Region 11 CYO Girls Basketball provides competition in the following four divisions:

• Varsity Girls -- Region League: 7th and 8th grade girls who have not reached their 15th birthday by September 1st. The Region or "A" League is a competitive league with top qualifiers advancing to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia Championship Tournament.
• Varsity Girls -- Parish League: 7th and 8th grade girls who have not reached their 15th birthday by September 1st. The Parish League is an instructional/recreational league.
• Junior Varsity Girls -- Region League:5th and 6th grade girls who have not reached their 13th birthday by September 1st. The Region League is a competitive league.
• Junior Varsity Girls Parish League: 5th and 6th grade girls who have not reached their 13th birthday by September 1st. The Parish League is an instructional/recreational league.

Playing Time:

Region Division: Staring with the 2006-2007 season, each player on a team must play at least 3 consecutive minutes per half (9 or more players per team) or 3 1/2 consecutive minutes per half (8 or fewer players per team). This rule is subject to review and change prior to playoffs, however, the minimum playing time rule is still in effect for Junior Varsity Playoffs. Note: It is likely that the playing time requirements for smaller teams (8 or fewer players) will increase to between 4 and 5 minutes per half, so make sure you are working with all of your players so they are ready to contribute come playoff time.

Parish Division: Starting with the 2006-2007 season, each player on a team must play at least 1/2 half of each game, subject to the substitution rule described under "Length of Game - Parish."

ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA/REGION 11 CYO RULES

Eligibility -- All rules regarding eligibility are governed by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and are outlined in the 2009-2010 CYO Athletic Handbook. Any exceptions to the Archdiocesan eligibility rules must receive permission from the Archdiocesan CYO Athletic Director.

Playing Rules: Game rules are governed by the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) except as noted in these rules.

Roster Fees & Deadlines: 2009-2010 Archdiocesan and Region 11 Roster Fees are handled through each parish's Athletic Director. Signed Rosters and Coaching Cards are due for submission to Region 11 via each parish Athletic Director by December 9, 2009. The Archdiocese deadline for receipt of rosters at OYYA is December 15, 2009. Accordingly, the Region 11 roster deadline for roster additions and changes will be Wednesday, December 9, 2009 to allow sufficient time to compile the Region 11 package of rosters for delivery to OYYA. After your team roster package is submitted to Region 11, additions and changes may still be made via e-mail to the Commissioner at jroynan@aol.com until the "roster freeze" date of December 12th.

REGION 11 CYO RULES

Playing Rules -- Junior Varsity (5th/6th Grade) Divisions

Length of Game - Region: Four 6-Minute Quarters (per Archdiocese Rule); 5-Minute Half-time; 3-Minute Overtime(s) as needed until game is decided; Clock stops on all whistles. Winning coach is responsible for e-mailing result to Commissioner at jroynan@aol.com.

Length of Game - Parish: Four 6-Minute Quarters (per Archdiocese Rule); At the 3-minute mark of each quarter, the clock will stop, and at the next "natural" pause in a game (out of bounds, defensive rebound, foul, etc.), all players currently on the bench are required to enter the game. The clock will stop as normal at the end of each quarter. The clock stops on all whistles. There is no ovetime, and coaches do not need to report scores.

Ball/Clock/Book: Women's size 28.5" ball. Home team supplies game ball, scorekeeper, and timekeeper. Home team is official book. An adult should run the clock.

Possession/3's: Jump ball at start of game and each overtime. Alternate possession thereafter regardless of reason for the jump. Count 3-pointers if the gym floor has appropriate markings.

Foul Shots: Shoot 1-and-1 on 7th Foul, 2 shots on 10th foul in each half. Per PIAA rule, players may not move to rebound on free throws until ball HITS THE RIM. PIAA rules govern the alignment on the lane for foul shooting (defensive team must occupy two spots below the block).

• Region Division: Shoot fouls from the normal free throw line.
• Parish Division: Players may shoot from a closer 12 ft. foul line (mark if possible). (Parish Division shooters should start back at 13 or 14 feet if they need room to jump forward; they can't start at the 12 ft. line and jump forward to 10 or 11 feet)

Backcourt Defense

Parish Division -- No back court defense at any time. EXCEPTION: In the last minute of every game, any in-bounds play that occurs from the sideline will be administered at half-court and the ball must be entered into the front-court. Baseline inbounds play will be administered from the baseline. This is to avoid teams attempting to run out the clock by in-bounding the ball into the backcourt and holding it there until calling another timeout to protect a lead.

Region Division -- Full court press during the last two (2) minutes of each half and last two(2) minutes of each overtime, except once a team is ahead by 10 or more points that team may not press until the lead drops to 9 points or less. The trailing team may press regardless of score.

Free Half Court Except for the above, when a team obtains possession of the ball in its defensive zone, it may bring the ball across half-court unimpeded by the opponent, which must drop back to half court. In either Division, whenever a team is ahead by 15 or more points, it must drop back on defense to an imagined straight line running across the 15 ft. free throw line.

