Keanna Keys September 20, 2013 Comp II Final Draft Heidi Harris Is it common for student athletics to go to college

and play a sport straight form high school or is it more common for them to be a part of an AAU team? From experience of this same exact question, I was in this situation going into my senior year of high school. I was a tall girl with a pretty good size to be considering as a Division I player. I lived in a small town where Division I coaches were not looking. So me as a player I had to make a big step up because my time was ticking. By the end of my junior year I had no basketball scholarships, so I and my high school coach decided that I should play AAU basketball the summer before my senior year. I had to work harder than I ever had to when I first began AAU practices. My coaches had to impact in my head that I wasnt going up against high school player level of basketball while playing AAU basketball. After realizing that I was about to play on a different level I began to focus more and I wanted to work harder every day. Is it or is it not important to play AAU basketball in order to play on the college level? My first source was a internet source form the web. When I first began researching I had no idea of what I really wanted to research. Then I began to think about what are the chances of a basketball player playing on a Division I college level. The source is writing by a man with ten years of experience of basketball himself, and his name is Alan Stein. Alan Stein has an article on StrongerTeam.com: 5 Quick Tips to Help You Land a Scholarship. Stein went straight into telling how a player that played high school basketball could be offered a Division III scholarship, to a Division I scholarship could be offered if they played AAU. Alan Stein is a strengthen coach and he has worked with thousands of talent players.

The first tip that he game was Be an outstanding student. By being an outstanding student you have to show college coaches that you can handle the difficulties of juggling school and basketball. Most college coaches are tired of taking risk on kids with bad attitude and ones that struggles in class. Those are the two main things college coaches are worried about in their recruiting process. Second tip: Be a great teammate. He explains how every coach that he has talk to usually want coachable players that gets alone with their teammates. By having a good attitude and youre and outstanding player youre most likely can grasp a college coach attention. No college coach wants a player with a horrible attitude. He states that you never want to lose a college coach attention by not paying attention to the small details of our game. Meaning there is no need for a coach to watch a player body language change after every mess up. College coaches pay less attention to players that show their bad habits in a basketball game.Stein said when college coaches evaluate athletes ability, they ask, How is their personalities? Do they like coaching that person? Third tip: If you cant, dont. Players have to take responsibility of their role in the game. For example, the only reason I got recruited to UALR is because I work hard to get up and down the court. So therefore, I wouldnt take unnecessary shots in a game because I knew m y role. In the recruiting process athletes that play AAU basketball dont want to sow off in front of a college coach because they will lose interest. Fourth tip: Do the little things. Most of the time high school basketball players worry about how many points they have and how many blocks they have. College coaches dont care if you never scored more than five pints. Their main focus is footwork, defense, motivation skills,

and hard worker. They want you to know that the little things count not how much you can score. Some may say think you cant be a great basketball player if the only thin g youre focusing on is offense instead of defense. Fifth tip: Maximize your ability. There is no stopping point in college basketball. Division I college players play and practice basketball year round, none stop. Some of the players are more athletic than others, so thats why college basketball players cant slack because everyone has to get better every day. My next step is to figure out if you need to play AAU basketball to be guaranteed a Division I scholarship; At what age should you began playing? I did research on www.aaugirlbasketball.org to find out how young kids are starting out playing and some of the rules of an AAU basketball team. Kids began playing AAU basketball when theyre in the 2nd grade. The terminology for 2nd grade AAU players is called 2U meaning 2nd grade union. By the kids being so young the coaches must sign Coachs Code of Ethics at registration: I will place the emotional and physical well-being of my players ahead of a

personal desire to win. I will treat each players as an individual, remembering the large range of

emotional and physical development for the same grade division. I will take reasonable measures to honor all commitments to athletes. I will do my best to provide a safe playing situation for m players. I will promise to review and practice the basic first aid principles needed to

treat injuries of my players.

I will lead by example in demonstrating fair play and sportsmanship to all

my players. I will do my best to organize practices that are fun and challenging for all

my players. I will provide a sports environment for my team that is free of drugs,

tobacco and alcohol, and I will refrain from their use at all youth sports events. I will be knowledgeable in the rules of girls basketball and I will teach

these rules to my players. teach. I will remover that I am a youth sports coach, and that the game is for I will use those coaching techniques appropriate for each of the skills that I

children and not for adults. Most coaches follow by the rules and some dont, but they also have to understand what age group theyre coaching. So they go by the rules. Back to my question: Is it common for student athletics to go to college and play a sport straight form high school or is it more common for them to be a part of an AAU team? Alan Stein said it is common for student athletes to get a Division I scholarship straight out of high school. Simply because, there are thousands of student athletes that are born with that natural talent, and never really had to work really hard at anything. The chosen kids that dont have to play AAU basketball are average size and decent skill with a ton of heart. Thats all a college coach dream of coaching, is an athlete with a heart just as big as a basketball. Yes there is a possibility for a high school player that never played AAU basketball to get a Division I scholarship.

Michael Jordan once said, There is no such thing as a perfect basketball player, and I don't believe there is only one greatest player either. The maximum number of college athletic scholarships available for college basketball: number of NCAA 1 men players averages from about 5305 those participants. The number of women that participants average from about 5477, which is surprising because more women play basketball than men do.Which means only thirteen men are allowed to play on a Division I level and fifteen women are allowed. So, yes there is a way to become great without help from no one. It takes dedication, heart, tear, sweat, and hard work to accomplish the dream of becoming a Division I player.

Work Cited
"2014 AAU Girls Basketball Handbook." Www.aaugirlsbasketball.org. AAU USA, n.d. Web.

Basketball Quotes. Brainquotes, n.d. Web.

Stein, Alan. "Www.ihoops.com." StrongerTeam.com. N.p., n.d. Web.

"Odds of Playing a College Sport from High School." Odds of Playing a College Sport from High School.N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Sept. 2013.