Rodrea Echols Ranked 8th, Kaylan Pugh 56 in Blue Star Basketball Ranking

Currently, Blue Star Basketball has Overton's Rodrea Echols ranked 8 overall for the 2016 Class.
St. Mary's Kaylan Pugh is ranked 56 overall for the 2015 Class.

Congratulations Ladies!

2014 Ole Miss Women's Basketball Final Summer Practice

Matt Insell is hilarious in this video.. I have to meet him!.

Check out some of our area players participating in their final summer practice at Ole Miss.

Kelsey Briggs (Overton)
Kiara Golden (Center Hill)
A'Queen Hayes (Horn Lake)
Shandricka Sessom (Byhalia)

Get To Know Ole Miss Newcomer Kelsey Briggs (Overton)

Get To Know Ole Miss Newcomer A'Queen Hayes (Horn Lake)

"Off The Court" with Chyna Ellis (Arlington)

Read entire South Alabama Women's Basketball Story

St. Mary's Kaylan Pugh moves up in Prospects Nation Ranking

Prospect's Nation released their latest 2015 National Rankings. Here's what the site had to say about Kaylan Pugh's summer and ranking:

Tennessee Flight guard Kaylan Pugh of Collierville, Tenn., had a break out July, helping her team reach the semifinals of Nike Nationals. The 5-9 undecided prospect moved up 20 spots to No. 25 in the class behind her stellar summer.

Read the entire story and ranking

2014 Fall Exposure League Flyer

2014 Fall League Flyer from Patosha Jeffery

Registration Deadline is August 30

Summer Basketball Season is Over, Now What? Part II

Part I emphasized academics. College coaches will ask about your grades and test scores. If you implement the tasks in Part I, you will quickly be able to provide the information. This post will focus more on your basketball skill development.  Part III will center around recruiting.

Set Goals for the Upcoming Basketball Season
Growing as a player requires establishing targets to reach for. If you’re not pushing yourself by setting goals, you will settle for being the same player with the same skills as last season and the season before that and the season before that.

Completing the Evaluate Your Summer Basketball Performance task in Part I, should give you an idea of some goals you would like to accomplish for the upcoming school year. You can also talk with your school coach to assist with setting goals. Make sure to write down your goals. That way you can go back and view them periodically.

Read complete post at PatoshaJeffery.com

Southwest’s Tennessee Promise Opens Free Educational Opportunities for Local May 2015 High School Grads

Southwest Tennessee Community College has developed an aggressive grassroots promotional  strategy to ensure that all of the Mid-South’s 2015 graduating seniors can fulfill the Tennessee Promise (TN Promise) at Southwest. Effective Fall 2015, the TN Promise will provide Tennessee May 2015 high school graduates the opportunity to attend Southwest for two years free of tuition and fees, regardless of socioeconomic status.

Southwest launched its awareness campaign during the Fall 2014 registration period at local high schools and will continue to inform students, parents and community organizations about the future benefits of TN Promise.

Both a scholarship and mentoring program, TN Promise will provide students a last-dollar scholarship, meaning the scholarship will cover tuition and fees not covered by the Pell grant, the Hope scholarship, or the Tennessee Student Assistance Award Program (TSAA). The Tennessee Department of Education expects that more than 25,000 students will apply, which represent 40% of graduating seniors.

The enrollment period starts early fall for high school seniors who will be required to work with an assigned mentor and attend mandatory meetings in their counties by January.

Student Requirements:

• Apply to the Promise program at www.tnpromise.gov before November 1
• Complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) by February 15 each year at www.fafsa.gov
• Attend all scheduled team meetings and a mandatory college orientation
• Maintain at least 12 hours per semester
• Maintain satisfactory academic progress (2.0 GPA)
• Completed at least eight (8) hours of community service each semester

Important Dates To Remember – in order for students to participate in the program, they must meet several requirements and deadlines:

• August 18 through November 1, 2014 – Apply to the Tennessee Promise program at www.tnpromise.gov
• By February 15, 2015 – Complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid at www.fafsa.gov
• For other requirements and deadlines, visit www.tnpromise.gov

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For more information contact: Student Recruitment Office, 901-333-4399, or online at: www.southwest.tn.edu/recruitment.

Torri Lewis Ranked #1 in Mississippi

The Mississippi Girls Basketball Report recently released their Class of 2015 Ranking.

MHEA's sharp shooter Torri Lewis is ranked number 1 on the list. Torri will be taking her shooting abilities to Ole Miss in the fall of 2015.

Other area players that made the list:

#4 Alexyse Thomas (Horn Lake)
#11 Abria Gulledge (HW Byers)
#16 Alondria Rush (Horn Lake)
#21 Rodneyshia Martin (Desoto Central)

Summer Basketball Season is Over, Now What?

Most players and parents think playing on an AAU/travel team is the only thing necessary to get a college basketball scholarship. That is so far from the truth. It just does not work that way.

As of today, if you’re not receiving any mail or phone calls from college coaches, its kind of unrealistic to think you are going to play college basketball. I’m just being honest.

