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How to form a basketball team
How to Start a Select Basketball Team
In recent years, basketball has reigned as the #1 team sport in the U.S. According to Sports Business Daily, more than 60 million people over age six play the sport. And 20 million youth between six and 17 play basketball.
Due to the sports’ immense popularity, many people are wondering how to start a select basketball team to grow the game in their area.
Starting a select youth basketball team requires passion and dedication - and a ton of time. But the rewards of seeing young players improve skills and build confidence can make it all worthwhile. Follow these steps to get started!
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Choose the Focus of Your AAU Program
When you first form a select basketball program, you probably have big ideas. You may dream of traveling across the country to compete in national events. Or you may want to build a competitive high school basketball program in your area by helping to develop players early.![]()
Those long-range goals may take years to reach. At first, you need to make decisions about team or club structure. If you plan to register with the Amateur Atheltic Union (AAU), you should know you’ll be setting up an AAU club. In the AAU structure, a club can consist of a single team or many teams. Note that there are three levels of AAU club membership that range from $30 to $300.
Also, you should know that there are other select basketball organizations besides AAU. You can look into the National Travel Basketball Association (NTBA) or regional travel leagues in your area.
You need to ask yourself some critical questions as well:
Are we focusing on one age group or multiple?
Are we offering both boys and girls basketball?
What do we hope to achieve in three years, or five, or 10?
Will your program be based in one community, or an entire region?
Do I want this to be a volunteer run program? Or do I want to have part time employees coaching and running the teams?
These focusing questions and others will help you scope your initial efforts and plan for the future.
Once you have an initial overview of the program you want to start you need to start promoting the new organization.
The easiest first step is to name the organization and create a social media page on either Facebook or Instagram. No need to try to do too much at first, just create a social media page for your teams and announce yourself to the world! You can post the initial goals of the organization and potential tryout dates, age groups, etc.
You should also get a high quality logo for your program. Nowadays you can get access to professional designers easily using services like Upwork or Freelancer. Just create an account and post a simple task for logo or branding creation, and you’ll get applications from designers to work on your logo for you. You can probably get a nice logo created for around $50.
A logo will go a long way toward establishing credibility for you club and getting interest from potential players.
Set Up a Website and Online Payments
When you’ve named or organization and created a logo, setting up a website for your basketball program can also be a simple process and will be a credibility builder for your new organization.
A website should serve as the central location to post information like rosters, coaching profiles, your Mission Statement, and organization history. You should also use your website to register players for tryouts and collect club fees, post tournament schedules, and list event recaps.
As your program grows you can also list organization accomplishments - like tournaments won, college commitments, and academic achievements as your club progresses.
Depending on the software provider you choose for your program, you can also run online registration and communicate with parents through your website.
A website is a great tool to promote your basketball program throughout the year, and also manage all of the administration for your teams.
Form Your First AAU Basketball Team
After you’ve established your initial focus, you are ready to form your first team. You’ll need to secure a coaching staff first.
Parents with high school or college playing experience or current high school players may make good coaches.
If you can find like-minded parents that have experience playing or coaching, you might be able to build a coaching staff for your team quickly.
Once your coaching staff is in place, it’s time to select players. You’ll want to hold open tryouts to find the right mix of players and aim to recruit a few standouts. Try to work with the local high school programs or recreational youth programs to get the word out about your organization.
Getting your roster set is a huge step. Tell everyone to register for an AAU membership if you plan to participate in AAU basketball tournaments. Make sure your team is signed up with NTBA if you want to take part in that league’s events.
Secure Locations and Set Up Schedules
Now you are ready to start holding practices. The advantage of having a select team is that you can choose practice times that work for everyone involved.
Keep in mind that select basketball is a big commitment. And that youth athletes need time for rest between practices and games to avoid the risk of overuse injuries and burnout.
According to NBA youth basketball guidelines, players age 11 and under should have at least two rest days per week, with athletes age 12 to 18 needing at least one rest day. The NBA also recommends the following maximum weekly limits for young players:
Make sure not to overwork your players. Practice time should be limited to a couple of days per week, especially if they haven’t entered high school yet.
In choosing a practice location, put safety considerations first. The AAU facility checklist offers excellent tips, such as:
Make sure the playing surface is in proper condition
Ensure the playing area has proper markings
Make sure lighting is adequate
Ensure that facilities like bathrooms and locker rooms are in good condition
Often, secondary schools or recreation centers are good facility options. You’ll need to consider available space, times, and costs in selecting your practice venue.
Select Events and Calculate Costs
After you’ve established your team and practice schedule, you can start researching events.
