DUE TO FOOTBALL LAST WEEKEND – WE’VE EXTENDED!
WHAT: BREVARD ELITE AAU BASKETBALL TRYOUTS
WHEN: THIS SUNDAY ! DECEMBER 11th 1:30-4p
WHERE: COCOA EXPO ARENA (520 & I-95)
WHY: BECAUSE YOU WANT TO PLAY WITH BEST

TRAVEL BASKETBALL IS A BIG COMMITMENT!
- WE TRAVEL & PLAY THE BEST TEAMS
- WE WANT SERIOUS STUDENT ATHLETES
- WE REQUIRE DEDICATION IN CLASSROOM, ON COURT,
IN YOUR PERSONAL FITNESS & PRESENTATION.
- WE WANT YOUR COMMITMENT TO GET BETTER EVERYDAY!
- WE WILL GET YOU IN FRONT OF COLLEGE COACHES
- WE WILL HELP YOU USE BASKETBALL AS A TOOL,
WITH YOUR EDUCATION TO GET A COLLEGE EDUCATION.
- IT ALL STARTS w/ YOU!

“HARD WORK BEATS TALENT WHEN TALENT DOESN’T WORK HARD!” – Tim Notke

Often young players get caught between truth and reality, followed by the parents who start drinking the koolaid of those who start telling them how great their child athlete is at such a young age…notice the key word here is “child”.

It starts happening around the 5th or 6th grade when talented players begin to stand out skill wise or mature a little faster than others and they separate from the local pack of players. The key word here is “local”, remember that too. Local can be your area recreation league (like our Jr Magic) PAL, County sports, school, or community-based travel clubs.

For that moment in time, when some children become faster, more coordinated, and/or the height fairy blesses them beyond all others…they are for that one moment, the best of the best in their pack. Until one very important thing happens. Someone else actually starts telling them that and they start believing it!

Our parks of full of young and older former bball stars, men who woulda, coulda, shoulda made it. Stop here and ask yourself how many great players did you see on the floor in middle and high school, and then ask yourself what college did they play at? More importantly, finish that thought with the next question…how many of them graduated from college?

The so-called “best of the best” who got away with playing when theywanted through middle school and their coaches tolerated them through high school. Sure they came to practice when they wanted and showed up on game day, played hard because the coach wanted to win games in the “local” area..but they never established the truthful work ethic and commitment as to what it takes to really make it. Who gave them the real map of hard work and commitment?

Its called “entitlement”, the act of feeling like you deserve something for who you are and not what you do in this world! You can be the greatest athlete in the entire COUNTRY (not just little ole Brevard County) and if you don’t have complete COMMITMENT to your studies as a “student-athlete” and your training for the sport to get better everyday… you will not be considered.

Contact ANY college basketball coach or recruiter, players who think they are “entitled” almost always go home in the first semester, players who are “commited” are NEVER satisfied and always want to get better, because they are realistic that their is ALWAYS someone better out there working harder everyday.

At Brevard Elite Basketball, players are entitled to ONE THING and that is the “opportunity” to commit themselves to learning how to train, play, and be coached as a student athlete. Our goal is to train and to play our “student athletes” among the top players in the United States.

They quickly learn to know that the best is many top players from all over, not only the small few here in Central Florida. If it were about being the best in Brevard, all the college coaches would be here…they are not here. They are at “registered NCAA Exposure Events”, where they are legally, by law, able to preview and recruit young prospects.

We want those players who are truly commited to learning and training for exactly what the NCAA schools and coaches have laid out as guidelines for players to be accepted in those institutions both academically and athletically.

If college basketball is really your dream…stop guessing, stop drinking the koolaid…you are only entitled to one thing with regards to basketball and that is the opportunity to commit to the hard work it takes to make it.

Brevard Elite Basketball is commited to providing the guidlines and requirements laid out by the NCAA to all those student athletes who want and will embrace that opportunity.

The Business of Basketball – 5 Truthful Things Serious Players and Parents Should Know!

1)Team Blending – Brevard County is not a very large demographical market when comparing much bigger ones such as; Miami/Ft Lauderdale, Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville in Florida alone and huge markets from Atlanta to New York to Chicago to LA to Dallas, etc. Therefore, the amount of TRUE Division I and Division II players in Brevard County is limited. The math is simple…you can either play ALL the best players together in Divisions I & II which will get them exposure by college recruiters at showcase events or you can team blend and NO ONE is happy or given true recruiting opportunity. Team blending helps the “organization” raise money not help your child get opportunity. Team Blending will put 5 good, 5 average and 5 below average players on the same team to raise enough money so the organization can say they have a team in that age group. However the truth is: The 5 players on top are not challenged enough, the 5 players in the middle are not really committed to playing at a higher level and the bottom 5 have parents who complain that their child is never getting enough playing time. All parents are usually upset because everyone has paid something and this is an unbalanced approach to aiding only the organization’s financial survival… not player growth/opportunities.

