Feeder FAQs

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Q: What is feeder basketball?

A: Feeder basketball refers to travel basketball programs that are organized to “feed” into a specific high school basketball program. Feeder programs first appeared in the Chicagoland area in the early 1990’s, and today, nearly every area high school has a feeder program.

Q: Why is feeder basketball important?

A: Feeder programs are designed to do 3 key things:

1. Introduce young basketball players to the high school program, and start to teach them some of its key tenets. From its core values to the style of play, and even some of the inbounds plays, young players can start to familiarize themselves with the high school program they aspire to play for.
2. Bring together players from area elementary and middle schools. Bringing together the players who have a serious interest in basketball means that once they reach high school, they already know each other. In some classes, we’ve had special groups that have played together with the same core group from 4th grade through Varsity.
3. Exposing players in our communities to high levels of competition. When feeder programs first started popping up in the 90’s, there were far fewer options for boys to get exposure to high-level basketball. A select few may have played for travel (aka AAU) teams that were based in the city or traveled to national AAU tournaments. But most boys in communities like Deerfield didn’t have that chance. Obviously, today, with the proliferation of different youth sports programs, there are no shortage of options for youth basketball. And some of them are excellent.  

Q: Are there other Deerfield “feeder” programs?

A: There is only one Deerfield Feeder program that has the support of the DHS program, and we’ve been running it for 30 years. During the past 10 years or so, several entities have attempted to start their own Deerfield feeder programs, in what are clearly attempts to grow their own businesses and make money. Several other area feeder programs refuse to schedule the latest “imposter” program or allow them to enter their tournaments.

Q: Isn’t feeder basketball just another “travel” program?

A: Great question, but no! We get it, there are so many programs out there. And with the exponential explosion of youth sports, and the year-round commitment requested by certain sports, everything bleeds together. 

The reason that feeder is different – and important – are listed above. Put another way, what makes feeder basketball great is that it’s centered around COMMUNITY. By playing feeder, your boys will meet new friends from other schools, develop pride in the DHS program, and if they play together long enough, enter high school with teammates that they already know well – both on and off the court.

Spring and summer travel programs typically host tryouts and start playing in April, after feeder seasons conclude.

Q: What about conflicts with school teams?

A: School teams take priority over feeder, though their schedules typically wrap up in January or early February. Just like high school basketball, playing for your middle school is important! We want them to have pride playing for their school … and that starts before high school.

Q: What about conflicts with other travel sports?

A: This is an area where we unfortunately need to take a different stance. Repeated conflicts over the years that have resulted in forced cancellations of games, tournament entrances, etc. Therefore, if a player on any Young Warriors team simultaneously plays on any other non-school traveling basketball team, or on a traveling team of any sport, and misses 3 Y-W events (practices or games) to play elsewhere, then he will be unable to participate in our program. We think it is unfair to those boys who did not make the feeder roster to have players on our team choose to play elsewhere.