On the AAU website or Exposure Events, you can search by age, state, event type, and more. Youth basketball tournaments take place across the United States, nearly every weekend of the year. However, you’re likely to want to stay closer to home during your first seasons of select basketball.
Keep in mind that tournament registration fees can add up quickly. And travel costs can add up for families too. According to cost data from USA Today High School Sports, playing on a very active team that travels most weekends can cost families up to $5,000 for two seasons of play. If your team can secure sponsorships, you may be lucky enough to lower those costs down to as little as $500 annually.
Start Growing Your Select Basketball Program
For many talented athletes, a select program is a better fit than rec basketball. If your community doesn’t yet have a select team, why not consider starting one? Elite teams help top players improve basketball skill levels and develop their talents.
Select basketball is a big commitment for parents, players, and coaches. But select teams offer young athletes a chance to compete at elite levels. And some tournaments offer exposure to college basketball recruiters. You can play a significant role in helping a gifted player maximize potential by starting a select basketball team.
Additional Resources
The 6 Top Youth Basketball Drills for Coaches
How to Build a Website for a Youth Sports Program
The Best Tools for Nonprofit Sports Organizations
How to Find Companies that Sponsor Youth Sports
How to Apply for Grants for Youth Sports
How to Start a Select Basketball Team
In recent years, basketball has reigned as the #1 team sport in the U.S. According to Sports Business Daily, more than 60 million people over age six play the sport. And 20 million youth between six and 17 play basketball.
Due to the sports’ immense popularity, many people are wondering how to start a select basketball team to grow the game in their area.
Starting a select youth basketball team requires passion and dedication - and a ton of time. But the rewards of seeing young players improve skills and build confidence can make it all worthwhile. Follow these steps to get started!
Skip to a Section...
Choose the Focus of Your AAU Program
When you first form a select basketball program, you probably have big ideas. You may dream of traveling across the country to compete in national events. Or you may want to build a competitive high school basketball program in your area by helping to develop players early.
Those long-range goals may take years to reach. At first, you need to make decisions about team or club structure. If you plan to register with the Amateur Atheltic Union (AAU), you should know you’ll be setting up an AAU club. In the AAU structure, a club can consist of a single team or many teams. Note that there are three levels of AAU club membership that range from $30 to $300.
Also, you should know that there are other select basketball organizations besides AAU.
You can look into the National Travel Basketball Association (NTBA) or regional travel leagues in your area.
You need to ask yourself some critical questions as well:
Are we focusing on one age group or multiple?
Are we offering both boys and girls basketball?
What do we hope to achieve in three years, or five, or 10?
Will your program be based in one community, or an entire region?
Do I want this to be a volunteer run program? Or do I want to have part time employees coaching and running the teams?
These focusing questions and others will help you scope your initial efforts and plan for the future.
Once you have an initial overview of the program you want to start you need to start promoting the new organization.
The easiest first step is to name the organization and create a social media page on either Facebook or Instagram. No need to try to do too much at first, just create a social media page for your teams and announce yourself to the world! You can post the initial goals of the organization and potential tryout dates, age groups, etc.
You should also get a high quality logo for your program. Nowadays you can get access to professional designers easily using services like Upwork or Freelancer. Just create an account and post a simple task for logo or branding creation, and you’ll get applications from designers to work on your logo for you. You can probably get a nice logo created for around $50.
A logo will go a long way toward establishing credibility for you club and getting interest from potential players.
Set Up a Website and Online Payments
When you’ve named or organization and created a logo, setting up a website for your basketball program can also be a simple process and will be a credibility builder for your new organization.
A website should serve as the central location to post information like rosters, coaching profiles, your Mission Statement, and organization history. You should also use your website to register players for tryouts and collect club fees, post tournament schedules, and list event recaps.
As your program grows you can also list organization accomplishments - like tournaments won, college commitments, and academic achievements as your club progresses.
Depending on the software provider you choose for your program, you can also run online registration and communicate with parents through your website.
A website is a great tool to promote your basketball program throughout the year, and also manage all of the administration for your teams.
Form Your First AAU Basketball Team
After you’ve established your initial focus, you are ready to form your first team. You’ll need to secure a coaching staff first.
Parents with high school or college playing experience or current high school players may make good coaches. If you can find like-minded parents that have experience playing or coaching, you might be able to build a coaching staff for your team quickly.
Once your coaching staff is in place, it’s time to select players. You’ll want to hold open tryouts to find the right mix of players and aim to recruit a few standouts.
Try to work with the local high school programs or recreational youth programs to get the word out about your organization.
Getting your roster set is a huge step. Tell everyone to register for an AAU membership if you plan to participate in AAU basketball tournaments. Make sure your team is signed up with NTBA if you want to take part in that league’s events.
