Yes, the Eastlake Select Basketball program is designed to feed the High School program. HS coaches will instruct the Select coaches on drills, warm-ups, offense, defense, etc. The intent is develop the young Eastlake players of the future. Keep in mind, making the team in these early years will not secure a spot on the HS teams. Every year, every boy must compete to earn their spot….at every level.

The following schools feed into Eastlake High School:

• Evergreen Middle School
• Inglewood Middle School
• Alcott Elementary
• Blackwell Elementary
• Carson Elementary
• McAuliffe Elementary
• Mead Elementary
• Smith Elementary

If your son lives outside of the Eastlake boundaries, he must try-out for his Select High School feeder team.  If he missed their try-out or did not make the team, he is welcome to try-out for Eastlake, provided the parents obtain an email waiver from the Select High School feeder program he is aligned to.

Any player missing a practice or game, without an excused absence, will be penalized with game time reduction.  Practice/Game=1 quarter.  A qualified excused absence is anything related to family, school, medical or faith and requires a notification to the coach. We insist that our players maintain their grades. If a parent alerts a coach to a decline in studies, he will be excused until the parents notify the coach that the issue has been corrected.

Eastlake Select will field teams that compete in either Eastside Travel League or Peak League.

Our Cardinal teams compete in the ETL, which offers high caliber youth basketball available on the Eastside. ETL is the best choice for kids who are seeking more competitive play, are willing to prioritize the ETL team over other sports or teams during the basketball season and who are willing and able to devote material time to practices, training, games, and tournaments. The Eastlake ETL teams will have 10-12 players per team. Participants on an ETL team will not all get the same playing time, but they will have fun, compete, and develop solid fundamental skills. Details can vary by team/coach but the ETL teams generally practice twice a week and play one home game and one away game every week during the season that lasts from December to March.  Games will be played on Saturday and Sunday.

Our White teams compete in the Peak League, out of the Mercer Island Boys and Girls Club. The Peak teams are the next highest caliber teams available. These teams are best for players who want to play competitive basketball but are also seriously pursuing interests in other sports, arts etc. during the season. The Peak teams also require a material commitment of time to practices, training, games, and tournaments.  Peak games will be played out of the Mercer Island Boys & Girls Club facility.

Much of the work required to organize and coordinate league and tournament play, practices, gyms, etc. is done by volunteers. Most often these are the parents of the players in the program. Our coaches have other full time jobs and careers and need lot of help with logistics and coordination so they can concentrate on coaching basketball. All parents of the players on ETL and Peak teams are expected to volunteer for activities that include but are not limited to helping with  the distribution of uniforms, organizing team parties, keeping scorebooks at the games and operating the clock. Each family with players in the program are expected to volunteer. Please step up and do your part to help.

Practices are 2 times a week starting in late September or early October. To support kids who play Fall sports such as football or soccer, coaches will try to arrange non-conflicting practices or figure out other solutions.  We want your son to honor his commitment to the Fall sport he is playing.  We do not want boys to miss the final practices/games of their fall sport, in order to attend basketball practices.  We will ask the same, come time for Spring sports.   There will also be occasions where we lose gym time due to school programs/events.

Generally, the ETL teams will play games on Saturday and/or Sunday afternoons, running from December through February. Half of the games will be at home on Eastlake High School and half will be at other Eastside locations such as Bellevue, Mt. Si, Redmond etc.  Actual schedules are finalized by the league administrators late October and communicated to each team. Playoffs generally begin late February/early March

Peak teams usually will have 2 games on Saturday or Sunday at the Mercer Island Boys & Girls Club facility.

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Each team will participate in a minimum of 3 tournaments. Depending on the interest of players and the availability of the coaches there may be other tournaments or games. For example, most teams play their tournaments prior to season start (Eastside Catholic, Falcon Classic and Mt. Si Shootout). These tournaments will be selected by the coaches/team parents and the Eastlake Board will submit the registrations on behalf of the teams.

We strive to place every athlete on the team where they will grow the most, with the best balance of challenge and playing time. This means we will place an athlete above their grade level in some cases. As we generally have two teams per grade (Cardinal and White), athletes playing up will typically be placed on the White team, which is the more developmentally focused of the two.