First for the varsity coaches, and second for the players to show their level of commitment to the program, to the coach, and to their teammates in the summer. It is not for any fan other than those fans who want to watch high school basketball in the summer with an understanding that summer basketball often means very little for what comes in the winter; I will explain later.
Unfortunately, some fans do not understand this. You can get on just about any message board and fans are judging and deciding how good a team will be in January, by what they are doing in June. Please do not do that, there are so many factors about summer teams and games. And it will not help your team to have unnecessary expectations or lack thereof before basketball conditioning even begins in August.
When I coached (somehow that sounds worse to me than "when I played"), we often had a relatively high level of commitment by those we knew were going to play, especially upper classmen. I think why that happened is we tried to make the tournaments we played in to be enjoyable experiences during the summer by visiting colleges and historical places that dealt with Indiana high school basketball. We also worked on offense all summer, trying to work out kinks and we all know kids like offense better than defense so I feel that brought many of our guys in.
We always went out of town for these tournaments. We wanted to get away and have bonding experiences, but also stay away from those eyes that would decide how good or not we would be in March by how we played in June. Plus, I didn't like playing teams on our schedule because I was worried we would get a false sense of security or insecurity by what happened in June. Either way is not right or wrong, it is just how we did it. Probably, if I were to be a head coach again, I would play in some of these leagues closer to home, also.
Coaches in June (and I can't speak for all of them) are trying to see what level of commitment wannabe varsity players will give to be part of that experience come season time. Coaches will work in new players who were either J.V. or role players the season before. Everything that many coaches do in June is to be prepared in November when you get 13 practices before your first game. You want to be able to hit the ground running and not starting from the very beginning before playing a game, often a rival game.
Now as for the average basketball fan who does catch some summer games, much of what you see during June is an illusion. Often teams are missing players, coaches are playing players in different situations, they may even be playing everyone equally or a different style. There has been little practice to work on nuances of offense, or the gridning out of defense, so keep that in mind. Keep that in mind when Eastern beats Brownstown, or Borden beats Scottsburg, or some team doesn't win as many games, or some other teams wins a bunch, or some other game that makes you raise eyebrows. Put those eyebrows down and realize there are many issues at hand.
With all of that being said, if you want to watch high school boys teams playing hard and working and preparing for the winter, head out to Charlestown H.S. on Mondays and Wednesdays and Salem H.S. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I went a couple of nights the last two weeks and saw Rock Creek, Crothersville, Henryville, Clarksville, Providence, Borden, Scottsburg, Salem, Eastern (Pekin), Brownstown, Trinity Lutheran and others. And you cannot beat the cost....0$.
You will not see the efficiency and execution of February, but you will see kids competing for positions, playing time, or just flat out pride for their school. Games usually start around 5:30 to 6:00 and end around 9 PM. Sit back, relax and enjoy watching kids get to be kids and understand that summer means a lot to those people on the court, and very little to those in the stands.
