Skills Academy Success Part1

The Centex Skills Academy was probably one of the most exciting events in this area in a long time. One simple word why the event was a joy; TALENT! This event featured some of the most gifted young players in the city and a few of the best older ones too. The amazing thing was that club affiliation was not a deterrent to the kids learning, competing, getting along and most importantly, GETTING BETTER.

A quick roll call of some of the clubs who had players in attendance:

SA Comets(Leornard), Schertz Jaguars, Liberty Hills Dream Team, SA Finest, Next Level, SA Comets( Alba), ST Hoyas, SA Heat, SA Impact, TeamXpress, Lady Rohawks(asst. coach attended to support)

Not a typical skills clinic, this event concentrated on instruction then playing. At least 2 hours of ball handling was stressed both days. Drills included: stationary ball handling, two ball dribbling, tennis ball, straight line attack moves, dribble combinations into advanced finishing moves, getting open against pressure defense on the wing and in the post, transition offense and defense and each player took hundreds of shots in the two days. The attendees even learned a 5-Out Open Post Offense that allowed them to concentrate on moving without the ball while attacking and exploiting scoring opportunities. All that talent made the weekend one to remember. Some players who shined in the event follow:

2010-

Michelle Rodriguez- The sharp shooter for Wagner had a good event. Besides displaying her reliable jumper from deep, she impressed with her ball handling. The All-District performer has obviously tightened up her handle and is no longer just an outside threat.

Jordan Collazo- Collazo was my surprise of the event. I knew she could play but this was the first time that I had the opportunity to see her entire skill set. Though her shot is a little unorthodox it certainly is effective. She hit the three as well as anyone in attendance and her handle is nice. She passes the ball well also. Collazo wowed the attendees with her passing including one where she did an In & Out dribble to shift the defense and went into an off-the-dribble Behind the Back pass only to hit the running teammate in stride for an easy lay up. She should have a big year for Marshall.

Chelsea Solis-The All-District slasher for Wagner has enough sauce to her game to make you appreciate her. She may not be an automatic shooter from deep but her jumper is good enough to keep you honest. She can get hot in a hurry! Her good handle is complemented by creativity. She takes and makes shots that some girls are too afraid to take. This creativity makes her fun to watch.

2011-

Asha Hampton-Finch- Hampton-Finch has had multiple Division 1 coaches visiting her school the past couple of weeks. The reason why was very evident. She loves to get better! The 6'1 wing/post for Roosevelt utilized the opportunity to sharpen up her post skills by working tirelessly with New York Liberty Big, Tiffany Jackson. When grouped with the guards, Hampton-Finch attacked the ball handling drills like she was on a mission. But, the true joy was watching those never ending strides eat up the court in transition drills. She runs the lane with a passion. The scary part is she is only going to get better!

Alison Salmon- When Salmon is on, she can shoot with any girl in this city. I watched during one break where she hit 13 out of 16 from three while the ball touched the rim 4 times. Her arch on her shot allows her bombs to frequently hit nothing but net. She is another kid that should have a break out year for Smithson Valley this year.

2012-

Ebony Easter- The New Comer of the Year for her district last year displayed a different set of skills this event. She faced the basket and went to work. The 5'9 post player for high school and club team showed that her future is using her great athletic ability to beat kids off of the dribble. Her strong frame allows her to finish in the paint. Her improved handle made her a difficult player to hold.

Raven Reyes- Reyes has to be the most improved player in this city over the last year. The 6'2 Big from Fox Tech has grown leaps and bounds. This future star has worked hard to get into shape and get her skills up to par. Her size allows her to exert her will on the block. An improving drop step and jump hook gives her enough tools to be an offensive threat. She gobbles up rebounds like it is a game. Prediction: Reyes will lead the city in rebounds this season at 15 per game!




Nike Regional Evaluator and DFW Elite founder, Marques Jackson initiated the event. This fact caused a lot of insecure club directors and coaches to cringe. I was called "stupid" for not understanding the implications of my support. Why invite the fox(DFW) into the hen house(San Antonio)? I fully understood what I was doing with my support. In fact, I welcomed it! The fact is that DFW and the hundreds of kids that they have helped get into school are a formidable organization with national contacts. If we(San Antonio) are going to start producing kids that are on par or superior to Dallas, we are going to have to step our collective game as a city. NOT RUN!!!! They(DFW staff) asked me about a few of "My"(that word again) players at this event. I know that they may eventually contact "MY" players with the intent of recruiting them. Oh Well! I hope that I am pretty enough to keep "MY" girls. If not, I should probably do all I can to get prettier, instead of locking up "My" girls and brainwashing them into believing that everybody else is ugly and I am the only pretty one. This scared and disingenuous philosophy reminds me of the movie Waterboy.

