:: UK/NCAA/High school Sports :: High school sports :: High School vs AAU (travel) teams Author Topic: High School vs AAU (travel) teams (Read 16 times) trueblue Global Moderator member is offline Joined: Jun 2005 Gender: Female Posts: 2,911 High School vs AAU (travel) teams « Thread Started on May 18, 2009, 8:48am » I watched a very interesting story on Outside The Lines about high school basketball players and AAU teams. I must live under a rock because I didn't realize how much conflict there is between high school coaches and 'travel' team coaches as they like to be called. Are any of you very familiar with the AAU system? It seems that it doesn't bode well for building loyalty in these kids. And, some of the coaches seemed a little shady, especially those that had the kids switching schools in mid-season. One high school coach in Chicago had a kid that just didn't show up for a practice before play-offs and couldn't get in touch with him. Then, found out that he had transferred to another school and hadn't even contacted him about it. To me, this is just wrong. Most of the players that were interviewed said that the travel team was more important to them than their high school teams. Do you feel that if they have no loyalty to their high schools, that they will have no loyalty to their college teams either? Anybody have any opinions on this? Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged Sandman Global Moderator member is offline Joined: Sept 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 2,241 Location: Corbin, Ky. Re: High School vs AAU (travel) teams « Reply #1 on May 18, 2009, 10:33am » From what I've read, I know the AAU coaches can, and frequently do, exert a lot of influence on their players. We have an AAU team or two down this way that I'm aware of. I haven't heard of any thing out of the ordinary happening with them. I believe most of the problems occur with the teams from the metro areas where a lot of the players come from either single parent or no parent homes. In these situations, the AAU coaches are authority figures to these players. Whether it's correct or not I don't know, but the vast majority of UK bb fans are blaming John Wall's AAU coach for keeping Wall from signing with UK, based on what I've read on some other boards. « Last Edit: May 18, 2009, 10:34am by Sandman » Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged The Bubba Coach Founder member is offline Joined: Sept 2004 Gender: Male Posts: 11,541 Re: High School vs AAU (travel) teams « Reply #2 on May 18, 2009, 11:03am » Very good post BTW Trueblue, I wasn't aware of problems either. I would suspect that being allowed or chosen to play for an AAU team is very flattering and could interfere with a player's loyalty to his high school coach. On the other hand, transferring to another high school without notifying your present coach is very rude to say the least. It is probably somewhat embarrassing to some youngsters, or there could have been a relationship problem between the player and coach as well. You would think though that rules would be implemented that at least required notification of transferring. Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged Forum Jump--------------------» Home--------------------» UK/NCAA/High school Sports--------------------- UK Basketball- UK Recruiting Basketball/Football- UK Football- Lady Cats- Other UK Sports- Men's and Women's SEC Sports --- Men's SEC Sports. --- Women's SEC Sports.- Men's and Women's NCAA Sports --- Men's NCAA sports --- Women's NCAA sports- UK sports and other general sports discussions- High school sports--------------------» Non Sports--------------------- General Discussion- Buy or Sell- New Members--------------------» The Blue Room--------------------- Don't sing it just bring it--------------------» Professional Sports--------------------- Professional Sports --- Pro Football --- Pro Basketball --- Pro Baseball --- Nascar--------------------» Proboards Rules--------------------- Proboards rules.--------------------» Back up site.--------------------- Backup for Big Blue Heaven--------------------» ATTENTION NEW MEMBERS!--------------------- Information for new members