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Wellesley Youth Basketball is pleased to announce that registration is now open for Spring Hoops (formerly known as Town League Basketball), a youth sports program for boys and girls in grades 3-8 who live and/or attend school in the town of Wellesley. This 5-week program enables boys and girls to learn and develop their basketball skills while competing on teams with their schoolmates.

Practices: Each team will have one 1-hour long practice on a weeknight between the hours of 6 and 9 PM, with specific times assigned once teams are formed. Practices start the week of March 5.

Games: The first game of the season will be played on SUNDAY, March 11 (to accommodate Wellesley CYO Hoops playoff games). The other 4 games will be played on Saturdays from March 17 to April 7 (between the hours of 8:15 AM and 5 PM) at various Wellesley schools.

Registration: If you register by Feb. 17, the cost for the 2011 season is $85 per player, with a $225 family maximum. If you register after Feb. 17, a late registration penalty of $10 will be assessed. For more information, please visit: www.wellesleybasketball.org

Coach Registration: If you are interested in coaching, please visit: www.wellesleybasketball.org to submit your information to help support the players and the league. ALL levels of experience will be considered.

HS Referee Registration: If you are interested in refereeing and are at least a high-schooler, please visit www.wellesleybasketball.org to submit your application to participate as a referee. More information will be available on the website in January and February 2012 about prerequisites and compensation for referees.

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LINX’s Joseph Kahn says the Needham facility will remain open and offer its full slate of programming (prices should remain the same), though some CMAC programs might be added at Wellesley next year.

“CMAC specializes in programming for children from birth to 7 years old. LINX offers programming primarily from 3 to 12 with a small number of under 3 programming and the majority between 6 and 11, so they are very complementary,” Kahn says.

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And a couple of pictures from Wellesley Dental Group’s Halloween party. Also, drop off extra candy at the dental office at 5 Seaward through Nov. 10, and they’ll send it along with any handwritten notes to US troops overseas.

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Here are some of the Halloween-related happenings planned for Wellesley this month (we’ll keep updating as new items come in):

*Oct. 15.-til… Pumpkins for sale at Wellesley Hills Congregational Church at 207 Washington St., starting Oct. 15.

*Oct. 29. Halloween Parade & Party at Linden Square courtyard, 2-4pm. Costumes, pet parade, story time, freebies, fun.

*Oct. 29. Haunted house at Tilly’s Bacon St. Farm (in Natick, but pretty darn close).  6:30-9:00pm. It’s a fund-raiser for the Natick Drama Workshop, donations welcome but not required.  Rain Date is Oct 30^th

*Oct. 30. The Dana Hall School of Music will hold its first annual Halloween Open House with Musical Trick-or-Treating Sunday, October 30 from 3-5 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. Families and children of all ages are invited to come in costume and participate in seasonal sing-a-longs, music playgroups, crafts, instrument discovery, trick-or-treating and more. There will be i candy and the sounds of a different musical instrument behind each door. The School of Music is located at 103 Grove St. in Wellesley. For more information call (781) 237-6542 or e-mail music@danahall.org.

*Oct. 30. Drop in to enjoy a Howl-o-ween Party at Wellesley Free Library. Wear your costumes and join our canine reading buddies for a howling good time!  Kids in grades K-4 can sign up for a 15-minute session from 2-2:45 and read to one of our Certified Pet Therapy dogs.  Bring your own book or read one of ours.  Pre-registration to read to a dog is required starting October 23. To sign up, stop by the Children’s Department or call 781-235-1610 ext 1108. Then drop in for the party which starts at 3:00 p.m. We’ll have stories, a craft and a snack.

*Oct. 30. Wellesley College Guild of Carillonneurs presents the Haunted Tower on campus at the Galen Stone Tower from 4-6pm. Guild members will be dressed in costume, and will be playing spooky music, including the Addams Family theme song, “Hedwig’s Theme” from Harry Potter, “Danse Macabre,” and “Funeral March of a Marionette.” The Haunted Tower is always a lot of fun because the tower has the perfect environment for a spooky evening event and the haunting sound of the bells can be heard all over campus. And you just never know where a body might show up (like in an elevator shaft, shown here).

*Oct. 31. Whole Foods Market at 442 Washington St., will host a party for kids from 2-4pm, including treats, games, more.

