East vs West Washington

[funhoops]

Why does Eastern Washington appear to have its act together better than Western Washington in Girls Basketball? The AAU organization in the East (http://www.ieaau.org) is heads and shoulders above its western counterpart (http://www.pnaau.org). The Best in the West Tournament in Yakima outshines any tournament organized on this side (with the exception of MSNM for HS and on a smaller scale the Riverside tournaments). The West has many great players (unfortunately spread among too many programs) but players from the East seem to maximize their potential to a greater extent. Some would argue that players from the East are more fundamentally sound.
Can the West learn from the East? Can the system in Western Washington be improved for the benefit of the girls? Is the West lacking leadership that has vision beyond a single program/organization? Should we expect more from the local AAU office?

[HPAcoach]

Hoops..... I am not sure I agree with your assessment. I have a daughter who plays for the Spokane Blazers and we have played all over the state. The west side has more of a challenge based on geographic numbers and sooooooo many talented players. I believe Glen said it best in a past post. Most of us as parents, are fairly selfish with our children and where we allow them to play. Unfortunately with the amount of talent the west side has, that probably means more dispersion of talent.

We have played in Riverside and found those tournaments to be on par with any other tourney we have played in the state. The tournament that was hosted by hoopgurlz has always been great. This state is flat loaded with talent right now. I think the most unfortunate thing is, when is comes to basketball, we aren't truly a state. At this time, we are east and west. Even the best teams in the east or west, can't pull together the best in the state. So while our young players continue to grow, someday we will proud of basketball accomplishment for our lovely state........ not based on east and west, but Washington State.

I wish we had so many basketball academy choices to choose from in the east. I wish we had glen and hoopgurlz over here. See hoops, I think the west has it better in some ways.