Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone speak to their experience with Fairfax Stars? DS made the 10U team.

What about the St. James AAU team? We expect DS to make it there as well. We were not able to try out for Nova CAVS or NOVA 94 due to conflicts with other games.

As others have said, a team is as good as the talent level recruited and the coaching. And how many players are stacked onto the team.

Fairfax Stars is a solid AAU organization, tops for girls but not recently competitive for boys. It is expensive... registration/practice fee ($475 I think) charged for the season (and charges for every season), plus uniforms, plus cost-sharing of all tournaments, and expenses (mileage) for coaches to attend away tournaments.

St James hires "professional" coaches/trainers so you are essentially paying for training and expensive gym space. I think the fee was $1000 last fall/winter. But some of the coaches quit last year leaving the teams hanging.

I consider both to be decent starter teams for development. NoVA Cavs and Nova94 (orange) had their pick of talent from the many FCYBL travel kids who showed up for tryouts.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Call the coach and ask him if he will be coaching. I would personally go with the established team but playing time is important and $500 is about half of what these other teams charge so it doesn't look to be a money grab. AAU is just a lot of time and sometimes I think that the newer teams don't realize this.

For $500, they are probably only going for 2 months.

$500 for the Spring season (March to June).

That’s $250 per month.

Probably another $100 for uniforms

To be honest, the travel basketball cost is relatively cheaper than other sports. Cost is not really an issue. How to improve in a more effective way is what I care about

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Call the coach and ask him if he will be coaching. I would personally go with the established team but playing time is important and $500 is about half of what these other teams charge so it doesn't look to be a money grab. AAU is just a lot of time and sometimes I think that the newer teams don't realize this.

For $500, they are probably only going for 2 months.

$500 for the Spring season (March to June).

That’s $250 per month.

Probably another $100 for uniforms

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Call the coach and ask him if he will be coaching. I would personally go with the established team but playing time is important and $500 is about half of what these other teams charge so it doesn't look to be a money grab. AAU is just a lot of time and sometimes I think that the newer teams don't realize this.

For $500, they are probably only going for 2 months.

$500 for the Spring season (March to June).

That’s $250 per month.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Call the coach and ask him if he will be coaching. I would personally go with the established team but playing time is important and $500 is about half of what these other teams charge so it doesn't look to be a money grab. AAU is just a lot of time and sometimes I think that the newer teams don't realize this.

For $500, they are probably only going for 2 months.

$500 for the Spring season (March to June).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Call the coach and ask him if he will be coaching. I would personally go with the established team but playing time is important and $500 is about half of what these other teams charge so it doesn't look to be a money grab. AAU is just a lot of time and sometimes I think that the newer teams don't realize this.

For $500, they are probably only going for 2 months.

Anonymous wrote:Can someone speak to their experience with Fairfax Stars? DS made the 10U team.

What about the St. James AAU team? We expect DS to make it there as well. We were not able to try out for Nova CAVS or NOVA 94 due to conflicts with other games.

Anonymous wrote:Call the coach and ask him if he will be coaching. I would personally go with the established team but playing time is important and $500 is about half of what these other teams charge so it doesn't look to be a money grab. AAU is just a lot of time and sometimes I think that the newer teams don't realize this.

Anonymous wrote:500

Anonymous wrote:He's coaching together with his cousin.$45 is a little expensive but not unusual for 3 tryouts.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS tried out a new team called Valiant Knight. It's a brand new/unknown team and the coach had to distribute tryout flyers in our local MS gym. Not a lot of kids showed up in the tryout and it was very easy to make the team. DS would most likely be a starter and have a lot of playing time.

DS also made another well-known team and we were about to reject the offer from Valiant Knight. But then I looked up the coach's name and was quite surprised. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SirValiant_Brown. He was a pro player and second in the nation in scoring in 1999 (NCAA D1). He is very nice and low-key. Many well-known AAU coaches in this area claim to have exceptional backgrounds but none compare to him.

So should DS join this team? The team may not be competitive, but will DS improve significantly with this coach, especially with more playing time? DS used to play for two of the well-known clubs mentioned in the subject, but I saw no significant improvement over the course of the season.

What is he charging? Is he going to be the coach or will he have other people coaching the team?