*Oct. 31. Join the Council on Aging for its second annual Spooktakular Celebration for seniors at 1pm. Costume competition with a panel of esteemed judges. Candy and other Halloween treats. Call the Council on Aging to register 781-235-3961.

NOTE: The annual Poet’s Corner haunted house is not happening this year due to construction at the house.

Other events to add? Please email us theswellesleyreport@gmail.com

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“You know it’s fall in Wellesley when all the kids have games all the time. Here’s a picture of backpacks & hockey sticks of Wellesley High women’s field hockey at their last home game at Sprague Field. Wellesley varsity beat Milton 4 to 1,” writes Wellesley’s Patrick Rafter.

(via Patrick Rafter)

RELATED: WHS athletic schedules

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Asked whether this is a bigger challenge in a town like Wellesley filled with well-to-do residents, Bigelow says not necessarily.

“I could argue in the lower socio-economic towns where folks may not be able to pay for college for their kids they might be even more intense and overzealous because they would think that sports excellence might yield a scholarship down the road,” he says. “What you get in places like Wellesley (not that you don’t get this in Natick, Framingham and other places) is the intensity of excellence. Not only are you going to do well in school and go to Yale or Harvard, but you’re also gong to do well on the basketball court, ice rink or soccer field. That can ratchet up the blood pressure of both adults and kids.”

Among the big changes over the past 20 years that have intensified youth sports has been the proliferation of private sports lessons, which Bigelow said used to be mainly for more individual sports like tennis and golf.  “You now have kids from team sports getting lessons,” he says. “The good news with baseball is if your team has 10 kids who can now hit .300, it’s probably going to affect the team positively. However, if you have a basketball team of kids who have been taught shooting and have five kids on the floor with one ball,” there might not be enough balls to go around to satisfy the kids or their parents.

Bigelow says every dollar and hour you lay down in your child’s athletic career trying to make him or her better is going to make your expectations that much more out of whack.

He also says that, logically enough, intensity rises for kids and adults involved in travel team sports, which have now crept down into the elementary schools. Parents and coaches become less likely to keep their egos and tempers in check when not entirely among neighbors, when their kids are playing what Bigelow refers to as “dumbed-down high school varsity sports.” When teams are playing strictly within towns, “it softens the gladiatorial effect,” he says. In Winchester, where Bigelow lives and started a youth basketball program 20 years ago, kids don’t travel until 6^th grade and anyone who wants to travel, travels. He says programs that start cutting kids at younger levels are “overtly or subliminally telling kids they are going to be high school basketball players even though none of them can really play a lick – the caste system is already being determined with a bunch of 4-foot-6, 82 pound kids.”

Bigelow on other topics:

*Girls: “Conceptually in team sports, girls get it earlier. 7^th and 8^th grade girls basketball players can actually get some things that you teach them more so than 7^th and 8^th grade boys basketball players… Often you see men coaching girls at the middle school level and some of them don’t have a clue because they didn’t grow up girls…”

*Bad behavior by pro athletes: “15 years ago someone asked me ‘How do I explain Dennis Rodman to my 12-year-old?’ Maybe the only question in the history of these talks I haven’t been able to answer… The good news is that no matter how much negative press these professional sports teams get, it’s almost to the point where there’s so much of it, how many 12- or 13-year-old kids really follow it that closely? It’s just part of life.”

For more info on Bigelow’s visit, check out the Wellesley Youth Basketball website.

RELATED: New ball game for Wellesley Youth Basketball

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Been to more than my fair share of Wellesley fun fairs over the years, but never have I seen such a great attraction as the inflatable Wrecking Ball set up at the Upham Sports Carnival earlier this month. Kids stood on inflatable pillars and then launched the giant wrecking ball at each other or hung from it. Tough going for the little ones who wandered into that fray.

RELATED: Bates Pumpkin Fair photos

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Bob Bigelow, a former NBA player who made a pit stop with the Boston Celtics in 1978, is coming to Wellesley Middle School Nov. 9 to discuss youth sports with parents and others in the community.

Bigelow is a nationally recognized speaker and author on the topic, emphasizing education for parents and coaches, and the need for youth sports to prioritize the needs of the kids.  The free Wellesley Youth Basketball Association-organized event will take place from 7:30-9pm at the WMS auditorium.

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RELATED: Wellesley Trails Committee

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