant the majority of the requests received.

Best of luck to all of you during the tournament. The tournament will be full of upsets and surprises and we will see some very good basketball. It always amazes me how players can elevate there game at this level.

Sunday is the first day of the tournament. The first game takes off at Noon, hope to see you at Claggett!!!

Fri Mar 6 0:01 am: The last week of the season is wrapping up and the tournament is on it's way. Saturday night I will post the first round tournament pairings. As most are aware senior girls have one game scheduled for Sunday. G1206 will play an opponent to be determined. We will know Saturday by 1:30. I will call the coach involved as soon as I know. The Junior girls also play on Sunday. in game 'A', G602 vrs G604 4:20 over at Claggett. The other games on Sunday are senior boys games. We will know who plays and when on Saturday sometime around noon and 1pm. Four teams will get a bye on Sunday. Three of them are B1204, B1206 and B1212. If B1201 wins or B1205 looses B1201 gets a bye. All other Senior boys team play on Sunday!

It is a single game elimination tournament so bring your best game! The big boards for the senior boys will be available for viewing at Claggett all day on Sunday!

Finally. Years ago before we held our first registration two things were decided. Only players who reside in the Medina school district are eligible to play for MJBA and players who are suspended from Medina schools can not participate in MJBA games or practices. I assume the reason for this rule was because we played all our games at one school (Claggett) and most if not all of our players where students at Claggett and if you were suspended from school you weren't allowed on school grounds. This rule is still in place today and has been enforced at least three times all ready this season. I don't think it matters that we have situations where students are suspended from a particular school and play all games and practices at a different school. Anyways, that is the rule and we will continue to enforce it. Thank you.

Tue Mar 3 1:15 pm: The tournament schedule has changed since yesterday. Please take a look. I am receiving lots of requests on by coaches on the tournament schedule. It is hard to move a game during the regular season and it is almost impossible during the tournament. Games need to play in a certain sequence with the team assigned. I can not just move games around and gym space is at a premium. Sorry!

Wed Feb 25 5pm: A change was made to the girl's senior division game schedule. The teams involved are G1203 & G1204. Thank you!

All teams played an 8 game regular season schedule.

Yes it is possible to win your tournament bracket in the girl's Jr. division and only play two games while in the 12 team divisions you can get as many as four games. And yes I do think that's fair! We are not going to play a double elimination tournament in the smaller divisions.

Tuesday Feb 24 3:30pm: The site was down most of the day but the problem has been corrected. Please check all schedules one last time. Thanks!

Please watch your playing time. All players excepting senior boys are guaranteed two quarters (14 minutes) of play. I have heard complaints from two parents about playing time this week.

Check out the Tournament link to see starting and ending dates for the tournament.

In the 12 team division,(boys 6 & 7, boys 9 & 10 and boys 11 & 12) the top four teams get a bye in the first round.

The 8th grade boys division has no byes.

In the Junior girls division the top 3 teams get a bye.

In the Senior girls division the top team gets a bye.

The tournament is a single elimination tournament.

All rules including playing time requirements are the same except for the overtime rules. We will take as many overtimes as needed to complete a game. We will not go to the shoot out.

Overtimes periods are two minutes in length. The rules are the same as the last two minutes of the game. Each team receives one time out which does not carry over. The clock will stop every time the whistle blows. The whistle does not sound when a basket is made.

Monday 12:15 am: The standings for the week have been updated. Please check out the game and practice schedules they have changed. We have one week of practice left then it's all games the rest of the way.

We had over 20 coaches show up for the coaches game. They played two great games. No technical's were called and no one needed oxygen.

This weekends game went a little better. We still had far to many technical fouls (4) for a grand total of 21 technical fouls. We also had one player suspended by the league for poor sportsmanship.

The first tournament games are scheduled to start on Sunday March 8th. It is a single game elimination tournament.

Friday February 20 11:50 am: The all-star games have been great this week. Tonight is the final game. The boys seniors play at 7pm over at Claggett.

