Rocket Flames to meet the Force

On July 24th (Tuesday) the Rocket Flames will travel to Sykesville in Carrol County (MD) to play the Blue Ridge Force. The Force is preparing for the AAU Grade-Based nationals in Reno Nevada to be held on August 1-5.

The Force is the only team representing Maryland in the 10U bracket.

The other (confirmed teams) are the Orlando Comets Blue, West Virginia Thunder, El Paso Suns (New Mexico), Jacksonville Lady Rams (Florida) Tennessee Team Pride, Westchester Hawks (New York) Fencor (Philly)and the Bay Area Heat, Bay Area Fury and GBL all from California.

The Blue Ridge Force is coached by Frank McLallen, who also coaches the 15U Blue Ridge Force. He and her daughter Stef were featured in a Gazette article in March this year. Here is the article and other interesting articles from the Gazette about AAU Girls Basketbal.

13 & under coached by Frank McLallen, Assisted by Joe Keimig & Paul McLellan.
Taken at the 2004 competing as 12U National team at AAU National Tournament held in Nashville, TN

Local AAU scene keeps players sharp year-round

Thursday, March 15, 2007
By Darren J. Gendron | Staff Writer

Stef McLallen was a third-grader when she made the fifth-grade team for the Freedom Travel organization.

It wasn’t the biggest moment in girls basketball—she admits herself that she wasn’t that great and rode the bench.

But it was a start. Her dad, Frank McLallen, bought her a portable rim from Wal-Mart. It lasted only a year before it needed an upgrade. In that time, he saw her own self-motivated drive to play that made McLallen get involved in the sport.

‘‘It sort of grew from that to a father-daughter bonding time,” he said. ‘‘There’s not a lot of things that a father can do to connect with a daughter at that age, but basketball was a chance to just shoot hoops with her.”

By the time she was 11, the lure of the Amateur Athletic Union was set in both McLallens. She was signing up for the Blue Ridge Force as a player, and he was joining up as a coach. It was an opportunity that he never got growing up in the countryside of New York.

‘‘I grew up in a rural area where it was what you could do with a peach basket in the back yard,” McLallen said.

The new college path

Stef McLallen is now 15 and a sophomore at Century High, but she’s already thinking about college. With the NCAA college tournaments firing up, she’s keeping an eye on the March Madness, noting which programs have upperclassmen wings that will need to be replaced by the time she reaches college.

AAU programs like the Blue Ridge Force have replaced high school play as the best route to college. From a scouring perspective alone, AAU teams tend to play in large tournaments in the summer, coinciding with windows in the NCAA’s rules about watching potential recruits. High schools, however, are locked into a schedule that mirrors college ball.

O.W. Crisco, the president of the Force, noted that AAU tournament can draw hundreds of college coaches, turning into a one-stop shopping center for scouts.

‘‘One, it gives them a chance to play year-round, and two, it gets them blue-chip exposure,” Crisco said.

The teams are limited only by age, which lends to the talent stocking up. McLallen’s team has included Century teammate Nicole Ruane, South Carroll’s Cyndi Scurci, Walkersville’s Josie Hildebrand and Julia McLellan, and Linganore’s Corinne Glover and Jess Musselman.

‘‘With the Force, I can experiment a little more,” Stef McLallen said. ‘‘AAU is more about showing off your skills.”

The Force is the result of the organization formerly known as the Annapolis All-Stars, which Crisco helped out with, and the Maryland Force, created by Urbana High’s current girls coach Chris Krivos, merging together. Early on they were called the Frederick Force, but the Blue Ridge emphasized that they pull players from the Mount Airy area and Carroll County as well.

The South Mountain Magic started out as being based in Boonsboro, where president Tony Baker moved to after coaching in Montgomery County. Now in its fourth year, the Magic have expanded into Frederick and Carroll County.

Chris Connolly, who coaches two of the Magic teams, has seen the league leap in size from four teams last year to almost 10 this year.

‘‘It’s basically playing against all-star teams around the state, so it makes you better,” Connolly said.

The prices to pay

AAU isn’t cheap, from an investment of time to cash. Just trying out for a team invokes a fee. It’s $25 to try out for the South Mountain Magic, while the Blue Ridge Force also charges.

Costs include renting a gym to licensing every athlete with the AAU (which costs $14). Frank McLallen put the cost of an entry-level player at about $250 for 25 games, while the older age groups cost $400 or $500.

