The 2021 Bensalem Chargers AAU Team

Hello dear readers! It’s been a minute since my last post, “We Back Up” in early February. Just a quick update, I’m 2 months into my new job and happy to report that I’m learning a lot, working hard and beyond grateful to be gainfully employed. One of the things I wanted to do with this blog was to share some of the experiences I’ve had coaching youth sports for the last 16 years. I ended up branching out to cover some more weighty topics as a way to both work through things and potentially offer support to others. Well, it feels like as good a time as any to bring this Substack back to its roots. Today’s topic is on the very short list of best coaching experiences I’ve ever had: the 2021 Bensalem Chargers AAU team.

There are several different branches of youth basketball. In House (or Rec) hoops is open to all players, regardless of experience and skill level. In the right hands, it can be incredibly rewarding and fun. It generally is competitive, but not cutthroat by any means. Teams usually practice once a week for an hour and play 1 game per week. Travel basketball offers kids from the local community (who usually are all from the same school district) the opportunity to experience a more competitive environment. There are tryouts, which by definition, brings with it the thing I enjoy least about coaching - cutting players. Some organizations pull some roster shenanigans, but for the most part, teams are made up of players that will eventually play together in high school. Winter travel runs from mid-September through early March. Teams compete in leagues. Our LFE teams compete in ICBA, which is a really well organized and respected league. Travel teams have 2 90-minute practices each week and usually play 1-2 games a week. Often times travel teams will compete in a couple tournaments as well. The time commitment is 3-4 times more than In House. Given all that court time, there is so much more a travel coach can work on as compared to their Rec counterparts. Stakes and expectations (from parents, players and coaches) are higher. But since you play the same group of teams and you see many of the same coaches and officials, there’s a consistency to the experience. After the winter travel season, there are Spring and Fall AAU teams. Some refer to AAU as club basketball. There are no geographic parameters. AAU organizations try to put together the best teams possible, which means there’s competition to secure the best talent. It can be a real cash grab too. AAU fees are not cheap, some of the coaches are paid, or at least have their travel expenses covered. Parents pay between $25-$50 a weekend for the privilege of watching their kids play. Officials can work as many 12 games in a single day so that leads to games being called a certain way. There have been many times where I wondered if some of these refs actually swallowed their whistles. To keep everything on schedule, it’s not uncommon for warmups to last 2-3 minutes. AAU can be a great experience, but the range of outcomes for your experience are vast. Travel teams play in structured divisions, and you need to earn your way to compete at the highest level. AAU has different levels (pools/brackets), but it can be loosely governed. Basically, if your check doesn’t bounce, you can compete in most tournaments. I’ve called AAU the wild west in many conversations. There are many variables: talent level, coaching competence, organizational reputation, travel for tournaments and of course parent behavior. Ideally you want your child to play for a well-respected organization, for a coach who will strike a good balance between developing talent and a focus on the enjoyment of the players and on a good team, where she can carve out a role. It can be a challenging needle to thread.

I never aspired to be an AAU coach. Neve didn’t begin playing AAU until 8th grade. I served as an assistant with a coach from Council Rock. Our team was made up of LFE and Council Rock players. It was the 1st time in a long time that I wasn’t the one calling the shots. We did what we could to provide a good experience for the girls, but I left that season resolute in my desire to find a better situation for Neve going forward. I didn’t know much about the AAU landscape at that point. Trying to find the right tournaments to enter, that our team could be competitive in, was something I was more than happy to leave to the experts.

Fast forward 3 years and Marley had just finished her 5th grade travel season. At this point in 2021, Covid was in full swing. She began playing travel in 3rd grade (a team that deserves its own blog post). 11 players showed up to tryouts, so we ran with a roster of 11. It was joyful experience that holds many fond memories for both Marley and me. Word had gotten out that the girls and their families had had a lot of fun. So, 26 girls showed up for 4th grade tryouts. I was adamant that we needed to field 2 teams. I couldn’t see the value in cutting 15-16 girls. And I knew that the 11 who played for me the prior year would have a significant leg up on the players who only played In House. They had so much more court time and I just felt that it would be regrettable to not give another 10 or 11 girls a shot at playing travel solely because their parents did not bring to tryouts when they were 8 years old. One of the great things about being a part of an organization like LFE is that any idea floated by 1 of our 4 leaders will be given significant consideration. Fortunately, the others saw the value in fielding a 2nd team. There was a bit of a talent gap between the 2 teams that 4th grade season. But, by the end of the 5th grade season, that gap had really narrowed, a testament to the hard work of those players on the other team.

