HCYA Lady Warriors: FAQ

HCYA is the "parent" organization for several different programs in the Houston area, including competitive basketball. The Lady Warriors program is a competitive junior high and high school basketball program for homeschooled students that competes against the top private and public school programs in Texas and the Houston area. Before the regular season begins, parents will receive a "Parents Manual" that includes our statement of purpose and statement of beliefs and other important information about the program. Some of these documents are available for your review on our "Handouts" page.

When does your season begin and end? We play a competitive regular season that begins with practices in October and games in November. Our regular season ends in February, after which, we form teams for the national homeschool championships, which is held in Springfield, MO in March.

Do you have tryouts and when are they? Actually, we don't believe that an athlete can be properly evaluated in a one or two day tryout. Therefore, we watch and evaluate our players in a number of off-season settings to determine their progress and level of skill and experience. Many of our players play in various summer activities that we try and monitor. Our best chance, however, to evaluate all girls that want to play competitively are during our summer camp and Fall leagues. After the Fall League ends, we organize teams for the regular season and make final roster adjustments, if needed, before our game schedule commences.

How much does it cost? Each program that the Lady Warrior program offers is priced individually to allow families as much flexibility as possible. Summer camps, leagues, the regular season, and Nationals each has its own fee schedule. One may participate in any program without being obligated to commit to another. Camp and league fees begin at $75 each while the team fees for the regular season begin at $150 for the Mini team and scale up from there.

We keep our program fees at a very reasonable level and rely heavily on individual and corporate donations in order to fund the program. Our program fees actually cover less than half of our actual operating budget! HCYA is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and all donations (but not program fees) to the program are tax deductible.

Where and when are practices for the regular season? Most all of our activities currently take place at League America. Directions to League America are on our website on the "Directions" page. Practices are typically on M/W/F from 4 to 6 pm but each coach determines the best dates and times for practice for his/her team within these time frames. The Varsity team is the only team that is "required" to practice 3X per week while most other teams will usually practice no more than 2X per week.

What if I have other siblings that are not practicing? We encourage parents to stay and watch practices if they are able to. Even though there are bleachers at League America, parents may want to bring lawn chairs. We encourage you to bring schoolwork, board games, etc. Playing with balls, running, or "roughousing" in the building is prohibited by the  management.

Are the other basketball courts open too? There could be any number of other programs running on other courts during our practices, so the other courts may or may not be open.

How many games do you play and where are they? We play very few home games at HVTC so, most of our games require travel in and about the Houston area including schools in Galveston, Brazoria, Fort Bend, Waller, and Montgomery counties. The junior high teams usually play no more than 20 or so games while each high school team may play 30 or more games per season! The number of games will vary some from season to season. Once the game schedules for each team are set, map links to each game can be found on our "Locations" page.

What should I wear? All players should wear modest sportswear suitable for practicing basketball. We recommend that all girls wear basketball or cross-training shoes. Running shoes may, and often do, lead to ankle injuries. All clothing should be modest and loose fiiting, i.e. no spandex shorts or tops unless they are worn as under clothing. T-shirts should be cut so that sports bras are not visible.

What do I need to bring? We recommend that all players bring a water bottle, thermos, or sports drink. There is a water fountain and vending machines are available with bottled water and PowerAde. However, someone else stocks the machines, so we cannot guarantee the availability of drinks in the machines. You do not need to bring a basketball as we provide all equipment necessary for practice, camps, leagues, and games.

For more information, please feel free to call Coach Hester at 281.686.7899 or you may email him at td_hester@hotmail.com.