Anonymous wrote:Go to Instagram--not twitter/X, FB or website--to find out about tryouts, coaches, wins, etc. Even on Instagram info can be sporadically posted, depends on the coach.

For those of you new to AAU, there are a lot of good nuggets of info within DCurbanmom threads if you have the time and patience to look. I was the sports-dumb parent who read through many posts when my talented baller was 8 (he's now 12) to learn about the teams and how to get hooked in. It worked--my kid has played for several well-known and upper tier teams.

good luck!

Are there any teams 13U that have tryouts or are we too late?

Go to Instagram--not twitter/X, FB or website--to find out about tryouts, coaches, wins, etc. Even on Instagram info can be sporadically posted, depends on the coach.

For those of you new to AAU, there are a lot of good nuggets of info within DCurbanmom threads if you have the time and patience to look. I was the sports-dumb parent who read through many posts when my talented baller was 8 (he's now 12) to learn about the teams and how to get hooked in. It worked--my kid has played for several well-known and upper tier teams.

good luck!

And these are the teams that actually have websites.

There are additional smaller programs with decent coaching staff but no website. You just have to find out by word of mouth. Look on tournament website pages for local teams and see if you can find them on twitter.

Anonymous wrote:Can someone please explain how to understand all these in one place? What are the circuits, what are the rankings, so hard to get a grasp on all the teams around here. I'm at tradmarina@gmail.com if anyone is kind enough to explain this to me. Thank you!

This is the place and the explanation was upthread. There is no one resource. AAU basketball is like the wild wild west of sports.

Can someone please explain how to understand all these in one place? What are the circuits, what are the rankings, so hard to get a grasp on all the teams around here. I'm at tradmarina@gmail.com if anyone is kind enough to explain this to me. Thank you!

I would say Capital City Thunder is a good program. The 14u kids won a bunch of tournaments last year that we played in. Also 15u program was good last year, they could be at 16u this year. Good coach.

Prolook is a good team too, but not sure if they are having a 16u team as they did not have a 15u team last year.

I was PP


Some smaller programs to look at are

ProSkills ( chain)

Capital City Thunder, they just had tryouts and may be looking to add a few more kids. Coach is Head Coach of Falls Church HS

Tru2Form (Bethesda), have trouts coming up. Play on new puma circuit or something like that

Then you have lots of teams in Chantilly and Herndon.

Man2Man is decent too…

Ok, I have had kids on a few of these teams.

VA elite is best. It’s crappy at 14u and below but gets super competitive 15u and up. Play on UA rise circuit which is the the weaker version UAA. Lots of the best players leave Nova 94 and other programs to go to VA elite. They have some 3stsr and 4 star recruits. Just google Jordan Scott from South Lakes, has offers from Michigan. Kentucky, etc….we went to 15u tryouts and talent was amazing. Most kids on 15u are already on varsity.


For reference the circuits are

NIKE - Eybl. (Durant, Takeover)
Addidas - SSB (Warriors)
UAA- DC Premier, Thrill

All these teams are much better than the teams u asked about. You need to be too tier to make these.

These are the top circuits and the EYbL guys are all going D1 or D2.

SSB is next level and UAA is below that.

Anything else like Puma, HG are not real circuits.


Cavs are next. Used to suck. We played them a few years ago at 14u and were horrible. But last year’s 15u and 16u teams were really good. Won lots of tourneys. So it defends year to year.

Below that is FOF, merged with NXT Gen. used be the top place for kids 12-14u. Not sure if they have fallen off at older grades.

The. nova 94 They carry a few teams per age group. Some are good. Some are bad. So it depends. Nova 94 does not play on SSB which is the senior Addidas circuit.

I would also throw in Fairfax Stars. They are somewhere between Cavs and FOF. Big program here in NoVa. Girls are EYBl, boys are not.

Hope this helps.

Anonymous wrote:I've read through the many posts about these teams, but they all seem to refer to the 15U and younger age groups.

My son is a 10th grader looking to try out for one of these teams and I'm having a hard time ranking them in level of play at this age group. Nova 94 appears to be on the Adidas Circuit, but it doesn't seem like many people talk about this team (a lot of the posts discuss Nova Cavs). Since a lot of the tryouts for these four teams overlap over the next two weekends and we will likely only be able to attend one tryout for some, how would you rate these four teams in level of play, coaching, etc.?

Nova 94
Nova Cavs
Family Over Fame
VA Elite

Order, in my honest opinion is:

Nova Cavs
VA Elite
Nova 94
Family Over Fame

Depends on the experience you are looking for, Cavs has the best coaching staff, VA Elite is the most established/successful, Nova 94 and FOF both seem like disasters.

Anonymous wrote:I've read through the many posts about these teams, but they all seem to refer to the 15U and younger age groups.

My son is a 10th grader looking to try out for one of these teams and I'm having a hard time ranking them in level of play at this age group. Nova 94 appears to be on the Adidas Circuit, but it doesn't seem like many people talk about this team (a lot of the posts discuss Nova Cavs). Since a lot of the tryouts for these four teams overlap over the next two weekends and we will likely only be able to attend one tryout for some, how would you rate these four teams in level of play, coaching, etc.?

Nova 94
Nova Cavs
Family Over Fame
VA Elite

From what I can see, boys’ team is playing on the SSB gauntlet, but that’s just a tournament series where they are competing for the opportunity to compete on the SSB circuit.

I've read through the many posts about these teams, but they all seem to refer to the 15U and younger age groups.

My son is a 10th grader looking to try out for one of these teams and I'm having a hard time ranking them in level of play at this age group. Nova 94 appears to be on the Adidas Circuit, but it doesn't seem like many people talk about this team (a lot of the posts discuss Nova Cavs). Since a lot of the tryouts for these four teams overlap over the next two weekends and we will likely only be able to attend one tryout for some, how would you rate these four teams in level of play, coaching, etc.?

Nova 94
Nova Cavs
Family Over Fame
VA Elite