Marley had played on a “B” AAU team after 4th grade for a very good coach. “B” teams are kind of tenuous by nature. There’s a lot of jockeying that goes on in AAU as parents try to find the best situation for their daughters and organizations look to field the best teams possible. So as Spring neared, I was on the lookout for a good situation for Marley. Being in the depths of Covid, that was proving to be an uphill battle. Many organizations did not have gym time and/or coaches lined up. Then I got a phone call that offered an interesting opportunity. Billy Everett, who runs the Bensalem Chargers AAU organization, contacted me about coaching a 5th grade team. I had known Billy for years as he put together many youth basketball tournaments and Neve played for Chargers the season I was an assistant. I told him that coaching AAU was not plan A for me, but said I’d give it some consideration. He had just moved his program to Morrisville, taking over space in the Pennsbury Racquet Club, which just so happens to be a 5-minute drive from my house. Billy knew the AAU landscape well, we worked well together, and I knew he would support me by taking some of the guess work out of what tournaments to enter, so I began to warm up to the idea. And I knew there some of our LFE players (some that played for me and some that played for our other team) were looking for a good AAU situation. Before I could commit, I needed to line up assistant coaches. My 1st call was to John Templeton, a great friend of mine, who I’ve written about in prior posts, detailing his amazing efforts supporting LFE. We had coached In House together, so I knew he’d be a great partner. He didn’t coach travel with me due to everything he had on his plate…a challenging work schedule, his administrative duties for the league (many of which he took over from me…and of course he made many improvements along the way), and he coached his 4 daughters in In House. In talking with him, he was really receptive. I don’t recall if we had discussed it before, but we both expressed a desire to coach together again. My next call was to Albert Socha, who I had recruited to be an LFE Division Director, and he had also served as both a travel head coach and as an assistant coach for the other travel team. Like John, Albert felt like it was worth a shot. So, 3 years after swearing off AAU coaching, I was back in the saddle.

We held tryouts and ended up taking a roster of 11 players, 5 of which had played for me the last 3 years, 5 that had played for Albert the prior 2 years and 1 LFE In House player. The top LFE players had made a really competitive AAU team, so our Chargers group was scrappy, but lacked players that could take over a game. It was a good opportunity for these girls to potentially take on different roles than they fulfilled on their respective travel teams. I figured we’d be pretty good defensively but could struggle to put up a lot of points. The vibe in practice was good and all 11 girls were hard workers, but I was not really sure how we’d fare because I was still learning the AAU landscape. We did not get off to the best start from a win/loss perspective. The girls competed, but we were winless through our 1st 2 tournaments. In our second tournament, we lost by double digits to a Warrington team that had been a thorn in our sides from ICBA travel. The low point came in a 37-2 drubbing we suffered against the Lady Red team. To this day, I contend that’s the best 5th grade AAU level team I’ve ever seen. By this point I had really started to lean into the mantra that AAU wins and losses don’t mean a damn thing. My focus was on incremental improvement, competing, being a good teammate and trying to maximize the overall experience. After a weekend of seeing Neve and Marley play 11 games for AAU and travel soccer (Marley was an ace goalie at the time) and they lost every single game. I’m not a big Facebook guy and have maintained a very low social media profile in general. But, after traveling up to Spooky Nook in Lancaster, PA for Neve’s AAU tournament and seeing all kinds of dick measuring messages on social media, I felt the need to put my thoughts out there on the interwebs. Here’s the pic and verbiage I posted.

“So my kids had a huge athletic weekend. Between soccer and aau hoops their teams went a combined 0-11. Some games were super close and heart breakers, some were not that close. You know what, that's ok. In fact, it's awesome. They both gave it everything they had and their teams left it all out there on the court and field. They emerged better for the experience. I could not be prouder. I give credit to their coaches and aau directors for pushing their limits. It's all about their development and experience. It was a fantastic weekend. One that I'll take every time over Twitter messages about some team going 4-1 when they played Z flight competition. To quote Rosie Perez, sometimes when you lose you really win.”