The insecure and ugly mother in the movie always taught her brainwashed child that everything that provided competition to her control over her son was "The Devil". When her son wanted to play football she would yell, "Foolsball! Foolsball is the Devil". When her goofy son found a girl that he liked, his insecure mama would yell, " Girls are the Devil"! But, just like the girls that are playing for insecure and mind controlling club coaches, The Waterboy eventually saw that it was his mama who had the issues. Football nor girls were the devil. The only deceitful happenings were being perpetrated by his mama, aka, insecure club coaches and directors!

This camp reached across club lines to assemble a lot of local talent in an effort to continue to push each other (clubs, players, coaches) in to getting prettier. All that young talent was a sight to see!

"Worse and Worse"

In a recent conversation with an assistant coach/manager of one of the elite ball clubs in the city, we discussed the increasing animosity and hate among clubs. This coach had a terrific quote. It sums it all up:

" The more talented the kids in this city gets, the nonsense becomes worse and worse".

Unfortunately true!

Head Of The Class!

R.V. Baugus Texpreps Basketball annual addition is out and some local kids have been recognized as being among the TOP 50 ball players in the state. They follow:

Meaghan Simmons- First Team
CeCe Harper- Fourth Team
Jesica Kuster- Fifth Team
LenNique Brown- Sixth Team
Sune Agbuke- Tenth Team
and San Antonio bred
Cassie Peoples- Second Team


The magazine features a small article on Simmons. The cover of the magazine includes the sub-title Terrific Trio, featuring Chiney Ogwumike and Odyssey Sims.

John Jay is ranked #6 in 5A in the preseason poll in the state.
Cibolo Steele is ranked #5 in 4A in the preseason poll in the state.

Great Basketball Site!

I am pasting the link to Inside Women's Basketball. This site is amazing. Some of the content includes:

• Game footage and history of the first woman to dunk in a college basketball game.

• Epiphanny Prince's decision to forgo her senior year to make six figures overseas. She will still graduate on time. The only difference is that she will get paid this season while playing the game she loves.

• The great father-daughter story of former NBA pro Antonio Davis and his very gifted daughter, Kaela. Davis now coaches his daughter and the daughters of a few other professional athletes( Ken Griffey Jr, Dee Brown, Delino Deshields).

A local Club Director chimes in!

The following is from a club director of an elite program in the city. Bold emphasis added bt me:

"A quick way to solve the problem of some coaches using their influence to manipulate a kid, is for all parents to simply let the coach know that any communication to their child, should either go through them, or that they be copied in on any correspondence to the player. That would generally eliminate texting as a form of communication between player and coach, since there is no easy way to copy the parent in on the conversation. Any parent that lets their child directly communicate with any adult is a fool no matter who they are, unless it is in a controlled environment like a practice with lots of other players around. A coach should also have this policy. The coach that directly communicates with someone else's child, without a parents direct knowledge of what is being said, is also a fool. The coach could quickly find themselves in a situation that is not comfortable. It would also be wise for a parent to attend things like skills workouts, and other events that might have a coach directly communicating with a player on an individual basis. This way there is never any misunderstandings of what was said, or implied by a coach. A parent should always expect to pay for things like individual skills training and club dues. In fact they should insist on that arrangement if possible, with any coach or organization. This goes for kids just starting out, all the way up to stars of the game. That way it is always a business arrangement, and if things do not work out, both parties can part ways, without anybody owing anyone anything. On the other hand, if a kid becomes a star, a smart coach, or program, does not need to claim they got a kid anything. They just need to ask that parent if they would not mind if they could give out their phone number to any prospective players parents in the future. Nothing like getting new business from satisfied customers. Obviously this is a perfect world scenario, and we all know that individual family situations can sometimes not support this arrangement. Things like paying the rent, and electrical bills sometimes get in the way of paying a coach to teach our kids basketball. That is the challenge of good club teams and youth organizations is to come up with sponsors to help bridge this gap. This will create a level, healthy playing field out there for all kids that want to master the game, without someone else's agenda getting in the way. "

More Happenings!

