A Season To Remember

In 2015, Head Coach and Trainer Brandon Bracy, and Director Antonio Hodges, started a new AAU Basketball club out of Solano County called "Team Rampage". That first season would begin with one varsity team, which featured mostly players from Vallejo and Jesse Bethel High School. After an average season, Coach Bracy knew that he had to recruit better talent in order to compete in the bigger tournaments.

A year later, Coach Bracy was able to bring in players from Texas, Modesto, Benicia, Fairfield, and Antioch, to mesh with the talent he already had from Vallejo. The talent would mesh extremely well, as Team Rampage stormed off to a 22-5 record over a two month period.

Benicia's Trey Pugh and Kade Lockrem would provide scoring and outside shooting for the group. Pugh was able to become one of the top scorers on the team, while Lockrem who is only a sophomore, was able to provide scoring off the bench. Riverbank's Nik Keydeniers and American Canyon's Gamon Howard, were two of the starters for Coach Bracy's group, as they were a force on the defensive end. Thomas McDonald(Alhambra) and Jonathon Rice(St. Mary's of Berkeley) were also key new components during the 22-5 start, as they provided leadership, and were both excellent rebounders for the group. Rounding up the roster were the four returnees from Jesse Bethel High School, Malcolm Bracy, Zarrion Walton, Dakarria Peterson, and Deangelo Gomez. Bracy and Gomez were starters, Peterson was the 6th man on a extremely deep team, and Walton was an excellent defender and rebounder off the bench.

Despite the 22-5 start for the club, there were personnel problems to be addressed moving forward. Jonathon Rice decided to end his AAU run with Team Rampage, and focus on his role with Diablo Valley College, and Thomas McDonald was forced to return to Houston, Texas for the summer to visit his family. With two big losses for the club, Coach Bracy was able to bring in three key players to complete the season. Jacob Long from Deer Valley would be the first addition. Long played varsity as a sophomore at Deer Valley, and is well known for his ability shoot the ball from the outside. The second addition would be Elijah Johnson from Armijo High School, a very athletic guard, who jumps extremely well. The last addition would be Rajon Washington of Vallejo High School, who is a three sport athlete, and runs the floor and finishes at the rim well.

With the new additions, Coach Bracy and his team was ready to make a run in the Big Foot Hoops Tournament in Las Vegas, Nevada. In 2015, Team Rampage finished 1-3 in the tournament, losing in the first round in the Bronze division. 2016 would be different, as Team Rampage went 3-0 in their pool, and won its first two games of bracket play, setting up a Bay Area matchup with The Crew in the Elite 8 round. After a long and hard fought game, The Crew was able to get the win 72-62, eliminating Team Rampage.

Despite the heart breaking loss, Team Rampage Varsity Elite was able to finish the year 31-7, and several players are receiving interests from division 2 schools such as Chico State, Sonoma State, Menlo College, California Maritime Academy, and more. Seniors Malcolm Bracy, Deangelo Gomez, Dakarria Peterson and Rajon Washington, will be playing Junior College ball this fall. Team Rampage Director Antonio Hodges said "Coach Brandon Bracy has really pushed these guys through his training, and hard nose coaching, to the point where our seniors are ready for college ball, and our incoming juniors and seniors, are ready to have a monster year at their high schools".

Coach Brandon Bracy plans to recruit more talented players into the program for the 2017 season, but he knows it will be difficult to duplicate what he did in 2016. Coach Bracy stated, "It will be hard to accomplish what this year's team has accomplished, but I am ready to work hard so that we have an even better year next year" Either way, Team Rampage has become an household name not just in Solano County, but now in all of California.

Youth Basketball Picking Up Bad Habits

In youth basketball today, there have been a lot of discussion about how kids are being taught. Adam Filippi who is a basketball trainer, believes that kids are dribbling too much, playing too many games, and not enough teaching. With so many youth basketball teams today, there are a huge number of kids that fall into these categories.

Most youth basketball teams that don't teach and play a lot of games, usually do it for the money. For example, they will charge each player $300 to play, while practicing only once a week. They play in a bunch of tournaments, but the kid isn't really learning. Lack of teaching kids the fundamentals has really hurt youth basketball, which is why Basketball Legends such as Kobe Bryant, and Charles Barkley have been verbal about their frustrations about youth basketball.