Fast break exception: If the team obtaining possession is attempting a fast break or is "pushing" the ball upcourt, the opponent may defend in the back court in order to stop the fast break. However, a fast-breaking team being defended will NOT lose possession before passing half-court in the event of a steal or forced error. (Where there is no defensive pressure, an unforced error in the back-court is still a turn-over.) Rule of thumb - don't fast break if you don't want defensive pressure!

General Rules

Timeouts: Three (3) full and two (2) 30-second time-outs per game, used any time. One (1) additional full time-out each overtime. Time-outs carry over. Per PIAA rule - coaches may call time out.

Jewelry: Absolutely NO watches, earrings, barrettes, plastic or metal hair bands of any kind. TAPING OVER EARRINGS IS NOT PERMITTED (safety issue -- no exceptions).

refereeeree Fees: $25 per team with 2 refereeerees (each team pays one of the 2 refereeerees). If only 1 referee handles the game, each team pays the referee $15). In case of forfeit (15 minutes after scheduled time), coach at game should NOT pay officials. They will get paid through referee assignor, to whom the forfeiting team must send the entire $56 referee fee within 1 week.

Weather Postponements: Home team must contact opposing coach, referee ASSIGNOR and Commissioner at least two (2) hours before game start. If the refereeerees are not given enough advance notice and show up for the game, the HOME TEAM will have to pay the entire referee fee. Anticipate weather problems and make sure you contact the referee ASSIGNOR. Coaches should reschedule postponed games and notify Commissioner of new dates. Postponed "B" games do not have to be replayed.

Technicals: Two technicals in any one game results in automatic expulsion from that game. All "unsportsmanship" or "conduct" technicals are to be reported promptly to the Commissioner by both coaches. One game mandatory suspension each time a player or coach accumulates 2 "conduct" technicals during season/playoffs.

Conduct: Please keep in mind that participants and spectators in CYO sports represent the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Ugly behavior by players, coaches, parents and fans refereelects badly both on CYO and the parish they represent. The behavior of fans in particular is the responsibility of each coach. Positive cheering for one's own team -- rather than negative jeering at the opponent -- is the only type of cheering that demonstrates good CYO sportsmanship. Any disrespect toward or abuse of refereeerees is always improper misconduct. Any incident reported to the Commissioner by the refereeerees as unruly behavior will be dealt with at the highest levels of your parish and the Region 11 CYO Athletic Board.

Pre-Game Prayer: Prior to the tap, all players and coaches should gather at center court for a pre-game prayer. A representative of the home team will lead the group in an appropriate prayer.

Scores & Standings: Scores for Region Division games should be reported ASAP by the winning team via e-mail to the Commissioner — jroynan@aol.com. Standings are kept only for the Region division for end-of-season tournament seeding purposes. All pertinent information concerning Region 11 CYO girls basketball can be found at the Region 11 Girls Basketball web site.

Playing Time:

Region Division: Staring with the 2006-2007 season, each player on a team must play at least 3 consecutive minutes per half (9 or more players per team) or 3 1/2 consecutive minutes per half (8 or fewer players per team). This rule is subject to review and change prior to playoffs. Note: It is likely that the playing time requirements for smaller teams (8 or fewer players) will increase to between 4 and 5 minutes per half, so make sure you are working with all of your players so they are ready to contribute come playoff time.

Parish Division: Starting with the 2006-2007 season, each player on a team must play at least 1/2 half of each game, subject to the substitution rule described under "Length of Game - Parish."

Playoffs

Region Championship: All teams in the Region Division are eligible to compete for the Region Championship. Regular season standings determine playoff seeding.

• First Round: Top seeds receive byes with play-in games to create an eight (8) team quarterfinal bracket.
• Play proceeds according to bracket seeding.
• Tie-breaker for seeding "A" Division playoffs: a) head to head competition; b) games vs. league teams in descending order; c) coin flip.

Parish Division: No playoffs.

All-Star Games

"Region 11 All-Stars"; Girls from all Varsity & JV Divisions will participate in an All-Star Festival in late February or early March. Formation of teams and coaches TBD at Commissioner's discretion.

Competition Rule

In order to maintain a competitive balance in the Parish Division, which is designed for intramural/recreational-level players, girls who are talented enough to play basketball at the competitive Region level MUST play in the Region Division and are ineligible for the Parish Division regardless of whether they are 5th or 6th graders.

The policy underlying the Competition Rule is not limited to AAU players since some talented players do not participate in AAU -- the policy is that ALL talented players/teams capable of playing in the competitive Region Division must be playing in that division even if they are in 5th Grade. Our Region 11 Athletic Directors have adopted a Region-Competitive, Parish-Intramural/Recreational structure rather than a Region-6th Grade, Parish-5th Grade structure. Each Athletic Director is charged with ensuring that a coach from his/her parish does not try to keep a talented 5th Grader on a Parish team since it will give that team an unfair advantage against other Parish teams.

To enforce the "Competition Rule," the Commissioner has been authorized by the Region 11 Athletic Directors to exercise his or her discretion and move misplaced players and/or teams from the Parish to the Region Division (and vice-versa) during the season if necessary to ensure an appropriate competitive balance in both Leagues. (For example, in years past we have moved individual players and entire 5th grade teams from the Parish Division to the Region Division to ensure a competitive balance in the Parish Division.)