• 8 NCAA Championships and 4 WNBA titles are in Cibolo today. Pat Summitt and Van Chancellor are at Steele High School to observe Meighan Simmons today at school.

• UTSA is reportedly heavily recruiting Alamo Heights Stephanie Whittman. Whittman, the former #47 ranked player in the nation by Hoopgurlz, is recovering from a knee injury. The perfect sized combo guard punishes smaller defenders. She has one of the best mid- range games in the city.

• PLAYERS PLEASE READ CAREFULLY! College coaches check your My Space and Facebook pages. In conversations with a few college coaches over the past couple of days, they all confirmed that they check these social networking sites in regards to potential recruits. Youthful indiscretions may haunt you in a huge way so beware of the messages that you are projecting to college coaches!

• PARENTS PLEASE READ CAREFULLY! While the majority of club coaches do a lot of good and are in this for the right reason(s), some coaches use text messages to manipulate and exert control over your child. Mentors and role models are much needed in current society but the question is this, was that texting coach so interested in your child's well being before your child became an elite ball player? If not, there is an agenda. Is it a negative agenda, probably not, but the fact still remains that there is an agenda. Parents should probably make sure that the texting coach has the same agenda as them, THE PARENT! Another negative thing affecting girls basketball is coaches that CLAIM credit for a basketball players success. For instance, club coaches like to say, " Such and such got a letter or a scholarship because of me". In some cases that may be somewhat true but the majority of the time it is a LIE!. Unless a coach develops and showcases a kid from a very early age, they can not claim credit for them. For instance, Leslie Vorphal has one of the best personal trainers in the city. She has been working with him since 8-9 years old. She has also played for her father in the SA Heat Organization since the same age. Vorphal will garner a ton of college attention soon playing for SA Heat Director and Head Coach, Kobe Cantu. While Coach Cantu has helped get kids in school by providing a positive place for them to showcase their skills, can he claim Vorphal as his creation? NO!!!! Can he insinuate that Vorphal will get a college ride because of him, NO!! For the record, I have never heard of Coach Cantu doing such a thing. In fact, when Jessica Kuster committed to UTA, he wrote a very humble email about being privileged to have been able to coach her. Other coaches are not so humble. Please listen to a club coach talk and they will give themselves away with "I did this for her" and " She went to this college because of me". Also, please be aware of coaches who offer to pay for things. Frequently, these "things" come attached with strings. These situations can later come back to haunt you! The litmus test is this, " If your child does not play for them, will they still pay for "things". If no, there is an agenda. Whether good or bad, an agenda is still an agenda and you may want to know what the coaches agenda is.

Fall League notes and Area Happenings!

Some quick notes from the fall league and city-wide follows:

• I was out of my mind to rank Arielle Roberson as the 11th best player in the city. In my defense, I did so because I have yet to see her be Batman(Batgirl). She has been a great Robin and has always had the luxury of playing with the best pure point guard in the city, LenNique Brown. Every player that I ranked ahead of her has had to face constant double and triple teams at the high school level. However, even at the time of the rankings, I noted that #11 is too low. The fact is that she is a Top 5 player in this city NOW! It can be argued that she is the best player in the class of 2011. Sune Agbuke and Erica Donovan are legit, but are the better than Roberson? Debatable! But probably not! Word is that NC State was on campus yesterday to visit the long athletic junior from Wagner. I could not help but to think of Roberson as I watched the Mercury eliminate the Silver Stars Monday night. Roberson reminds me of a smaller Dewanna Bonner.

• I finally had the opportunity to see Leslie Vorphal. Even though it was a fall league game, her skill is set still evident. She is savvy beyond her years. One of the better on-ball defenders in the city, Hillary Lumpkin, was guarding her and Vorphal held her own. Lumpkin is a nasty defender with quick feet and grabbing hands. Vorphal did not dominate but showed glimpses of her extremely bright future.

• Marquisha Sparks has apparently used the summer to get better. Imagine that! A player who developed her individual skill set in the summer. Who would've thunk it? While she plays in the post area for MacArthur in the past, the 5'6 super strong guard enhanced her skills on the perimeter this summer with the SA Heat. She looks good! Sparks is due for a huge year!

