Great Northwest Basketball League (GNBL)

2023 Enrollment Deadline

If you are interested in fielding one or more teams in the 3rd and 4th Grade Non-Competitive League, you need to return the Enrollment Form by September 8, 2023.  (We will begin putting the schedule together no later than September 22).  

2023 Enrollment Form

2023 Printable Informational Posting 

(PDF Form) 

2023 Informational Posting

This information is for coaches who are interested in participating in the 2023 Non-Competitive League for 3rd and 4th grade boys and girls in The Great Northwest Basketball League.  Only teams close enough to other participants and with older grades also registered for Great Northwest Basketball League events, are able to enroll a team.

League Rules

For those of you who are unfamiliar with how the 3rd and 4th Grade Non-Competitive League functions, please read the 2023 Rules for 3rd/4th Non-Competitive League.  Some of the rule highlights are as follows:

• There are separate sessions for boys and for girls – the Non-Competitive League is not a co-ed activity.

• There are two divisions: "3rd grade" and "4th grade".  Fourth grade games use 10' baskets and 3rd grade 8' baskets.  Third grade players (and even entire 3rd grade teams) are allowed to play "up" in the 4th grade division, but 4th graders are not allowed to play "down" to 3rd grade.

• All games are played between mid-October and mid-December on Saturdays, because court time and coaching time are usually easier to get that time of year than in January and February.  Each team may play in as many (eight maximum dates) or as few sessions as they want.

• Each "session" is 2½ hours long on either Saturday morning or afternoon.  Each session has four teams, with three half-hour, running clock games on a round-robin basis.  There are two 15-minute rest periods between each of the three games.

• There are no clocks, no scorekeepers, no concessions and no referees.  No one keeps score.  One coach for each team is on the floor with a whistle.  When the whistle is blown, that coach explains to all 10 players on the floor (and those on the bench) why the whistle was blown, so that incident becomes a learning experience.

• We try to keep travel to a minimum.  For instance, when Turtle Lake plays Prescott, we try to schedule the game at a place in between, like St. Croix Central.

Benefits of 3rd and 4th Grade Programs

While some coaches in larger communities may wonder where the benefit is in traveling with 3rd and 4th graders when you may have enough players for two or more in-house teams, our experience in twenty-two seasons of the 3rd and 4th Grade Non-Competitive League have shown a profound impact.  When young kids play games against others they know from their hometown, they lack focus and often "goof off."  Playing against kids wearing different colored jerseys/t-shirts, who they don’t know, causes them to focus more.  Also, they learn from their opponent and their opponent’s coach (sometimes younger kids listen more to coaches they don’t know).

While excellent coaching, lots of fundamentals, and an aggressive game schedule, have always been the keys to success, an early start provides a huge boost.  For those coaches, programs and parents who want to develop strong players, the day of first introducing the game of basketball to players in 7th grade, or even 5th grade, is a thing of the past.  Programs all across the state of Wisconsin are playing competitively in 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade.  In the more populous areas (e.g., the Fox River Valley, Madison and Milwaukee), many communities play in regular tournaments at this age level.  While The Great Northwest Non-Competitive is less structured than full blown tournaments, it allows coaches to introduce inexperienced players to the game in a scrimmage-like format and allows teams in our area to keep pace developmentally with the rest of the state.

League Fees and Membership

There is no charge to play in the 2023 Non-Competitive League for 3rd and 4th grade teams.

The 3rd and 4th Grade Non-Competitive League is open only to Great Northwest League members.  Basketball programs that do not participate in at least one grade in the competitive 5th through 8th grade Great Northwest League, are not eligible to play in the 3rd and 4th Grade Non-Competitive League (the boys and girls programs in each community are considered to be two separate programs, even if both are part of the same basketball club).  The Non-Competitive League is subsidized by the enrollment fees received from teams at the older grade levels, so it would not be fair to GNBL members to have non-member teams benefit from this support.

That means, for example, for a community where the girls program has long participated in The Great Northwest at the older grade levels and the boys have not, the girls 3rd and 4th grade teams are eligible to play in the Non-Competitive League in 2023, but the boys would not be, unless they also chose to join the regular League in 2023-2024 and beyond, or vice versa if boys participate but not girls.

There are only two exceptions to this general policy that we will consider on a case-by-case basis:

• If a program wants to transition from playing in another league to The Great Northwest, we will allow for a transition period.  For example, assume that community "X" played in another league in the past for grades 5, 6, 7 and 8.  Further assume that the girls program wants to enter its 5th grade team in The Great Northwest, but have its 6th, 7th and 8th grade teams play elsewhere.  In this case, the 3rd and 4th grade teams will be entered into the Non-Competitive League with the understanding that these teams will also play in The Great Northwest once they get into 5th grade.

• If an individual coach in a given community wants to play in The Great Northwest, even though the boys or girls program in the community in which they reside does not, they will be allowed to enter a 3rd or 4th grade team in the Non-Competitive League provided it's their intent to play in The Great Northwest at the older grade levels when the team gets older.

Registration Deadline

If you are interested in fielding one or more teams in the 3rd and 4th Grade Non-Competitive League, you need to return the Enrollment Form by September 8, 2023.  (We will begin putting the schedule together no later than September 22).  All teams will receive an email informing them that the 3rd and 4th grade schedules have been posted on or before October 13. of their first session.  Schedules are posted on the website at gnbl.org, then click on “Non-Competitive.”

Questions

If you have questions about any of the above, please contact Tracie Tilton at 715-749-9048 / tracie@gnbl.org or Terri Green at 715-386-4317 / terri@gnbl.org.