The rest of the game and practice schedules have been posted. Please check it out. In the 8th grade boys division each team plays one opponent twice. I have made changes since yesterday so go back and have another look see! Thanks!

The Tournament will start for some teams (to be determined) on Sunday March 8th. I cannot move games around during the tournament and I don't know when any particular team will be playing.

Tuesday February 17th 11:45 pm: I just got in from the junior and senior girls all star games and they were both great games. Each game was in doubt until the final buzzer and I think everyone had a great time.

We honored Mark James as the man of the year during halftime of the junior girls game and Regina Wright as women of the year between games. When you see Regina congratulate her. It was a well deserved award.

Over the weekend we had a season ending injury to one of our eighth grade players. He was hurt during a game. My prayers go out to him and his family. Hopefully he will return next season.

Saturday and Sunday brought 4 more technical (17 total) fouls and a ball throwing incident after a game. We also had a senior boy get ejected from his 2nd game this season, that was the 5th ejection this season. His language and threatening behavior will not be tolerated by the league. His season is over.

We have a lot more basketball to play this week so stop by and catch an all star game, they are a lot of fun!

Sunday Feb 8th 11pm: I will update the scoreboard tomorrow afternoon. It has been a long exhausting weekend. We played 29 games this weekend and I believe I saw 16 of them. I saw some great basketball including a double overtime game today and yesterday a couple real nail biters.

Unfortunately we also had 2 more ejections and 5 technical fouls. That gives us four ejections and 13 technical fouls all ready this season. This is far to many! I cannot stress enough that the Medina Junior Basketball Association will not tolerate profanity, bad behavior or poor sportsmanship. Any player thrown out of a game is ineligible to play or be in a gym when an MJBA event is being held for 8 days. They also will not be considered for any post season award or from playing in the all star game. I was sitting in the stands today when a player drove to the hoop, missed the shot, then stood under the basket while his team ran back to play defense with his hands down at his side looking at the crowd with his mouth hanging open like he just couldn't believe he didn't get the call. He then yelled up to some friends or family up in the stands that maybe he has to pay the referee's so that he would get the call.

If I would have been the referee and seen that I would have tossed him and as president of the league I'm sorry I didn't step up and have him thrown out for unsportsmanlike conduct. This conduct is happening much to much and it cannot be tolerated or it will get nothing but worse.

Sportsmanship, respect for your opponent, respect for the referees and respect for yourself must be part of the game. We all want to have fun. We all want to win and we all can win by playing the best we can and giving it our best. We shouldn't need to blame others when we don't win and we shouldn't need to gloat when we do win. Go out play the game and have fun.

I love this game and I love this league. It's fun watching players go from 6th grade until they graduate from high school. It's not fun watching players get tossed for language or unsportsmanlike behavior. Lets go back to having fun again.

Saturday Feb 7th 5:30 pm: Next Saturday the 14th of February is picture day. If you have a game scheduled for Saturday your pictures will be shot 30 minutes before your game. If you have the first game of the day your pictures will be shot after your game. If you don't play on Saturday you need to decide on a time and come up to Root middle school anytime between 9am and 4:30 pm to have your pictures taken. I thank you all very much.

Friday Feb 6th 11:15 pm: This years Bill Doraty KIA all star classic games have been scheduled to run from February 17th through February 20th. Please check the schedule to see when your age group is playing. I'd like to invite all the fans to come out and see the games. They are a lot of fun and the more fans we have the better the games are, or so it seems.

Each team selects 1 all star. That all star is selected by a vote of the players. Coaches should have the players vote as soon as possible. In the event of a tie the coach gets a vote. Additional all stars will be added to the teams by the MJBA board of directors. That is why we need the coaches to hold elections and give us the winner from there team by Saturday the 14th of February. On the 15th the board of directors will decide on the remaining all stars. Please do not come to us and try and make a case for a particular player.

Every all star player will receive a participation award and each game has a MVP selected by the MJBA board of directors.