• MacArthur will be a Top 10 team in the city this year. Depending on how well Victoria Willems, Karissa Cantu,Nicole Kindred, Sparks and company gel with their new coach, they should challenge Reagan for the top spot in district. Watch out for Roosevelt too. MacArthur, Reagan and Roosevelt probably would want all of us to not count out Madison and CeCe Harper. The last time I predicted that Harper could not do something, she put on a show that people are still talking about. I heard that the tape of that game is floating around, can someone please give me a copy?

• Camacho's crew is still the team to beat. The poll on this site confirmed what most people know, Wagner is the most respected team in the city. Why? How about a successful coach that saw her fall league starting five go with: LenNique Brown, Arielle Roberson, Michelle Rodriguez, Chelsea Solis and Ebony Watkins. Now, that is two of the Top 10 players in the city(probably Top 5) in Brown and Roberson. One of the best shooters in the city and four time letter winner, Rodriguez. One of the most exciting players in Solis and one of the most gifted kids in town in Watkins. I have said this before and I will say it again, with Ebony Watkins, Wagner would have beaten Pflugerville last season in the playoffs. They were one athletic body away from a state trip. Oh yeah, I have yet to mention the head strong and emotional leader of the Thunderbirds, Ashley Catlett, who is back from knee surgery. However, Jay and Steele may have something to say about the best team in the city when all the fun begins.

• Boerne Champion looked good and will be tough again this year. The Dribble Drive Offense is going to be problematic for most teams this year. The Chargers return All-District performers Hillary Lumpkin and Paige Grandjean. The Chargers have added the 5'3 spark plug, Brooke Allemand. The kid can play! The encouraging thing about the leadership of this team is the way Lumpkin and Grandjean have behaved. Both seniors have reportedly taken the young pups(Allemand and Heather Hormuth) under their wings and helped acclimate them to high school. Instead of hazing and ostracizing the rookies, Lumpkin and Grandjean have reportedly been spotted around town with the youngsters in tow. The babes probably have to pay for the smoothies but the that should be expected.

• TeamXpress is reportedly playing in Frisco during the Fall Exposure period. However, they will be without the #12 ranked player in the nation, Kyrstal Forthan, who is reportedly playing with Georgetown in the same event. Word has it that TeamXpress founder, Clarissa Davis-Wrightsil may coach both Georgetown and her club team in the same event. Hopefully we will get the chance to see them lock up with US Elite 2013(also in Frisco) again. The last game ended in a four point win for TeamXpress but was worth the price of admission!

• Speaking of TeamXpress, they are are it again! IF they can keep their underclassmen for next year, they will be scary good. Oregon's Kyrstal Forthan(6'4), Arielle Roberson(6'2), Erica Donovan(5'11), California's Kendall Cooper(6'3 freshman) and Danielle Blagg(6'0), will be a handful to say the least. If Davis-Wrightsil is able to recruit some of the California guards from the same club(GBL, 2005 & 2008 AAU National Champions) that she got Cooper from, this is potentially a Top 15 team in the country. Davis-Wrightsil already has flown in an End of the Trail all-tournament selection, GBL's Chyanne Butler(2014) for an event. Another potential 2014 phenom that may be an option is GBL's Jordin Canada. The 2014 guard is already getting attention from major universities and UCLA is reportedly in love with her. I have seen Canada dominate older girls since she was 9 years old and is HANDS DOWN one of the best 2014's in the nation. A couple of these Cali guards could put TeamXpress in a position to challenge DFW(Moriah Jefferson, Alexis Jones) and Nike Cy-Fair Shock(Cassie Peoples, Alexia Standish) for state supremacy.

• TeamXpress and Sam Houston guard KiKi Ageous is reportedly headed to Arizona. KiKi will shine in the Pac-10. This may be a great FIT!

• Ashley Perez(TeamXpress and Lytle) is reportedly taking an official visit to Arkansas St.

• Asha Finch( ST Hoyas and Roosevelt) has had a little company these past few days. UTA and Rice have reportedly visited campus to see the athletic wing participate in P.E.

• Clemons guard Brandie Hurd can play! Hurd has a decent handle and can hit the open shot. I have seen her in the summer and saw some good things, but Sunday showed me that she has extended her stroke to become a consistent threat from deep.