2)High School is where my child will get recruited – Very unlikely. Showcase Events are scheduled tournaments held in the U.S. starting with 8th graders (legal NCAA recruiting age) where the college recruiters/coaches come to see the top talent. Additional big tournaments and the National Championships is where the recruiters and college coaches will go to see the nation’s top basketball talent. If you are not going to these events, you are not being seen by anybody. Very few High School coaches (especially in Florida, primarily a football state) have direct contacts with NCAA college recruiters and coaches. Some do, most don’t and even the ones that do; it takes a very special individual to draw them to any gym in Florida to see a player. There are no scouts sitting in those gyms, you must play in AAU Super Showcase events. So ask yourself, how many out of state events did our team attend and how many showcase events are we planning to go to this year? Is our organization sending us to the Boo Williams Classic in VA, Las Vegas Super Showcase, Nike Peach Classic, Big Shots in MD, Indiana, Detroit, Kentucky, Adidas Phenom in CA, etc., etc. Can’t be recruited if you are not being seen…..period!

3)Commitment is just showing up for practice 3 times a week – Wrong again. Commitment is 1000 shots a day, skills and drills for 1 hour a day….all before practice 5 times a week. A keen nutritional understanding about foods and fluids, such as it takes 37 glasses of water to neutralize the acid in 1 diet coke (by the way, acid is what breaks down muscle), chicken nuggets are not really protein, and a bag of skittles and a red bull is not the best way to energy up for a game. Every college recruiter out there wants a player who has an established routine and good work habit already. They don’t have time to teach basics, these coaches are paid to win games and need players who take care of their own business, and show up ready for coaching hours being taught plays, schemes, and improving on shot selections, defense planning, etc. against upcoming opponents. Point is, they don’t teach Commitment in college, you must be completely disciplined BEFORE you are recruited.

4)My 2.5 GPA is enough since I am a super athlete – Once again, a lie! Scholarships have never been more competitive than they are today. Most Div1 schools will not even consider you academically without a 3.8+ GPA. Yes… sports scholarships do have some give, but not much. In most cases it works like this; if you are a super athlete; 3.5+ GPA you can expect 100-50 recruiting letters, 3.4-3.0 GPA 20 letters, and 2.9-2.5 maybe 5 letters and they will be lackluster schools or only a percentage based scholarship. It’s all about having choices.

5)Nobody understands my baby like I do – Likely very true in some ways, but not when it comes to basketball! Every college coach I have ever met says that parents are the biggest reason they shy away from certain kids. NCAA coaches are paid professionals; they are paid to win games, know basketball as a profession and are completely insulted when a parent (doctor, cook, pilot, city worker) begins to tell them “how to teach, coach or most importantly “understand” their child/player!” They surely don’t tell the parents how to heal a sick patient, run a restaurant, fly a plane, nor operate a heavy road repair vehicle. So why a parent thinks they have the right to counsel them on professional basketball is pretty unsettling and they will write you and your child/player off instantly. Our playgrounds in Brevard are filled with many great players who “could” have made it!

If you don’t know anything about the Adidas Phenom 150 Jr Camp and your into basketball, you need to check this out! http://www.adidasjrcamp.com/

150 Top Players from age groups 5th, 6th, and 7th grade are gathered in San Diego each year from all over the country via invitations that go out. http://www.phenom150.com/

In Brevard County 3 players were given these invites out of 5 for the entire State of Florida. Of those 3 invited, 2 attended this incredible event a few weeks back on August 3rd-6th in San Diego. They were Davonta Jordan and Sean Mobley, both players from the Div 1 7th Grade Brevard Elite (Cocoa based) program and this past years McNair Magnet Middle School Brevard County Championship Team.

I must say it was enlightening to see what Adidas Phenom reps, directors, coaches and executives assembled talent wise, as immediately upon stepping off the plane it was apparent these players were there to put on a show.

The program was started off 7am every morning and ran until 10pm every night. Drills, skills, events around various competitions and 3-4 games per day. The intense activity and pressures of being watched by top coaches and ranked on every move by the recruiting agencies was something to see, but to see it from what was described as the country’s finest players made sure their was never a dull moment on any court.

This was not a team exposure event, but a individual exposure event…therefore when you pack that much talent on 6 courts going 15 hours a day it was amazing to see who made to the All-Star (top 20) Teams at the end. These players were truly amazing.

We are especially very proud of our 2 local players which at the end were ranked nationally by Hoop Scoop/Adidas Phenom as follows for 7th Grade (rising 8th graders); Davonta Jordan 41st / Sean Mobley 56th. Top 33% out of 150 of the Nations Best! I can’t say enough about the hard work these two players displayed during the event, coming right off of a long season that began in January and ended just a week earlier at the AAU National Championships in Memphis. Congratulations to you both! Check out the pics..game videos coming soon. http://www.teampages.com/photo_albums/31234/album_photos

As we already start to prepare for the upcoming 2012 AAU Travel Basketball Season, we have been blessed with unbelieveable “tools of our trade”. As pure luck will have it, the program has been donated a Gun 6000 Basketball Shooting Machine and a Shoot-A-Way Basketball shooting system.

These tools used to advantage player performance by the best NCAA Basketball Programs and both NBA, WNBA teams. This equipment will compliment the vast set of training equipment we received last year to help improve our teams in the coming years.

Check out the video’s on how this stuff works and drills by some of today’s top coaches including:

Rick Pitino – University of Louisville
Tom Izzo – Michigan State
Bill Self – University of Kansas
Pat Summit – University of Tennessee
Frank Martin – Kansas State

http://www.shootaway.com/drills/index.php