Secure Locations and Set Up Schedules
Now you are ready to start holding practices. The advantage of having a select team is that you can choose practice times that work for everyone involved.
Keep in mind that select basketball is a big commitment. And that youth athletes need time for rest between practices and games to avoid the risk of overuse injuries and burnout. According to NBA youth basketball guidelines, players age 11 and under should have at least two rest days per week, with athletes age 12 to 18 needing at least one rest day. The NBA also recommends the following maximum weekly limits for young players:
Make sure not to overwork your players.
Practice time should be limited to a couple of days per week, especially if they haven’t entered high school yet.
In choosing a practice location, put safety considerations first. The AAU facility checklist offers excellent tips, such as:
Make sure the playing surface is in proper condition
Ensure the playing area has proper markings
Make sure lighting is adequate
Ensure that facilities like bathrooms and locker rooms are in good condition
Often, secondary schools or recreation centers are good facility options. You’ll need to consider available space, times, and costs in selecting your practice venue.
Select Events and Calculate Costs
After you’ve established your team and practice schedule, you can start researching events. On the AAU website or Exposure Events, you can search by age, state, event type, and more. Youth basketball tournaments take place across the United States, nearly every weekend of the year.
However, you’re likely to want to stay closer to home during your first seasons of select basketball.
Keep in mind that tournament registration fees can add up quickly. And travel costs can add up for families too. According to cost data from USA Today High School Sports, playing on a very active team that travels most weekends can cost families up to $5,000 for two seasons of play. If your team can secure sponsorships, you may be lucky enough to lower those costs down to as little as $500 annually.
Start Growing Your Select Basketball Program
For many talented athletes, a select program is a better fit than rec basketball. If your community doesn’t yet have a select team, why not consider starting one? Elite teams help top players improve basketball skill levels and develop their talents.
Select basketball is a big commitment for parents, players, and coaches. But select teams offer young athletes a chance to compete at elite levels. And some tournaments offer exposure to college basketball recruiters.
You can play a significant role in helping a gifted player maximize potential by starting a select basketball team.
Additional Resources
The 6 Top Youth Basketball Drills for Coaches
How to Build a Website for a Youth Sports Program
The Best Tools for Nonprofit Sports Organizations
How to Find Companies that Sponsor Youth Sports
How to Apply for Grants for Youth Sports
Building a team - Sports manager - Blogs
Sports manager
Blog
In my blog, I have already mentioned the Moscow Basketball League, the former KFK championship, which is Moscow's basketball championship. I am directly involved in the organization of these competitions, and for the fifth year I have been managing a club that plays in the MBL system - BC Berkuty. The club cannot yet boast of an achievement - the best result achieved by the team in the MBL championship was 7th place in group A (out of 10 teams) in the 2008/09 seasonand 15th position (out of 20) in the team standings in the same year.
It is worth noting the local success at the closed summer IT-Slam tournament in 2008, when the team won bronze medals, but then success was achieved thanks to the attracted legionnaires from among the top players in Moscow.
The team has an excellent coach, the team's website is regularly updated with a great focus on statistics, which are calculated in full for each of the more than 250 games that the team has played over 4 years of existence. The games are organized at the proper level - for 4 years the team has never been punished with a technical defeat. Other factors contributing to the development of the team: the organization of the training process and selection work are at a fairly low level, largely due to the financial component. The team is self-sufficient, which translates into expenses that fall on the shoulders of the players. The few basketball halls suitable for full-fledged training and official matches are packed to capacity, and the cost of rent is often beyond reasonable.
In such conditions, it is quite difficult to count on attracting strong players and organizing a constant training process.
Let's try together to consider the club as a marketing object that has some potential for attracting sponsorship and spectator interest.
Let's start with the simplest - name, logo, club colors, mission or idea.
Name: Basketball Club "Berkuty". Since the founding of the team in 2006, it has remained unchanged. To some extent, a certain image of the team has already been created in amateur basketball in Moscow. The name symbolizes speed, power, energy.
Logo:
Here the situation is more complicated. Due to circumstances inexplicable by logic, the logo strongly resembles the emblem of the Sibir football club, which has been playing in the RFPL since this year:
Therefore, now there is an idea to change the logo. Make it more modern and without associations with other sports clubs.
Club colors: Dark blue, orange, light blue.
Mission, idea: a team of friends with an excellent team and a common goal of achieving sports results by attracting young players who have a desire to develop within the team. I don't like the idea of recruiting "ready" and established players over the age of 27-30. Ideally, these should be their own students, in the current realities - talented graduates of sports schools and just good, adequate people who know how to play basketball and who want to work in a team for results.