The coaches game is scheduled for Friday February 20th 8pm at Claggett middle school after the senior boys all star game. That is usually a great game so please come and watch. Coaches, if you know you are going to play please let us know. I do believe the school keeps a defibulator unit just outside the gym doors.

Friday Feb 6th 1pm: We almost went a week without a major schedule changes but here we go again. I was just contacted by Claggett middle school and we needed to make numerous changes to Saturday the 14th of February. Three boys senior games were moved to week night games and one was moved to a later time slot. Please check all practice and games schedules frequently.

If you have a game on Saturday or Sunday your Cavs tickets will be passed out at the game. If you did not receive your tickets on Saturday and you don't have a game on Sunday please come up to Clagggett on Sunday from noon until 5pm to pick up your tickets. Thanks!

Monday Feb 2nd 2pm: We had another exciting weekend. We had 4 overtime games and many that came down to the last few moments, I had fun.

On the down side we had two coaches receive technical foul and three players receive techs with one ejection. This gives us 8 technical fouls and two ejections so far this season. This is way to much. Bad language and total disrespect for the referee's seems to be the chief problem. As always neither will be tolerated. We will never over rule a referee's call. It is against our rules and against the Ohio athletic Associations rules.

I have added more games and practices to the schedules. As I get confirmation from the schools I will update the schedules. Please check them over we did have changes to both practice and game schedules. Thanks for your patience.

I have not updated the standings yet. I will take care of that late tonight or early tomorrow. Thanks.

Friday January 30th 4pm: I just received the word from Claggett middle school that on Wednesday night February 4th we can not get into the gym until 8pm because of a wrestling match and basketball practice. Because of this practices for teams B905 - B906 - B907 - B908 have been cancelled that night

Friday January 30th 11:15 am: I just talked to my contact at Claggett and we are going to cancel the practices scheduled for Friday night February 6th. Because of the storm they had to re-schedule some cancelled events.

Everyone should check both the practice and the game schedules. I have added practices and games to both and it was necessary to move a couple games and practices around because of scheduling conflicts.

Thursday January 29th 3:30 pm: The snow emergency is over and we are back to practice tonight.

Wednesday January 28th 11:30 am. It is a snow day for the Medina Junior Basketball Association. Hopefully we will be back in school and practicing again tomorrow. All practices are cancelled tonight.

Monday January 26th 9pm. Practice for teams G601 - G602 - G604 & G605 scheduled for Wednesday night 7pm at Claggett have been cancelled. The 8pm practices are still on!

Monday January 26th 6pm. I just had a call from the Cavalier's front office and they offered me another 50 tickets for the Suns cavs game on Feb 11. These are $40 seats that we get for $25. If you want some please e-mail me or tell one of the coordinators at your next practice. I do need to have a final number to the Cavs on next Monday morning.

Monday January 26th 5pm. I still have a few Cavs tickets left. They gave me a couple more days so if you want tickets please e-mail me your order. I am still working on the practice schedule. The week of Feb 1 - Feb 6 will be completed tomorrow. Thanks! After the 6th practice gets cut way back because of gym space issues and MJBA events.

It is Monday The 26th of January. We had a good weekend and saw some great games and for the most part we were on schedule.

I thought the referee's did a very good job this weekend. We had a couple of referee's that we had not had the pleasure of working with and I thought they understood the spirit of our rules and did a great job. We had a total of 3 technical fouls and one ejection over the weekend. I saw and heard a number of players taunting opponents and showing a lack of respect to the referees. Bad behavior and foul language will not be tolerated. As an FYI a referee can call a technical foul before and after the game and league officials can and will suspend players for bad behavior any time they are inside Clagget or Root. You do not have to be in the gym.

I did add another week to the practice schedule and I will try and add another week to the game schedule later today.