"I hate it because it doesn't teach our players how to play the right way, how to think the game, how to play in combinations of threes". These were the words of the 37 year old future hall of famer, Kobe Bryant. For Kobe Bryant, he gives credit to playing professionally overseas for teaching him the fundamentals of the game. Charles Barkley said that, "AAU is the worst thing to happen to college basketball ever. I hate AAU more than anything in the world. These kids aren't getting good coaching. They're playing too many games and not working on their game enough." Due to these legends being unsatisfied with youth basketball, it has forced some people to look at AAU in a negative way.

For the coaches who coach these programs, there isn't any qualifications of coaching experience in order to coach AAU. As long as the coach passes the background check, he or she can coach the program with no experience. Today in AAU, there are a lot of coaches with no experience, and are just coaching to collect money from the kids. There is no goal for some coaches in terms of what do they want to get out of coaching in AAU, besides money.

The only way the outlook on AAU changes, is if more coaches and programs focus on teaching the kids basketball fundamentals, as well as life lessons. Youth sports is meant to help kids stay out of trouble, build lifelong relationships, and to get better in the sport that they are participating in. Over the last few years according to some of basketball legends, youth sports in particular basketball, have lost sight of that. If more people that care about helping kids get involved, AAU basketball can change. As the head coach for Team Rampage, my goal is to make each and every kid get better. Even if the kids are paying to play, at least the kids are becoming better basketball players than they were before.

Since the criticism of some of the basketball legends, more NBA players are getting involved with AAU. NBA Superstars such as Damien Lillard, Brandon Roy, Chris Paul, and Lebron James, all have their own AAU team named after themselves. Each of these superstar player's AAU teams are all among the top programs in the nation, and each player makes guest appearances at games, practices and camps. With more NBA players getting involved with AAU, more kids will get the proper learning that they need to advance to the next level.

Why Play AAU?

There are many reasons why young athletes may decide to play basketball for a travel team. Many athletes play because they are able to play in areas that they have never been to before, they get a chance to play with a different set of teammates than they do at their high school, they could also want the free gear that they may get if they are sponsored, or they could simply just want to improve their skills. For travel ball among high school players, their season starts around late March, and ends in August.

Players and Parents should want to get the most they can out of playing travel ball, especially with how high some of the registration fees can be to play. Kevin McCarthy explains how if a team doesn't practice or offer skills training, one should take a long look at the program before putting money into it. A lot of money is put into programs that are not giving out the most for their kids.

A good Travel ball program should be able to provide great teaching of fundamental skill work, competitive games, practice time, uniforms, and a great overall experience. Whether teams decide to play their games locally, or travel out of the area, a good program should always make sure that each kid and parent, are getting the most out of what they are paying for. Along with researching the program, getting good coaching is also very important in making a decision to play travel ball.

5 time NBA champion Power Forward Robert Horry, spoke at a Thuzio function in which he stated that he hates AAU Basketball because of the lack of teaching. Getting good coaching is key to playing travel ball because it allows the kids to learn how to play the game the right way. It is no different than a student going to a school that doesn't have good teaching. Every young athlete along with their parent or guardian, wants to improve their skills. Having a program that has a coach or coaches, that will emphasize improving the players more than winning games, is an ideal situation for any athlete and their parents.

Playing travel ball can be a great experience for young athletes, as they get a chance to make lifelong relationships with teammates, coaches and parents. At the end of the day, it is all for the kids and programs should make sure that these kids are getting a good experience from playing AAU basketball. AAU has good reasons on why you should play, as well as bad reasons but the key is making sure you get the most out of what you are paying for. Good coaching, fundamental skill work, practice time, competitive games, and building a network of people through basketball, are all reasons why a young athlete should play travel ball. It has become the prerequisite for basketball here in the United States, and it is only growing bigger.

In Northern California, there are a lot of good programs who have coaches that also train kids individually. Programs such as the Oakland Soldiers, Splash City, Team Lillard, Team Rampage and more, all use the efforts of their coaching, and willingness to emphasize fundamental training, as a way to recruit more players into their program. In the Bay Area, the top high school players play for the organizations that will provide fundamental skills training, to make them better for the next school year. This shows that teaching the game the right way, along with developing players, will always attract talent.