Early in February of this year, right after the High School season was over for most Arizona High School basketball teams, the Arizona All-Stars began training with mostly 14 year olds and a couple of 15 year olds. The goal of the coaching staff was to develop this young team into one that would stand on its own against JV and Varsity teams during the September and October timeframe just before the 2011-12 High School season kick-off.
Fast-forward to today, October 2011 and the Arizona All-Stars just finished the past weekend with an undefeated 3 and 0 winning record at the 5th Annual Area Codes Basketball Phoenix Fall Showcase. Today almost all of those 14 year olds turned 15 years old thoughout the year and the three 15 year olds are now 16. Something happened during the year because the team's coaching staff is now ending the year with a competitve team that is making quite a large exclamation mark statement where it truly counts...on the court.
Ask the coaching staff for the answer and they repond with: "Intense training, 17 tournaments in 2011 and lots of tough-love."
The Phoenix Fall Showcase attracts some of the area's top teams and is in a format that allows high school teams and club teams to showcase their talent as a team. It is also done in a mix grades format which brings out Juniors and Seniors to the event as well as the younger crowd that thinks they can ball with and against Varsity players.
That is exactly what the Arizona All-Stars set out to do with the Phoenix Fall Showcase. The intent was to send a shot across the bow to all teams that a young team was in the house and that the club season next year is one that should have all teams getting their Z's in the night before playing the Arizona All-Stars.
The team won their first game with ease against the Tucson Heat, beating the boys from downunder 63 to 35. The 3-pointers rained down like "manna from heaven" as the All-Stars displayed an arsenal of players with the talent to hit the long range bomb. Tucson Heat hung in there at the end of the first half to keep the game close but by the second half, holding down the youngters from the East Valley was akin to holding back the ocean waves....just too much to handle.
The second game required the Arizona All-Stars to faceoff against the Native Magic, a team with considerable size and equally known for their own outside shooting capability. The Native Magic featured a quick and humongous, 250+ pounds of a center the likes that would give you pause before facing as well as a couple of 6' 6" slimmer forwards who could jump and shoot the rock. Before anyone realized what was happening, the Arizona All-Stars took control of the game and led by 23 points with about 10 minutes to play in the second half.
But anyone that has played the boys from the Rez before knows quite well never to write-off the native ballers. The Native Magic gave the All-Stars a taste of their own medicine with a barrage of 3-pointers that brought the game to a 67 to 67 tie with a couple of minutes to go. A tough defensive set up and quick hands resulted in a steal and a fastbreak for the Arizona All-Stars who went up 69 to 67 with a minute to play. The All-Stars went on to successfully kill the clock thus ending the Native Magic courageous comeback attempt thus showing that the All-Stars could finish games that earlier in the year would have slipped from their hands.
The Arizona All-Stars third game of the showcase had them facing off against the Area Codes Basketball "Golden Nuggets" a team that had individual players who registered for the showcase and where assigned as a group. This was the toughest opponent for the All-Stars who went on to win the game 48 to 38 with hard nose defense and downright talent in shooting the 3-pointers.
Special mention must be made to Chandler High School Junior, Darquis Gaynes, who led the All-Stars attack as their point guard and to Marco Morales who once again led in the 3-point shooting category with a barrage of 3-pointers in every game the likes that is rarely seen in such a consistent manner. In one game, the young sniper Sophomore from Chandler High School had seven 3-pointers.
The key to the Arizona All-Stars is that it is truly becoming an All-Stars team with everyone on the team contributing to the weekend's performance to include outside shooting phenoms in Sophomores Keaton Ranger and Blake Williams. Newly added center, Karim Johnson and developing power forward Sophomore Benjamin Uriarte, both from Chandler High School were solid defenders under the rim. Juniors Tim Johnson and AJ Warren and Sophomores Jordan Shipp and Devon Lundy were critical pieces as well as they contributed with scoring, defense and hustle.
The Arizona All-Stars will play as a team one last time this season on October 29 & 30 at the "617 Halloween Hoopfest" taking place in the Phoenix west valley.
To visit the Arizona All-Stars website, click here.
SOURCE: JuniorHoops.com "Showcasing Basketball Talent. Promoting the Community."