Chris Connolly broke down the Magic’s pricing, with $115 for two jerseys that include team logos and the players name on the back. Then the rest of the cost is dependant on the coach, who chooses what tournament to go to. Tournaments, like the Magic Classic, cost about $400 for a team to enter (the Magic Classic is $375 for early birds and $425 normally). If a team hits up six tournaments, that cost of $2400 is divvied up between the 10 kids.

‘‘AAU is expensive,” Connolly said. ‘‘We try to work with the kids a bit. It’s about $80 a month. We let them pay monthly, we’re a little bit different than most other teams.”

As of Tuesday night, O.W. Crisco was worn out. He had just overseen the second try-out in two days, and the fifth of the season. He had a banquet scheduled for the next night, and the final try out round was set for Friday.

McLallen noted that as a parent, you could expect to spend about 12 to 14 hours a week for young players.

‘‘For a younger child, it takes more time,” McLallen said. ‘‘When they’re younger, you can’t just dump them off at the gym and go away for a couple hours.”

It’s less time as they get older, but it’s still about 4-6 hours of time taxiing. As a coach, McLallen spends about 40 hours a week during the planning phase of the season, setting up tournaments, try-outs and practices. Once things get rolling, that drops down to about 20 to 25 hours a week, not including travel time.

As an under-12 team, the Force qualified for the Division II tournament in Nashville, Tenn., in 2004. ‘‘We expected three to four days,” McLallen said. ‘‘The girls got to a point that they didn’t want to go home.”

Seven days after the start, they went home taking fifth place. The next year, they made the Division I tournament in Dayton, Ohio. This year, the Nationals are in Florida.

‘‘Parents pay a reasonable amount of money for their kids to play AAU basketball, so there’s a balance getting all 10 to 12 kids into games,” McLallen said. ‘‘The more kids you take, the more chances you have of alienating parents.”

The time crunch can be worse than it is locally, as some programs offer year-round basketball. In some areas, kids opt out of playing for their middle school in favor of AAU ball. Crisco is not planning on stepping on the schools toes.

‘‘It makes it easier for us because we need to use their gym facilities,” Crisco said.

Blood, sweat and tears

It’s the paradox of competition—to get better, players need to work hard. But if you work too hard, injuries can easily set a player back.

With more outlets for basketball outside of the normal school season, injuries have grinded out, like the time-induced stress fractures. Both Urbana’s Meredith Tolley and Century’s Melissa Etheridge are AAU players, and both missed time to stress fractures during the high school season.

‘‘Basketball is a tough sport, and quite frankly, basketball girls are playing lacrosse or soccer if they’re not playing basketball year-round,” Frank McLallen said.

But McLallen said that there’s almost a peer pressure of needing to keep an edge in order to hold down one of the 12 varsity spots.

‘‘I just play, and I’ve never had a problem before,” Stef McLallen said.

The Boom time

The South Mountain Magic was only one team four years ago.

It was the tournaments that got Connolly in—three courts deep, each with games going and six different styles of uniforms rushing up and down the hardwood floors. In the stands, there’d be another half dozen hues of jerseys just waiting for their tip-offs.

‘‘I got hooked about two years ago,” Connolly said. ‘‘I’ve been in basketball a long time, but that got me hooked.”

Now there’s 29 different programs listed at http://www.mdaaugirlsbasketball.org/, including other local outlets like the Maryland Mavericks.

‘‘One of the things I’ve been impressed with the jump up from four to almost 10 teams is that your AAU team is only as good as your coaches,” Connolly said.

And it’s also the biggest limiting factor for programs. McLallen ‘‘grew up” with his eldest daughter’s team, taking them from U-11 to U-14. He’s now an assistant coach with the under-15 team, and is the head coach of the under-10 team, where Lindsey McLallen is playing.

However, the Force had to cancel their under-13 team when their coaching plan fell through. ‘‘The hardest thing is finding credible, qualified coaches,” Crisco said. ‘‘At that age group, you’d like a coach that has coached before, and can help advance the players skills.”

The headhunters

‘‘There are coaches that play you one year and the next year they’re calling up your players to play for them,” Crisco said. ‘‘It happens, but not as much around here. You don’t get mad. It’s the players and the parent’s choice.”

It’s the odd cycle of AAU ball. If a team does well, it starts to attract players. If a team does extremely well, some players start to ‘‘trade up” to other programs, trying to find their best fit.

‘‘One, the coaches are very competitive, and they try to attract the best players,” McLallen said.

‘‘And secondly, every parent out there wants to put their kid in the best situation for them.”

It’s something that the Blue Ridge Force faced with the success of the U-13 team, which forced a rebuilding year at U-14.