I stand behind every word of that post. And in the last 3 years, I’ve doubled and tripled down on it to the point that it’s now part of my core values. I was preaching this at the time, but some of the players and their parents were struggling with losing. Our next tournament was away at Spooky Nook. We competed pretty well in the 1st game but came up a little short. In the 2nd game, we jumped out to an early 4-0 lead, and I asked John and Albert if we should hold for the last shot to preserve the lead 3 minutes into the game. I was 25% serious. Anyway, the girls played well and got their 1st win. After 2 games on Saturday, the team hung out all day and night at the Eden Resorts pool. It marked the 1st time for many of the parents and players to be able to hang out with other people since the onset of Covid. The weather was beautiful, and the team and their parents were able to enjoy some much-needed fellowship. Getting a win provided a bit of validation in the minds of some. It was a great day and night and set us up for what was about to happen with this team. On Sunday, we played a wild game against a good team from NY. We got down early but fought our way back by unleashing a full court press. The press was spearheaded by the Conboy twins. Riley and Hannah were A level soccer players who were superior athletes. I put Hannah at the head of the press and Riley was in the 2nd level. Their aggressive double teams were a thing of beauty that sparked fear in the hearts of their opponents led Tiffany to coin the phrase, “Beware of the Conboy sandwich.” We fought our way back from a double-digit deficit to take the lead in the middle of the 2nd half. After the opposing coach picked up a technical, I really felt like we were going to come out on top. Credit to the other team though, as they righted the ship and made enough plays down the stretch to secure the victory. But it was a good weekend by any measure. I remember telling Albert and John, “I know we’re 1-8, but I really think we’ve found something here. I think we’re close to unlocking something.” You’d have to ask them if they totally bought what I was selling. I just felt like our team was starting to figure out its identity - that of a scrappy team that excelled on the defensive end and could be handful for many teams. I was beginning to figure out how our pieces fit and getting a feel for those players that I had not coached before. Grace was a lanky defensive lynchpin who would outwork other bigs and had a mean streak (I mean that in the most complimentary way possible). Mia was a strong post defender who also worked super hard. Keira was a talented guard capable of making things happen on both ends. Adrianna was a good defensive player who excelled at jumping passes. Sheridan was a raw big who hadn’t played travel basketball, but was an imposing athlete. They mixed well with the 5 players I had coached for prior 3 years. Claire provided some much-needed shooting range. Aly was a good floor general who could make plays on both ends. The Conboys terrorized their opponents on the defensive end and Marley rounded out things by providing a great mix of shooting to stretch the floor and next level help defense. The pieces were beginning to fit together.

Momentum built in our next tournament. We won our 1st 3 games, including a 1 point affair that ended up landing us in the finals. It was a tightly contested matchup. Keira had a rough stretch in the middle of the 2nd half and made a couple uncharacteristic plays out of frustration. I took her out and told her to take a deep breath. I needed for her to calm her emotions a bit and take a quick mental reset, but I would put her back in soon and that she could make some plays for us to win the game. After sitting for a couple minutes, she proved my message to be prophetic. Upon re-entering the game, she made a huge defensive play and made a couple big baskets. She helped lead us to victory and our 1st tournament win. It cemented my belief that I could coach her hard and it marked an inflection point in our player/coach relationship. A quick aside on Keira - she’s Albert’s daughter. By this point, I had grown to know Albert and her well enough to realize that I could coach her hard and that she could respond to some constructive criticism. She and Marley have played together as teammates on middle school, travel and AAU teams for the last 4 years. Keira recently made a high-level AAU team and I couldn’t be happier for her and to see her hard work pay off! Anyway, we were off and running and starting to cook with gas so to speak.

John, Albert and I worked really well together. They took care of coaching up the bench and reinforced concepts that I was trying to teach in practice and in games. Our North Star was trying to provide the best possible experience for the girls as we pushed them to be their best. As the team found its sea legs, things fell into place. Suddenly, we became a really competitive team that was not in the habit of beating themselves, which is rare for a team of 10–11-year-olds. Billy helped guide our tournament schedule and flipped us additional opportunities to play when tournament directors needed a team to round out certain divisions. Over the course of the next 6 weeks, the Chargers went on an amazing run. We did not lose a game from early May through mid-June. In the final count I think the Chargers won 4 tournaments in a row. Now I’m a piece of work in many ways. For some reason, I feel like there are certain wardrobe choices you just don’t make as a coach. No denim - khakis, sweats and short are acceptable. Sneakers are a must unless you’re wearing a suit. At no point should a coach wear flip flops and hats are a big no-no. I loved riding John and Albert about their wardrobe choices. It was a running theme though as Albert always wore flip flops when it was warm, and John took to wearing jeans. To their credit they are secure enough in themselves to not give my thoughts on trivial matters such as these a 2nd thought. I’m including the picture below as visual evidence as to Albert’s and John’s dress code violations. And if they read this, they still will not give a flying f about the shade I threw their way. Much like the idea put forth in Bull Durham, you don’t fuck with a streak. So, because our team was performing so well, John continued to wear jeans regardless of how high the temperature climbed, and I can’t remember many games that Albert didn’t wear flip flops or slides.

We kept the team together through late June despite the initial plan to wrap things up the 1st weekend in June. I kept searching for opportunities to play because everything was going so well and in an honest moment, I just didn’t want it to end. The wins were cool (though I’ve made it clear I don’t put stock in that), but I relished being around this group of coaches and players. As a coach, I can’t think of anything more rewarding than seeing the whole become greater than the sum of the parts. The Chargers were a B/B+ team in terms of talent, but they easily performed at an A- level. I am not going to front by saying we played an A+ level schedule. Billy helped get us into talent-appropriate tournaments and this team made the most of those opportunities. Going into the experience, I had no idea if I/we would be good AAU coaches. I always feel like I need to prove myself at each level. I left that season thinking we belonged. What I was sure of was that we could provide a good, worthwhile experience for the girls and that came to fruition. Again, that Chargers AAU team remains 1 of the favorite teams I’ve ever had the pleasure to coach, and I will forever be indebted to the players and John and Albert for that special season.