Saturday, October 4, 2008

Preseason All-American Candidates Announced

Our goal was to have our new Nationals website launched today but we were unable to meet that deadline. Frankly the new site is a bit of a mess and will be a week or so before it is fully functional. However, I did promise to get the Preseason All-American Candidates announced this week and I have 2 minutes to keep my word so when you go to the site remember we are a ways off from finishing it. Please read this entire e-mail before going to the website.

Team Registration
Is now available on line -- Remember there is a $50 discount if you register by 10/31/08 Registration

All-American Press Release – if you have an All-American Candidate in your program please check out the press release procedure.

Preseason All-American Candidates
Check out the complete list

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Really Great Idea

Coach -- I have updated the player's blog with a couple of interesting notes but I wanted to make sure you got this information so I doubled up.

National's TV Sponsor and More

I was looking for a TV sponsor to pay for 7 games to be televised at Nationals this year. Not only did I find a great sponsor but that sponsor is offering a great way for every team to benefit, you need to read this.

I will give you a brief overview of the program and if you need more information please feel free to contact me directly.
Yahoo does approximately 7 billion dollars a year in internet search engine revenue. While that sounds like a lot the fact is that it is only 25% and Google revenues are almost three times that amount.
Yahoo has designed a program for large nonprofit organizations, like the Red Cross, to develop a long term revenue stream for the nonprofit that assists Yahoo in reaching its goal of increasing market share.
Fund-It is the organization that is administering this program for Yahoo for Christian organizations.
Fund-It contacted me about being a sponsor of Nationals and will be the sponsor of the Homeschool Showcase including underwriting the cost to televise the All-American Games.
As part of the agreement all homeschool teams and organizations may participate under the National Basketball Foundation 501c3 status. While this program is reserved for large organizations, Fund-It has agreed to allow any team that we refer to them to participate.
Through this program everyone one can benefit in three key ways:
1. Teams make the money directly from Fund-It -- Our Nationals staff does not have the time to administer this type of program so we have worked it out that each team will sign their own agreement and be paid directly each month.
2. Players and teams that attend Nationals benefit because Fund-It is a sponsor that has agreed to renew each year if we are able to get enough teams involved and will even increase their financial involvement to help fund other things that we would like to add in future years.
3. Teams that cannot afford to attend Nationals will be able to afford to attend.
Where's the MONEY?
It is a very simple program that pays your team $.10 for every search (click through) that you make through the special Yahoo Fund-It/Benefit Bar.
What does that mean to your team? Fund-It estimates your team will earn $15,000 over the course of the year. This estimate is based on 50 computers using FUND-IT/BENEFIT BAR. Many families have 2-3 computers so add in friends, families and alumni and 50 computers is relatively conservative. There no fee to sign up, the installation is very easy less that a couple of minutes (unless you have Vista than it takes 5 minutes), and you are asking people to use basically the same service they have, which no one benefits form currently. There is really no reason for anyone that you ask not to sign up. Did I mention that there is one difference about the search? The Fund-It/Benefit Bar will not searching for pornography or "hate" groups. Even if their estimates are evangelistic and your team only earns one third of estimate that is $500 per family for travel for Nationals, or free uniforms plus whatever your team wants to use the money to buy. All for doing something that you and your friends already do. If you want more information just have a team representive contact me and I will send you Fund-It's direct contact information. Please make sure to tell me what team you are with. If your program has multiple sports no problem they all can sign up and be tracked seperately

Sunday, August 24, 2008

All-American and All Region Nominations

We are making some adjustments to the procedure of voting on All-Americans. You can find the details on the players bog

http://basketballnationals.blogspot.com

We have also made regional assignments for 2008-2009 the basic info is on the players blog as well.

Both of these programs have new websites

All-Region and All-Tournamnet Nominations -- www.nchbcregionals.com to nominate you will need a password it is nchbc08

Region break down and tournaments -- www.nchbctournaments.com

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Basketball Nationals will be moving in 2009

Due to the current economic conditions and unpredictable facility situations that Tim Flatt explained on the Nationals Conference Call, the NCHBC has opened entertained the possibility of eight cities hosting the 2009-2011 National Championships. We have talked to and or visited 8 cities in the last 5 weeks

Three cities have been eliminated:
1. Dallas
2. Wichita
3. Oklahoma City

The five remaining cities meet the following minimum criteria:
A. Within 350 miles of OKC
B. An arena that is available for next three years with a min capacity of 7,000
C. College arenas that can host semifinal games with min of 2,000 seating (must be nice setting)
D. The ability to start putting games on TV both local cable and National cable.


The next step for the cities is to compete on the following level:
A. Hotel capacity
B. Hotel Rates
C. Effectiveness of the CVB (Convention and Visitors Burea)
D. Secondary gyms

What is the process that we are waiting for?
A. CVB will send out leads to all hotels and lock in group rates
B. Gym contracts will be provided
C. Final commitments from the city concerning their participation will be made.
D. We will weigh the cities bids and eliminate cities that do not offer the best package
E. We will select the city, sign contracts, hold a press conference and notify you.

