EPWBA Draft Process
The draft is set up for coaches in the Middle, Freshmen or High School Boys groups to select players for their team. Middle Girls and High School Girls could also draft at the discretion of the coaches. Typically these teams will be made up of 8 to 9 players.
The Process Before Draft
- Coaches attend evaluations for the specific age group(s) that they plan on coaching. During those evaluations, coaches will receive information on each player that may include the player's draft number, grade level, school attended, notation if they have a sibling in the same age group, and if they are a child of one of the coaches. It is up to the coaches to determine what notes they want to take during that time.
- At the conclusion of the first evaluations session, coaches will meet with league administrators to slot each coach's kid in a draft round. This is done by consensus voting, but league administrators reserve the right to overrule the coaches' votes. This is done because the coaches will automatically receive their child on their team.
- Once each player is slotted in a round, coaches are assigned a draft order. The draft order is assigned randomly using a phone app that will randomly generate a list of numbers that corresponds with each coach's assigned number. League Administrators will record the order as the numbers are being populated.
The Draft
- Draft Board will be printed and passed out to one coach and/or team representative for each team. The draft board is set up based on the order determined at the evaluations.
- All drafts are in a snake-format.
- For example: if there are 12 teams in that age group. Teams will draft 1 through 12 in that order in the first round. In the second round, the draft order will go 12 through 1. This order will alternate until the end of the draft and all of the players have been selected.
- Teams will get at most 30 seconds to make their selection.
- Players who did not show up to evaluations are not eligible to be drafted by the coaches. Those players are left in a later round to be randomly assigned to teams. This is to assure there is no competitive advantage of a coach who has seen that player while other coaches have not.
- Every player will be drafted that has registered regardless of skill and experience level.
- At the conclusion of the draft, rosters are uploaded into the TeamSideline system and released along with the team's schedule typically a day or two after the draft.
Rules for Draft
- There are no trades. Once a player is selected, that player is assigned to that team.
- If a coach's kid does not attend any evaluation sessions, that player will automatically be assigned as that coach's first round pick.
- If a player is drafted who has a sibling. Then the sibling(s) that has not been drafted will be slotted into appropriate rounds for the same team as determined by the coaches participating in the draft.
- Any special requests for players by coaches must be presented at the beginning of the draft, when prompted by league administrators. At that time, all coaches present will have the opportunity to approve or reject the request. These requests will only be approved if every coach present approves. If there is at least one disapproval, then the player will not be assigned to the team and that player will be eligible to be drafted by any coaches that chooses to draft that player.
- Any special requests for players by parents/families must be presented at the beginning of the draft by a league administrator. At that time, all coaches present will have the opportunity to approve or reject the request. These requests will only be approved if every coach present approves. If there is at least one disapproval, then the request will not be honored. These requests can include parents/families requesting a specific coach or specific players to be on the same team (that are not siblings or related).
- After the draft is complete, any players registered thereafter will be assigned to a team by order in which that player registered to the team that was next in order for drafting.
- For example: The draft ends with Team 3 picking the last player. Two days later, a new player registers for that age group. If there is space available on the roster, the player is added to Team 4 since that would have been the team that would have picked next.