It is Saturday January 24. Today we played a full schedule at Claggett middle school. It was a fairly typical day and we had some great games with two games being decided in the last 1.5 ticks of the clock. We also had a couple blow outs which no one likes to see. We had two technical fouls called today and one ejection. The ejection was for the use of profane language. When a player is ejected he misses the next 8 days of MJBA activities. The player cannot attend games or practices during this time. I want to make something perfectly clear. The Medina Junior Basketball Association will not tolerate bad language. We are a recreational league playing in middle school gymnasiums and foul language will not be tolerated. Referee's will not tolerate it on the court and the league will not tolerate it at practice or in other parts of the school building. Two many 'F bombs' have been dropped on the court and courtside and this practice will stop. Thank you.

It is Thursday January 22nd. Surprise, it's not a scheduling change! I just wanted to remind everybody that we still have seats left for the Cavs/Suns game on Wednesday Feb 11. I even have a few spots left on the Nike high five squad! What I don't have is time. I must turn in all monies on Sunday with a final ticket count. If you want tickets please don't wait now is the time. You can e-mail me at 2004mjba@medinabasketball.com to reserve your tickets. Tickets are $25 each and the Cavs are one of the best basketball teams on the planet so order now.

It is Tuesday January 20th at 4pm. I just got another call from the schools and they are returning Thursday night back to us. I apologize to teams B901 - B902 - B903 - B904 - B905 - B906 - B907 and B908. Thursday practice is back on and the Friday night I scheduled you is off. We will not have practice for the six your old boys teams B605 - B606 - B607 - B608 this Friday night. Sorry for the confusion, I am still expecting another group of changes from the schools this week.

It is Tuesday January 20th 2009. We have been notified by Claggett that we will not be able to use the gym on Thursday January 22nd. The practices scheduled for teams B901 - B902 - B903 - B904 - B905 - B906 - B907 and B908 have been cancelled. Because of this I am cancelling B605 - B606 - B607 and B608 on Friday night at 8pm and I am adding B905 - B906 - B907 and B908 Friday night 8pm at Claggett. I am sorry for all the schedule changes and I am hesitant to add more games and practices to the schedule until we are sure about the dates. I have been notified that we may have other changes coming.

It is Sunday January 18th. Today the regular season begins. I want to wish all teams the best of luck and please try and have some fun.

It is Thursday Jan 15th. School today was cancelled. All practices for tonight are cancelled. We will be still practicing on Saturday and playing games on Sunday. Please check the practice and game schedules. For the latest information on games or practices please call the hotline at (330-416-6130).

It is Monday Jan 12th at 10pm. I just added more to the schedule. I also made a minor change to Jan 31 at Claggett. I moved a B903 vrs B901, B803 vrs B801 and B804 vrs B802. The change was just a minor time change to make it easier for the referees.

It is 4pm on Sunday. I have revised next weeks practice and game schedules. Because of the problems we have encountered we are not going to start playing games until Sunday the 18th of January. This will get everyone at lease 1 or 2 more practices. Thank You!

Along with everything else happening this past week I have received at least 6 different requests from players, parents and coaches for scheduling changes. As much as I would like to help I can't. Keeping the schedules straight is complicated at the best of times but once we start making changes it's only a matter of time before I end up with 6 teams showing up to practice at the same time.

I am also receiving a lot of requests for players to be allowed to register late. Anyone wanting to register late send me your information via e-mail. Name, grade, address, height, shirt size, phone number and address. You cannot request a particular team and I make no guarantees that I can get you on a team. I will look at the late requests later on during the week I have other things to do before I can get involved with late registration.

If you want to register to go to the Cavs game on Feb 11th vrs the Suns send me an e-mail telling me how many tickets you need, your team number, how many players will be going court side to high five the Cavs. You then need to pay one of the coordinators at practice. Tickets are $25 each. You must be an MJBA player to go court side with the Cavs!

It is Noon Saturday January 10th. We are practicing at A.I.Root but the practices scheduled for Claggett have all been cancelled. Claggett had a fire in the cafeteria area around 11 am and the fire department had us vacate the building for the rest of the day.

Because of the fire and the snow and the cancelled practices last Wednesday I have decided to delay the start of the season by one week. New schedules for practices and games will be published by Monday evening. Thank you all for your patience.

