Playing AAU basketball or in a spring league

We’d like to get your thoughts on spring/summer basketball options for Alter bound feeder kids . Do you have opinions about the various leagues – Ohio Valley Force, Kingdom, etc?

We would recommend Dayton Metro. It is probably the longest standing, most established program in Dayton. However, there are tons of others, like Ohio Valley Force , Cobras, Surge, Greyhounds and other one-offs that come and go every year. You need to determine how much time and money you want to invest and also look at whether or not you can get your kids on teams together. Another possibility is to form your own team. If you get your own team of all Alter bound kids, let us know and we MIGHT be able to help with gym time for practices.

For the older kids, like the outgoing 8th graders, there is a program in Cincy called "Cincinnati AAU". It is highly respected. A lot of the Cincy area GCL kids play in that program and we've had kids play in it over the years as well. It is a commitment in terms of travel, but they usually get existing high school coaches to do those teams. Chances are you could get on a team with another Dayton area kid or 2 that you could car pool with.

Also, do you have recommendations on basketball camps beyond the Alter camp?

First, please go to both weeks at Alter, if at all possible. In addition to Alter, some folks have sent their kids to other area high school camps like CJ's and Fairmont's. Alter kids used to go to the Five Star camp in Pittsburgh every year. It is expensive but worth at least one trip over, especially if you can get some kids to go over together for a week. For more info see : http://www.five-starbasketball.com/.

Another good camp is Dick Baumgartner's shooting camp in Earlham, Indiana. It’s a very well respected camp as well and its' close. See www.dickbshootingcamp.com for more info.

It seems like it would be ideal to get as many of the feeder team players as possible to play together this summer, but do you know if they fall under the Ohio rule about limiting the number of players from a team/school that can play on an off-season team?

Our kids do not fall under the OHSAA rule that limits the # of kids to a team before June 1st. We are not technically OHSAA until the kids are officially at Alter. Also keep in mind that the Alter school staff gets the outgoing 8th graders together after June 1st for league play together. As an example, for the past few years - at least - the incoming Freshmen played in a 2 game a day , week long 'camp league' at Springboro and in the bottom half of the JV league at Centerville. Both after June 1st. The Centerville league usually runs around mid June to mid July.

Lastly, the Alter coaches start including the incoming Freshman in the 'open gym' schedule in the summer, which for non-football players includes supervised weight training as well. Info on all of this is usually communicated out in the Spring.

If you have any other questions whatsoever, you can contact John Lecomte or Mike Freshwater.