It’s the opening tipoff of the three-day Atlantic City Showcase, and each one of the 34 courts set up in the Convention Center buzzes with a game featuring girls playing in the U10 to U17 age groups. In all, the May weekend event will feature 517 teams, most having to pay a $795 entry fee.
ATLANTIC CITY — It’s Saturday night in Atlantic City, and basketball stretches as far as the eye can see.
Honey Badgers guard Izzy Adams, from Walpole, puts up a shot in the final game of the Atlantic City Showcase against the Long Island Lightning (NY).
Courts 16 and 17, where the best teams often play, draw the largest crowds. Parents hover along the sidelines, some sneaking glances at sweatshirts in search of a university logo. They put down $70 to watch for the weekend.
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College coaches from Division 3 to Power Five conferences mingle at the two main courts and spread out to other games. They have designated seating on the baseline, where they jot down notes in their booklet of rosters — which cost $325 apiece — and tap away on their phones.
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“There most likely is going to be a couple of college coaches watching [a given game], and that’s basically your future,” said Kat Cheesebro, a sophomore from Dartmouth, Mass., who plays on the Honey Badgers, an eight-player travel team based in North Attleborough.
More than 7.8 million US children ages 6-17 play basketball, the largest total of any sport, according to a 2021 assessment from the Aspen Institute, which tracks youth sports. Over the last two decades, travel basketball has taken center stage within the game’s national explosion.
Hundreds of Massachusetts boys’ and girls’ youth teams — commonly referred to as “AAU teams,” even though most high-level play no longer involves the Amateur Athletic Union — compete in tournaments around the country during the spring and summer, hoping to impress college coaches.
A marquee matchup between Team Northeast (NY) and HUrban Legends (NJ) drew swarms of spectators and college coaches. Ethan Fuller
The ecosystem is as complex as it is competitive. Youth travel basketball can bring out the best of players and coaches trying to make dreams come true — and the worst of a cutthroat industry.
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Who runs this world?
Leo Papile is perhaps the godfather of local amateur hoops, the founder of the Boston Amateur Basketball Club, a 46-year-old program that has developed 25 NBA players. He laments the direction the youth level is taking because there is no clear governing body or regulations. When the AAU reigned, coaches had to be licensed and rules were consistent across tournaments. That’s no longer the case.
“We love where we are because we’re in a very unique space,” he said. “But if we weren’t in one of these [sportswear] conferences, I don’t see any reason for us to exist.
“I just think it is a runaway train that needs structure.”
Nike changed the game in 2010 by starting its Elite Youth Basketball League. Adidas and Under Armour followed suit with their own leagues of invite-only sessions that showcase elite sponsored youth teams. BABC, a founding EYBL member, switched to the Adidas 3SSB circuit this season, and is one of a handful of Massachusetts programs on a national shoe-brand circuit.
A sports-apparel sponsorship can be a golden ticket to exposure and funding for a travel team. And the brands that pour money into running these leagues get top talents competing under their logo, with their gear, and a shot in new markets.
“They think by sprinkling a little bit of their product in high-visibility basketball areas through these travel teams, it gives them some visibility,” Papile said. “When we switched over [to Adidas], there was news. I didn’t know people even paid attention.”
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Anyone can start a youth travel team. Some are small, like the unsponsored Honey Badgers. Coach Matt Forbes initially wanted to give his daughters and their North Attleborough regional friends a traveling squad. He has coached three iterations of the Honey Badgers since 2010, and once his current 10th-grade roster ages out, he plans to fold the team.
“I’m a father that coaches basketball,” Forbes said. “This is not what I do for a living.”
Other programs are massive, such as the Bay State Jaguars, who field 35 teams spanning U10-U17 age groups. The best Jaguars squads compete on the Under Armour circuit and also participate in local independent tournaments. Program director Laurie Bollin said these event organizers exist to meet the surging demand.
“It’s a business, right?” Bollin said. “I think these tournament directors are providing a place for kids to go and compete every weekend.”
A seamier side
Not to be overlooked is the stain of corruption that exists in youth basketball, which perhaps reached its nadir in 2017, when the FBI unveiled its bombshell investigation into bribery among college basketball coaches, sportswear companies, amateur teams, and players.
Honey Badgers guard Kailey Sullivan, from Foxborough, fights through contact to get to the basket against the Long Island Lightning (NY). Ethan Fuller
Forbes, Bollin, and other coaches who spoke to the Globe have their own eyewitness stories. A director pays an opposing elementary-schooler $5 to wear his jersey as a marketing tool. Falsified emails get dispersed to bad-mouth programs. Coaches notice an opposing player’s frustration, then make a beeline toward the player after the game to pitch their own team.
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“I’ve been horrified by some of the things that go on in AAU,” said Bollin, “but I really just try to focus on what we are doing here, and protect our brand and what goes on within our program.”
