Program · Competitive
Travel
Tryout-based teams competing in the Cape Ann Youth Basketball League. Players are evaluated each fall, and rosters are set for a single season at a time.
Read this before you register
Travel is a real commitment, and the schedule is largely out of the league’s hands. Three things families are most often surprised by:
- Practice times are not known until teams are set. Teams can be assigned any weeknight, roughly 5:00–9:00 p.m. Keep winter weeknights flexible.
- Games are on both weekend days. The Cape Ann League assigns them — usually one or two per weekend across Saturday and Sunday.
- The season runs past the regular schedule. Playoffs in March add anywhere from two to seven more games.
Who it’s for
Players in grades 4 through 8 who live in Boxford, Middleton, or Topsfield and want a longer, more competitive season.
Every player must register for intramurals, including travel hopefuls — that registration is what gets a player into tryouts.
Players selected for a travel team may then opt out of intramurals, but the decision has to be made before the intramural draft, usually the first week of November. Players selected for a boys’ A team do not continue in the intramural program, and their intramural fee is applied to the travel fee.
The league encourages playing both where possible: more playing time, and more of their friends.
Tryouts
Tryouts run in October, two sessions for each grade and gender. Attend both if you can; at least one is required to be considered for placement.
Register for the season first. A separate travel registration link is sent to the families of players who make a team.
Practices
Each team holds two practices per week.
Specific gym locations and days of the week are not determined until teams are set. Players should make sure their schedules are flexible heading into the winter season to limit conflicts with whatever practice slots their team draws.
Practices can fall anywhere Monday through Friday, roughly 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. There is no way to guarantee a particular night or time. As a general pattern, grades 4 and 5 tend to practice earlier in the evening and grades 7 and 8 later — but that is a tendency, not a promise.
Games
Game schedules are assigned by the Cape Ann Youth Basketball League, not by Masco.
Teams usually play one to two games per weekend, across Saturday and Sunday, from early December through early March.
Playoffs
The regular season is followed by a two-game elimination tournament by division in March.
Depending on how far a team advances, playoffs add roughly two to seven games to the season. Build that into your March planning — the season does not end when the regular schedule does.
Tournaments and extra games
Some teams also compete in local holiday tournaments or add non-league games to their schedule. This is arranged by each team’s travel coach and varies year to year.
In past seasons these have fallen over:
- Thanksgiving weekend
- Christmas break
- Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend
- Presidents’ Day weekend
Whether a given team participates is subject to travel coach coordination.
Expectations
Two documents set out what the league expects of travel players and families. Please read both before tryouts:
- 2026–27 Travel Team Selection Procedures — how tryouts work and how players are placed.
- Travel Team Commitment Policy — the commitment expected of players and families, and the policy on opting out of intramurals.
Both are on the documents page →
Travel coaches
Travel coaches are selected by the league each season. Coaching a travel team is a volunteer role with a real time commitment — practices twice a week, games most weekends, and tournament coordination.
If you’re interested in coaching, start on the coaches page.
Costs
The travel fee is collected after tryouts, once teams are set — not at registration. Players purchase their own uniforms, and families should expect some costs the fee doesn’t cover, such as tournament entry and travel to away games.