‘‘You need to work hard and learn how to play the game, and the rest will take care of itself,” McLallen said.

Prep coaches have mixed reactions on role of AAU

June 30, 2005
Terron Hampton
Staff Writer

For the county's high school basketball gym rats, the words summer and vacation hardly go together.

Many players simply cannot stay away from the hardwood, and if they're not playing with their school's summer league squad, they are busy with one of the many local Amateur Athletic Union club teams.

Conventional wisdom would say that county coaches love the idea that their players have the chance to keep the basketball learning process going.

Some fully support AAU involvement for their players. Others are skeptical of much of the AAU scene and argue that the club squads have the potential to damage high school teams.

AAU teams may focus more on skill development and fun at the youth levels. But the main selling point of AAU teams for high-school aged players is the opportunity to showcase their talents to college coaches in tournaments against the best competition nationwide.

Riverdale Baptist coach Lou Wilson's experience with AAU goes back to his days coaching for Executive 3 Basketball 20 years ago.

For the past 10 years, AAU club Team Maryland -- founded by Wilson -- has been one of the most popular and esteemed programs in the region.

Wilson has seen AAU's full practicality, having coached a multitude of players that went on to NCAA Division I college programs, including former University of Maryland star Steve Francis, who is now with the NBA's Orlando Magic.

Wilson argues that an athlete involved with an AAU team has a leg up in the pursuit of a college basketball career.

"It's just important for them to compete against other top players in the country," Wilson said. "In normal high school, you won't get a chance to compete against some of that top competition. College coaches have the chance to see the players. I don't understand why a lot of the high school coaches and college coaches get so involved in trying to control the AAU program. It's just another form of players trying to get into college"

Players involved with some of the county's better programs like Sky's The Limit -- headed by Crossland coach Sam Harris -- can rest assured that their time with the club is not being wasted. But some county high school coaches argue that far more club teams are not serving the fundamental purpose of AAU and may not be in a players' best interest.

"I guess the pros are if you get with the right AAU program and end up at the right tournaments you can get great exposure," said Gwynn Park boys' coach Steve Matthews. "That's not a majority of kids. The majority end up dumping money in the program and don't end up at tournaments that get exposure. A lot of teams, they're told that coaches are going to be there, but often they are looking at other kids. How much learning is taking place? You always have to question that."

Matthews and Bishop McNamara girls' coach Mike Bozeman said none of their players participate with AAU club teams. Nonetheless, the Gwynn Park boys and McNamara girls are two of the county's most esteemed high school programs.

Virtually every county high school boys' and girls' basketball program is active in at least one summer league, which coaches use to begin preparing for next winter. Bozeman and others have established team rules that force the players to maintain their high school teams as top priority during the offseason. Bozeman said he has a reason for his rules.

"With the rise of AAU and how everybody puts so much emphasis on it, your players are scouted all over the place and many of them miss time with the team because of travel," Bozeman said. "In the summer, you're blending new teams. The summer is a great time for the players to recognize how to improve and coaches can work their rotations and things. Part of the key for our success is that we're able to use the summer as a gauge for the winter season."

County players who participate on AAU teams say people should believe the hype surrounding club teams. Frederick Douglass rising senior guard Michael Lewis has played for AAU club teams the past five years. Lewis said the AAU environment is good for players of all skill levels.

"Some kids can go out and try out for high school basketball teams and won't make it," said Lewis, who plays with the D.C. Assault. "They have to look at it as some kids don't make the high school team. Even the players that play on teams now may not get into the game. They go to an AAU team and get playing time and are traveling and getting exposure."

Rising senior Vicki Collier, a 2005 Star/Gazette all-county first-team selection, also is a proponent of AAU play. After three years at Largo, Collier will transfer to private school powerhouse Riverdale Baptist for her final prep season. She is spending this summer with Adidas Select/Team Excel. As she closes in on a college basketball scholarship, Collier is in the midst of her most important summer to date.

"Being that I live basketball, not playing AAU this summer would be very hard," Collier said. "AAU is a big opportunity to get recruited."

Douglass coach Lloyd Bryant has his players together for a summer league, but said he is not afraid of AAU teams getting in the way of what the Eagles are trying to accomplish this summer.

"If it keeps a ball in their hands, I'm happy," Bryant said. "I think AAU helps tremendously. High school teams could not really travel that far to participate in those types of tournaments and get their kids that much exposure until recently."

