How to schedule gym time for multiple basketball teams

Count the gym in blocks

A basketball gym isn't one thing to schedule. Many gyms have a main court that splits into two half courts, with a curtain or divider and side baskets. A side court is different: it's a separate court off the main floor, so it goes on your list as a court of its own. A main court that splits gives you two ways to use the same floor at the same time:

• one team on the full court;
• two teams, each on its own half court.

Write down, for each night the gym is open to teams:

Who needs the full court

Decide this before anyone picks, team by team. It is a coaching decision, not a scheduling one, and it changes how much the gym holds. A common split:

• Full court: teams that run 5-on-5, full-court presses and transition work, usually the oldest grades or varsity and JV.
• Half court: younger teams and skill sessions (shooting, ball handling, half-court offense), which fit on a half court.

Some programs let a half-court team ask for a full-court practice once a week. If you do, write it into the rule; don't leave it to whoever asks first.

Block games and events first

Put every home game on the grid before the schedule goes out, along with anything else that takes the gym: school events, rentals, religious education and closing time. A practice picked on a game night is a practice someone loses later, and the coach who loses it will remember who got theirs.

Decide one more thing now: what happens when a game is rescheduled onto a practice night. One rule that works is that the game takes the gym, and the teams that lose a practice get first choice of any open block that week, in the published order.

Do the math before the order

The order decides who gets the best times. The arithmetic decides whether everyone gets enough. Do it first, out loud, with the coaches.

Worked example

Example only. Replace with your own gym and teams.

• The gym: a main court that splits into two half courts, open Monday to Thursday from 3:30 to 9:30 pm. Friday is for home games.
• The blocks: 90-minute blocks at 3:30, 5:00, 6:30 and 8:00 make 4 blocks a night, 16 full-court blocks a week. Split, the same floor makes 32 half-court blocks.
• The teams: 8 teams. 7th and 8th grade boys and girls practice on the full court; 5th and 6th grade boys and girls practice on a half court. Each team gets 2 practices a week.

Four blocks are left over in the example: room for makeups after a rescheduled game, open gym, or a third practice for some teams. Decide which before sign-up, and say so.

The words "if paired" carry the whole example. Two half-court practices only cost one full-court block when they share the same block. If the 5th grade girls take the north side on Tuesday at 5:00 and nobody takes the south side, that block can't go to a full-court team, and the gym holds less than the arithmetic said. The next section covers that.

Set the team order

Most basketball programs order teams by grade, oldest first, and that's easy to defend because every team eventually becomes the oldest. Settle the parts that cause arguments before you publish:

• Boys and girls at the same grade. Alternate which picks first each season, and write down whose turn it is.
• Two teams at one grade (an A and a B team, or two 6th grade teams). Use a published draw or alternate by season.
• High school levels. Varsity, then JV, then freshman, is the usual ladder.

Our guide on how to divide gym time fairly compares grade order, in-season priority, rotation and published draws, and covers what to do when a coach misses their turn.

Pick in rounds

Let each team take one block per round, in the published order, so the first team can't take every good night. With two practices a week, two rounds do it. Snake the order for round two, so the team that picked last in round one picks first in round two.

One rule for half courts: when a half-court team picks, it takes the open side of a block that's already half used before it opens a fresh block, unless the coach has a reason the organizer accepts. That keeps half-court teams paired and leaves full blocks for the full-court teams. In the example, 5th and 6th grade teams pick first in round two, so without this rule they could split four fresh blocks and take four full-court blocks out of play before the 7th and 8th grade teams pick again.

When seasons overlap

In many school and parish programs, volleyball ends as basketball begins, and for a few weeks both want the gym. Two ways to handle it, decided before sign-up:

• Block the volleyball practices first for those weeks, as you would a game, and let basketball teams pick from what's left.
• Run one sign-up for both sports with an in-season-first rule: teams whose season is underway pick first. Define "underway" by date, not by whoever asks.

Coaches with two teams

Parent coaches often coach two grades, or coach one team while their other child plays on another. List every coach against every team before sign-up opens. When a coach's first team picks Tuesday at 5:00, their second team shouldn't be able to take a block that overlaps it. Decide whether that coach picks for both teams in one turn or keeps two separate turns.

Checklist

• Open hours and block length set, night by night
• Half courts and their links to the full court written down
• Full-court and half-court teams decided before anyone picks
• Home games, events and closures blocked
• The arithmetic shared: blocks ÷ teams, and what happens to any left over
• Team order published, with the boys-and-girls and A-and-B tie-breakers
• One block per round, snake for round two, and the half-court pairing rule
• A rule for rescheduled games
• Every coach listed against every team they coach
• The final schedule sent to families as calendar invites

Questions