It is Friday January 9th at Noon. I was just notified that Claggett middle school's gym will not be available tomorrow noon until 1pm. This means teams B601 - B602 B603 - B604 are having there practice moved to A.I.Root at 5pm. I apologize for any inconvenience this causes. This was not our choice.

It is Friday January 9th 2009. Orientation and the first three nights of practice are in the books. Other then a scheduling problem on Wednesday night at Claggett things went well. We will update the game and practice schedules as soon as we hear from the schools on gym availability.

If we were to cancel a practice or game you would find the message on the hotline first our number is 330-416-6130. We rarely cancel practices unless the school closes. They are not mandatory and if you feel it is to dangerous to be out please stay home.

Cavs tickets are going fast. Tickets are $25 each. We will be seeing the Phoenix Suns Wednesday Feb 11th. The first 25 MJBA players that sign up will be able to high five the Cavs as they come out on the floor during introductions.

Whenever I make schedule changes you will see a note here. Please check schedules weekly just to be sure.

If teams want to name there teams please tell the coordinator your team name and we will post it on the results page. Please keep the names under 10 letters.

It is Monday the 5th of January. The practice schedule has been changed because The High School needs the gym at Claggett at 2pm on Saturday the 10th. Claggett also has a scheduling problem on Wednesday the 14th of January so we had to adjust that schedule also. Please look over the schedule to see if it impacted you. We needed to change a number of days to make the schedule work.

Tonight is the coaches clinic and we still are in need of one 8th grade boys coach.

Tuesday night is orientation for the boys and girls junior divisions at 8pm over at Root middle school.

If you would like to coach now is the time to step up. Please call me and leave a message on the hotline at 330-416-6130 or e-mail me at 2004mjba@medinabasketball.com .

Coaches are in the process of notifying players of when and where there first practice is or when orientation is. If you have not been called please e-mail me and I will respond within 12 hours at to which team you are on. 2004mjba@medinabasketball.com

You must live in the Medina city school district to be eligible to play in this league. We will not make any exceptions.

All players must bring tennis shoes and appropriate clothing to play basketball. You must come to one of the registrations. You do not stay for the entire registration time. You come in, fill out a registration form, run a few drills and you are done. If there are no lines you will be done in 20 minutes. Expect long lines.

This site provides access to Registration times and Forms, Game Schedules, Practice Schedules, Tournament Schedules, a bulletin board of events and the capability to e-mail your comments and concerns to the league.

The Medina Junior Basketball Association began in 1982 for students attending the Medina City Schools to provide an educational league to learn and play the sport of basketball.

Our association offers various programs for Medina City Students for Girls and Boys grades 6th through 12th. Sign-ups for these programs are advertised in the Medina Gazette, announced at both Medina Middle schools, the High school and on this web site. You must live in the Medina city school district to be eligible to play with the MJBA.

All games and practices will be held at A.I. Root Middle School and or Claggett beginning January through the end of March. Games are played on regular full court basketball courts and follow High School rules provided by the Ohio High School Athletic Association with the exceptions of additional rules by the Medina Junior Basketball Association. The games are officiated by two (2) referees, when ever possible, with the majority of our referees sanctioned as High School officials in the sport of basketball.

It is our goal to maintain an equal balance between teams by assigning players to teams so that both average height and skill levels are obtained throughout the league. Our program also includes a tournament to determine an over all winner at the end of our season and an All Star game with players chosen by their own team members.

Since our beginning all members, Coordinators, Directors, Coaches and Assistant Coaches have volunteered their time to this program. Since 1982 our program has grown by the number of participants who have enjoyed playing basketball and have continued to grow their skills to ultimately play on both the Junior Varsity or Varsity High School teams.

We thank everyone who has participated in our growth and dedicated their time to provide this program to our Medina City School students. Players, Parents, Coaches and Basketball fans are invited to take a look around our site and learn more about our program.

The Medina Junior Basketball Association.

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