There are no state rules prohibiting public school coaches from coaching AAU club teams, which could lead to a blurring of the lines between the two. County Athletic Supervisor Earl Hawkins said he is not aware of any problems that have arisen involving coaches with ties to both the prep and AAU ranks.

"The only thing that would restrict coaches would be out of season practice regulations, which determine now many returning athletes can be on those teams during the offseason," Hawkins said. "As long as coaches follow the state and county guidelines, there's nothing more the county can do. No one has reported anything like that so far."

The Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association's out-of-season practice rule.04G(2) stipulates that public school basketball coaches may guide non-school teams that include up to four players from the coach's school.

With the continuing proliferation of AAU teams in the county, Wilson said that AAU programs would cause a great deal less grief if some of the high school coaches give them a better look.

"I actually think some of the high school coaches need to be more involved in the summer," Wilson said. "I think some high school coaches are just lazy. They need to be involved with not just their own players but with the community and with kids from other programs if they really care about the development of the kids."

E-mail Terron Hampton at thampton@gazette.net.

AAU teams are A-okay

June 13, 2001
Robert Spuhler
Staff Writer

For some high-school girls, the final whistle in March signaled a long vacation from basketball and time to pursue other interests, be they other sports, musical or performing arts, or maybe just hanging out with friends at the mall.

But for the girls of the Maryland Flames and the Metro Stars, two local Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) girls basketball programs, the end of the high-school season just meant it was time to work even harder on the hardwood.

Many area girls, from the age of nine up through their senior year of high school, use AAU to play against other girls their age that they'd normally never see. Some are just basketball junkies ¬ the sport is what drives them. But all have one common goal: To improve their games and contribute more to their high-school squads.

"Playing in AAU is playing with the best players in our age group," Jada Richardson, a point guard for Springbrook and Flames AAU, said. "I want to see how good I am up against them."

"I play for friends, to have fun," her AAU teammate Andra Johnson, a freshman at Holy Cross, added, "but also to get experience for high school and to grow as a player."

AAU teams pool players from an entire area, hold tryouts to find the most talented players, and give them a team atmosphere to learn and practice the game, according to 1986 (a reference to the year his players must have been born after) Flames head coach Mike Baker. "When they were nine through their freshmen year, we played about 100 games a year, year-round," he said.

The chance to play against tougher competition is one of the main draws for the organizations. "If you want to play basketball at the next level, you need to be playing AAU ball," according to Metro Stars assistant coach Tarlouh Wiggens, who also played at Duke. "The more you play, the better you become. ... I can tell the difference between the girls who play AAU and those who don't."

In addition, AAU can give players opportunities to play in front of college scouts and coaches, the people who will decide which players go on to play at the next level. "We take them to places where they'll be a lot of college coaches and recruiters looking at them," Baker said, mentioning that his Flames will head to Las Vegas next month for a tournament.

This opportunity does come at a price, however. AAU teams often practice at least twice a week, and that combined with summer league high-school basketball means that some players are practicing five times a week ¬ without counting actual games.

The coaches and administrators of the teams do worry that the heavy load could "burn out" players. "I think we all as parents recognize that you can do a little too much from time to time," Bill McDermott, president, co-founder and current head coach of the 1991 and 1984 Flames teams, said. "We try to make sure the kids get breaks."

"We're aware of the kids' schedules and what's happening so we gear our practices accordingly," Wiggens added. "We take all of that into account and try to balance our schedule."

In addition, the time demand can make it difficult for players to pursue other extra-curricular activities. "Its really the parent's decision at the younger levels," McDermott said. "As the child gets older, they make some of their own decisions. But it's not up to us to push the children to the exclusion of other things in their life."

"There's a lot of arguments about forcing children to pick a sport at a young age," Baker added. However, "there's a desire in the country to play basketball. We fight with soccer; some of our best athletes ¬ when they're young they're soccer players. ... And the children just make a decision at some point in their life about what they want to focus on."

For many of the girls playing, however, time management has become almost as important a skill as jump stops. "I'm still in middle school ¬ our parties still end early. I still go out to the mall with my friends," Johnson said. "I just get up in the morning and have a duty to fulfill with my coach and my team, and that's what I come here to play for."

"I learn how to be responsible and manage my time better in real life," Metro Star and Holy Cross Tartan Taylor Yearwood said. "I love playing basketball. It's my life."

"I still have time to do other stuff besides basketball, but I think [I] made a decision when little that I wanted to play at a high level in college," Richardson added. "I don't think I've missed out on anything. ... I just love playing basketball, and I don't think I could ever burn out on it."