Gold Crown Basketball

Mountain Vista Gold Crown is a competitive basketball program intended to develop players that will eventually go to Mountain Vista High School. We will develop these players to be prepared to be part of the top High School basketball program in the state.

Message from Brian Wood, Boys Head Coach:

"Last year, on the boys side, we had over 180 players tryout out. Many of these players were trying out at multiple schools. The purpose of the Gold Crown feeder program is to develop players who plan on attending Mountain Vista - a task we take pride in.

We would strongly prefer that you don't tryout out for MVHS Gold Crown if you are trying out for other schools as well. All tryouts for MV, TR, Chap, and RC are the same week, but not at the exact same times. I do plan on sharing my registration with Coach Ortiz, Coach Rohnert and Coach Grams to find out which players are trying out multiple places. All four of us run programs differently but agree that we only want kids who want to play for us at tryouts.

Last year we had a number of players turn down roster spots (many of whom were offered a spot on a Gold team). The work of running tryouts and picking teams is difficult and imperfect, but that work is made even harder when we don't know if players are even planning on accepting the spot.

Thank you for considering and we look forward to seeing a bunch of Future Golden Eagles in a few weeks".

Tryout Information

• One of the goals of Gold Crown is to be viewed as a feeder program for the respective high school that your son or daughter is going to attend. Most high schools in Douglas County do have Gold Crown programs. If your son or daughter is not currently in the Vista area, we encourage you to inquire with their high school to see if there is a Gold Crown feeder program associated with your school. Though we do allow anyone to tryout for our program, we do feel it is important to get into the feeder program associated with the high school they will eventually attend. If you do not plan to attend MVHS, please consider not trying out for our program. 
• Please do NOT come to the gym any more than 10 minutes prior to your start time. First night of tryouts, please arrive at least 15 minutes early.
• Bring a basketball with your name on it and a water bottle.
• Each player will be given a Mountain Vista basketball t-shirt as part of their registration fee.
• Each player will be evaluated for 180 minutes across 2 days by the varsity program coaches. Coach Wood and his staff will evaluate the boys, Coach Valdez will be evaluating the girls. Coaches will be evaluating skills, team-work and general attitude.  All player decisions will be made by the Varsity program. Previous year coaches will not participate in the evaluation process. The varsity coaches will place your child on a team where they feel they will be the most successful.
• Decisions are typically made within 48 hours (excluding weekends) and will be communicated electronically. However, more time may be required – we request patience and ask you not to reach out unless it has been 4 days since tryouts have concluded and no information is posted. 
• Players will be issued a jersey with a # on it to use during tryouts. Team designations will be announced by this number – so don’t forget it!
• Please know that this is a competitive program, and there may be players cut. We would love to keep every player that tried out, but with limited gym time for all the teams we do have to make the tough decision to cut some players.
• For our girls program, in 2024 we did combine some grade levels in order to form teams. For example, we didn't have ten 8th graders tryout last year, so we did move up 7th graders to play at the 8th grade level. We want every girl possible to play, so we may have situations where younger girls play up in order to form teams. If we do combine teams, we will choose silver or gold level based on the skill level of the team. 

Our program is entirely run by volunteers. The majority of our coaches are parents of a player on the team. Using volunteers is how we keep the cost at a very reasonable rate.

We encourage kids to play as many sports as they can. We believe that kids should try to experience as many sports as they can to find what they love. It is inevitable that there will be conflicts if your child plays other sports. The key is to communicate with your coach to establish expectations. Please understand that playing time could be impacted if your child is unable to make practices.

For the younger grades, playing time will be as equal as it is deserved. Though it is a competitive league, we view this as a development program. Every kid will play, but in the final quarter teams will be directed to play to win. Winning is important, but not more important than developing a pipeline of talent for our varsity programs.