We will have a final announcement by August 15th

What should you do now?
A. Do nothing, even if you think you have an inside scoop, just wait. The key for us to build a long term relationship in a city is to work with the CVB.
B. Since there are numerous cities bidding you may here an inside scoop but it will more than likely be nothing more than I am telling you right now.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Rumors, Rumors and more Rumors

Rumors are flying

This morning I received five phone calls inquiring about the 2009 NCHBC moving from Oklahoma City. I heard that we were moving to Stillwater, OK, Dallas, TX and Shreveport, LA. I even received a call from the Oklahoma City Convention and Visitors Bureau inquiring as to next year’s status due to the Sonics moving to OKC. Obviously they were concerned because we had planned to move to the Ford Center either this year or next and that would be out of the question now. This coupled with the fact that the Sonics will likely use SNU as their practice gym could make it unavailable to Nationals.

So what is going on? With all the rumors there must be at least some truth mixed in, right? Hmmm, those are very good questions and I would like to answer you right now but I all I can tell you is that nothing is set in stone. We are working on a number of very important and exciting things for 2009 and I will be prepared to make an official announcement on July 24th.

I will hold a conference call at 8:00 PM CST

1-218-339-2626
Access Code 704478

I have 600 lines reserved so anyone who wants to call in is welcome.
I will also post a blog when the phone call is over with the details.
So what should you do between now and next Thursday? Just wait because more than likely any action you take will likely have to be undone since things are still up in the air. Everyone will find out the final word at the same time and that will cut down on confusion, panic and rumors.

Talk to you next Thursday,

Tim Flatt

Monday, July 14, 2008

The Founder’s Club

In June we announced that we would be introducing a number of new projects this summer. These projects are in conjunction with Nationals but they are also separate from our current Nationals Structure. We have decided to form the Founder's Club as a means to create and develop these projects. Here is an overview of the Founder's Club. Our next big announcement will come within the week.

This summer we have created The Founder’s Club. The Founder’s Club is named in honor of Dr. Jim Leininger. Dr. Leininger is a true entrepreneur and visionary who founded Homeschool Basketball Nationals. Dr Leininger has over 50 business ventures that included founding KC Worldwide and ownership in the San Antonio Spurs. Dr. Leininger was a homeschool dad and the coach of a National Championship FEAST Patriots teams in the early 1990’s.

The Founders Club is designed to be a tool that helps homeschool families and teams throughout the country. Additionally the Founder’s Club will raise funds to help promote the extra things that are important to the continued enhancement of the National Tournament. The Founder’s Club will be responsible for the Homeschool Showcase. “One of the things that the Founder’s Club does is helps programs that want to be more than just participants at Nationals become contributors. I think the long term health of Nationals will be directly impacted by how many programs want to roll up their sleeves and work with the Founder’s Club” states Tim Flatt, the Executive Director of the NCHBC. “We have tried to design this club in a way that is consistent with how Jim (Dr Leininger) functions as a businessman. While I known Jim is a very generous person, literally giving away more money than most people will make in a lifetime, he believes that people should pay their way in things they believe are important. One of the things that makes Jim unique is that throughout his life he has consistently believed in providing a way for those who want to shall we say earn their way. So I think the Founders Club is a perfect example of this characteristic in Jim’s life.”

The Founder’s Club is free for every team and program to sign up for. Once your program is part of the Founder’s Club you will receive the following benefits:
1) Access to all special fundraising programs and ventures.
2) Free tickets for all players and coaches to the 2009 Homeschool Showcase.

To sign up cut and paste this link into your browser http://homeschoolbasketball.com/team_sign_up.php

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Latest Infromation

Plans for 2009 Nationals

This summer as we prepare for the Eighteenth Annual National Christian Homeschool Basketball Championships to be held in March of 2009, we will be making a number of very significant announcements about four very important projects we are developing. We are faced with numerous hurdles that need to be overcome in order to assure that we remain on course for achieving the goals that have been our focus since I was appointed Executive Director of the NCHBC in 2000. These goals have been foundational in every decision that we make in the administration and direction of the NCHBC. Here is a list of our goals:

1) To host a family event that emphases our Christian heritage.
2) To provide a quality event that families are willing to take a week of vacation to attend.
3) To provide a balanced tournament that:A. Provides a format that allows all teams to compete with teams at or about their talent level.B. Provides the top teams a chance to play in a National Championship atmosphere.C. Provides an opportunity for coaches, players and parents to see what it is possible by seeing the top level teams.
4) To showcase the top talent for college coaches and the media.
5) To demonstrate to others that Homeschool basketball is not behind and our tournament is equal to state public school tournament caliber.

While I believe we have been making steady strides in achieving all of our goals, we have some serious concerns about making sure goals one and two stay intact. The main hurdles that we need to make sure .... to finish this story go to http://homeschoolbasketball.com/fund_raising_packet.pdf