Looking forward to your ideas and suggestions!
Kanye West created his own basketball team
It consists of promising students.
It consists of promising students.
FOLLOWING THE START OF THE GREAT JOURNEY OF DONDA ACADEMY
Kanye West is one of the most famous musicians in the world right now, the man who changed modern rap, music, fashion, and now he will try to change education and sports.
We came to this conclusion when he personally announced and immediately launched his high school basketball team as part of Donda Academy. Let's talk more about this sporting phenomenon.
Kanye West is one of the most famous musicians in the world right now, the man who changed modern rap, music, fashion, and now he will try to change education and sports. We came to this conclusion when he personally announced and immediately launched his high school basketball team as part of Donda Academy. Let's talk more about this sporting phenomenon.
What is Donda Academy?
This is a private school, about which very little is known so far. She bears the name of Kanye's late mother. This is quite symbolic for three reasons at once: Donda was a professor at the University of Chicago; Kanye has now dedicated not only music to his mother, but also an educational project; it is a dream come true to pass on your unique vision to the world to a new generation.
At the moment, the academy has a small website with a philosophical message, as well as support in the person of Kanye himself and his bank account.
It is known that Kanye wants to nurture new leaders with this project for completely different areas of life - he will achieve this goal by inviting the most talented students in the United States and giving them a first-class education. So far, Donda Academy plans to exist in the format of a closed educational institution for 50-60 talented young people.
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Post by DONDA SPORTS ???? (@dondasports)
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Publication from DONDA SPORTS ???? (@dondasports)
What does basketball have to do with it?
Kanye, through his high school program, decided to fulfill his lifelong dream of starting a basketball club.
This basketball club should be based within the academy in order to promote it (and basketball is a great PR tool in modern America) and show that you can change the world without building anything for hundreds of years.
He literally decided to create a basketball team out of nothing?
Yes, exactly. The team did not yet have a hall, and the school had a building, but there were 3 players from the list of the best students in the USA (usually such players play in the NBA if their career develops without serious injuries). Remember their names: Jackie Howard (16th in the nation), Robert Dillingham (9th in the nation), JJ Taylor (5th in the nation). Already, these students are known to all university basketball programs and NBA scouts. Kanye was also able to invite players with a 4-star rating, which is also extremely rare. In general, he gathered a very strong gang, luring them into his educational project.
Is this possible?
Yes, maybe, but it caused a huge controversy and scandals, because many felt that it was wrong for Kanye to lure students to a school that does not even have any guarantees, and there is no building yet.
He called the players to the team, simply sending messages on Instagram under the guidance of the head coach of the academy.
Such methods have already been called opaque, because there are rumors that Kanye could promise something else besides class education and ambition. Obviously, he was able to attract the top young athletes in the country not only through education, but also through his name, which will help athletes build their careers faster, get sponsorship contracts faster, and also get attention from scouts.
What interesting things have we already seen from the Kanye team?
If West does something, it is always in such a way that it stands out from the competition. First, Kanye created a very unusual monochrome team jersey that fits perfectly with the style of his Yeezy brand. The Balenciaga brand also took part in its creation. If you have ever seen high school American basketball, then when you see the uniform of the academy, you will definitely be surprised: no formidable animals or huge letters with bright colors - instead of them, a dove and plain solutions (black numbers against a black jersey is a very bold decision for a school team).
Kanye also pushes/forces guys to play in Yeezy sneakers from the adidas line, which, although not considered basketball shoes, are still quite suitable for him. In addition, Kanye sends things from his collabs. He creates not just athletes, he creates style icons that will inspire everyone.
Kanye didn't forget about the merch, which he launched immediately after he first introduced his basketball team on the cover of the main basketball magazine, SLAM. Such a start discouraged even the strongest school competitors.
All the players were also placed in luxury apartments where they are taught by teachers (they also go to games with them), they were given Kanye's personal chef, the best coaches, 2 workouts a day, and also daily access to the basketball hall .
How is it all highlighted?
Kanye is constantly posting videos of his team, coming to games, inviting influential fans, selling tickets, doing away tours, and performing at matches (asked the fans to come in all black bow).
The team is monitored by a large team of cameramen and photographers who create content atypical for a school competition. All this gives a special charm to this story and every day adds to the value of the academy.
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A post from DONDA SPORTS ???? (@dondasports)
When can we see players drafted?
The first academy prospects will be able to try their hand at the 2024 draft, but most will be drafted as early as the 25th year.
Does this have a future?
It's hard to say, but it certainly has a central idea that looks fresh and topical: it lies in the fact that the modern academic education system provides only dry knowledge that is not complemented by related areas, as well as the most important element - the mechanisms for their application.