It’s not just colleges doing the recruiting; teams often try to recruit off of each other. Aaron Cooley, a Roxbury native and sophomore at Brown, played for the Boston Bobcats, BABC, and Expressions Elite. Cooley said a New York team once messaged him on Twitter, offering to pay for his education at a private school and all travel expenses if he suited up for them.
“It’s like a drama TV series sometimes when it comes to coaches trying to recruit you,” he said. “Sometimes trying to sell you a dream, telling you they got all this gear for you, they’ll play you in a live session.”
Joining a traveling team can be a serious financial commitment. Though some programs offer no-cost acceptance, and many fund-raise to support scholarships, families often pay more than $1,000 per season to join a top-flight squad. That’s before the assorted tryout fees, uniform fees, and travel expenses for family members.
Cheesebro’s father, Cory, estimates that his family pays $15,000 per year for travel and team expenses. He loves watching his daughter but wants to be sure the money is still going toward a path she enjoys.
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“We sit down with her every year and say, ‘Hey, is this what you still want to do?’ ” he said. “This is what she wants to do. She’s going to be doing it this year, and then I expect her to probably also do it next year to the same extent, and then we’ll see where the chips kind of fall as far as offers and things like that.”
With college scholarships on the line, those expenses become more like investments — raising the stakes for everyone.
The players’ experience
On Saturday afternoon, before their second day at the Atlantic City Showcase, the Honey Badgers grabbed pizza and relaxed.
The players took their own table and started chatting. They advised each other on relationships and played celebrity guessing games.
“We all look forward to these weekends away,” guard Maddy Steel said. “It’s just nice to know that they’re some of my closest friends.”
Youth traveling teams allow kids to forge long-lasting friendships, explore the country, and face high-level competition.
“I can confidently say that this past year of AAU — so, junior year — I made probably the best friends that I’ll ever make,” said Amelia Hanscom, an Andover senior who played for the New England Crusaders. “In just a period of probably four months, we became the most tight-knit group.”
Cooley competed on the Nike EYBL circuit for one summer with BABC and relished the electric atmosphere. He played at the famed Peach Jam in South Carolina, battling future college and NBA talents.
“The media, the free gear and shoes, the NBA players that come to watch you, and then obviously the college coaches that come to scout you — they make you feel like a star,” he said.
Thai Davis, a Sacred Heart-bound senior who grew up in Dorchester, recently finished their playing career with the Jaguars and now coaches middle schoolers in the program. Davis remembers the airport adventures while traveling and a favorite restaurant in Louisville just as fondly as tournaments. Playing for the Jaguars helped widen their perspective of other communities around the region.
“I’m from the city, so a lot of these girls are from the suburbs and have different backgrounds than I do,” they said. “Definitely, I don’t think I would have ever met them or crossed paths with them.”
Davis received Division 1 offers from Providence and Vanderbilt by the end of their freshman year. The expectations weighed heavily on the young guard. Their play regressed and the schools lost interest, eventually pulling those offers.
The second floor of the Atlantic City Convention Center was filled with youth basketball games during the Atlantic City Showcase in May. Ethan Fuller
“I felt a lot of pressure to uphold that standard of basketball whenever I was playing,” said Davis, “and I think around that time, I stopped really enjoying it.”
A school of hard knocks
By Day 3, the Honey Badgers had played five times in 40 hours, going 4-1 and winning their pool.
Izzy Adams was taping ice bags to her knees after the second game. Lily Singer said her back ached after playing on the plastic-like temporary court. Charlotte Adams-Lopez shrugged off a clotheslining by an opposing player in the third game. Kailey Sullivan crashed to the floor several times driving to the basket.
The consensus among coaches is that today’s youth ballers are playing and processing the game faster than ever. The amateur level, known for being more physical and up-tempo than high school, helps players rack up experience.
But Norwood coach Kristen McDonnell, who has coached both boys and girls in high school, says the emphasis on game reps has left behind the finer points of skill development, such as footwork, shooting form, and defensive positioning.
“On both the boys’ and girls’ sides, I have each year had to really take a step back at the high school level and reteach a lot of things in a very short amount of time before games start,” she said.
Dave Fazio has watched the boys’ basketball landscape change in his 34 years as Andover High’s head coach. He believes the high stakes of this level of competition can help prepare players for the rigors of college ball. He also thinks families need to weigh the selection of a club team as a serious choice in their child’s development as a player and person.
“The parents got to do a little research,” he said. “They have to do the due diligence, as far as finding a program that fits.”
Players sacrifice significant chunks of their childhoods to compete in these tournaments. The Honey Badgers frequently discussed how they planned to make up missed quizzes and schoolwork, and got some of that work done on the six-hour van ride home.
Sullivan had to sell her Christmas present — tickets to a Taylor Swift concert in her Foxborough hometown — to play in Atlantic City.
“If you want it, at the end of the day, you’re willing to sacrifice a lot of things, like coming here like we did,” Singer said.
‘A runaway train that needs structure’: A peek inside the crazy world of youth travel basketball
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