Now, let me clarify some things. Only juniors and seniors can get phone calls from D1 college coaches. According to the NCAA’s College Bound Student Athlete Guide, you can start receiving some kind of mailings from a D1 coach, whether it’s a camp brochure, prospect questionnaire, NCAA materials, or non-athletic recruiting publications as a sophomore. The point I’m trying to make — If coaches aren’t showing any interest in you (by reaching out to you), you are a long way from playing college basketball.  

Read entire post at PatoshaJeffery.com

2014-15 Memphis Womens Basketball Non Conference Schedule

Check out our @MemphisWBKB non-conference slate http://t.co/MkGtfUTNX4 pic.twitter.com/Af6qAWTlOB

— Memphis W Basketball (@MemphisWBKB) August 11, 2014

The Social Media Background Check

One of my tweets got retweeted by a girls basketball player. So I went to the player’s page to see who it was. My initial reaction was “WHOA! I guess I won’t be including her twitter name in any of my tweets.”  The image the young lady presented of herself was just not appropriate for me to forward to someone else, especially not a college coach.

Our local sports reporter once sent a shout out to a young lady that was performing very well nationally in her sport. He included her twitter name in the shout out. Naturally, I went to her page. “WHOA, again!” The language in the tweets was extremely vulgar.

Read complete article at PatoshaJeffery.com

Memphis Future Stars 7th Grade AAU Nationals Recap

(back row, left to right):  Vincent Morris, Michelle Malone, Melisa Carter, Dasia Harden, Madison Moore, Teaya Oyinatumba, Cassandra Price  (second row, left to right): Taalor Fondren, Jamelya Booker, Alaina Price, Hadley Horner, Madison Griggs(front row, left to right): Latavia Jones, Jacaila Davis, Keyanna Logan, Kaylan Morris

The Memphis Future Stars girls finished 8th in the 2014 American Athletic Union (AAU) 7th Grade Girls Basketball Division II National Championship in Chattanooga TN.

The AAU 7 grade girls’ national tournament consisted of 49 teams from across the nation. The Memphis girls went undefeated (3-0) in pool play competing against the Indiana Blizzard, Dayton Vipers, and Canton Flames. Proceeding to the Championship bracket, the team defeated the Texas Lady Mavs and the Yes! Program to reach the Elite 8. The team fell to the Jacksonville Lady Rams, Lower Delco, and TN Select to finish in Eighth place.

The Memphis Future Stars reached in the Elite 8 at the AAU Tennessee State Tournament and successfully defended their title as the Youth Basketball of America (YBOA) Tennessee State Champions (2013 and 2014). Locally, the team won the April Mid-America Youth Basketball (MAYB) Tournament, were Runners-up in the Memphis AAU Qualifying Tournament, and won the Superchamps Elite Girls tournament.

The players are 6th and 7th graders from Memphis and North Mississippi. The team originated out of Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in 2009 and joined the Memphis Future Stars organization in 2010. The coaches are Cassandra Price, Michelle Malone, and Vincent Morris.

Kaylan Pugh Showed Out at Nike Nationals

St. Mary's Kaylan Pugh (2015) has been known as a prolific scorer since she was an 8th grader. This past July she made it known that she is a prolific rebounder. During the Nike Nationals event, Kaylan led the tournament in rebounds with 11.1 rebounds per game.

Check out what Fullcourt.com had to say about her performance during the event:


Kaylan Pugh, 5-10, forward, 2015, Tennessee Flight Silver (Collierville, Tenn.)
Pugh was a rebounding demon at the event with a tournament-leading 11.1 rebounds per game. Versus a physical Carolina Flames team, she posted a tournament-best 22 boards. In helping her team to the semifinals of the championship bracket, she also averaged 14.7 points per game. Pugh has BCS-level offers but remains uncommitted.

Read complete FullCourt.com article

Congratulations, Rodrea Echols, National Champion

When Overton's Rodrea Echols (2016) is not traveling the exposure circuit with Memphis Tri-State Elite, you can find her playing in MAYB and AAU tournaments with the Arkansas Mavericks.

 

According to Rodrea's dad, Rod, this Arkansas Mavericks squad has won 5 MAYB National Championships (including this year's 9/10 grade championship) and 1 AAU  Championship. This group of young ladies started together as 6th graders.

Congratulations Ladies!

Memphis Area Recruiting Updates

Coaches/Parents/Players, please email any recruiting updates (offers/visits/commitments) to popo@girlsbasketballtrainer.com. THANKS!

Memphis Tri-State Elite had The Summer of a Lifetime

Memphis Tri-State Elite started it’s summer in Dallas, TX at the Big State Flava Jam. Playing teams like DFW T Jack Elite with 6'7" Teaira McCown with over 60 coaches at the game. Then they headed up to the Battle of the Boro in Nashville,TN. At this tournament, the team got hot. Winning 7 games and losing just 1 game in the championship to the Sky Diggs Elite (premium junior division).

The second half of the July evaluation period started with the team heading to New Orleans, LA for the Sylvia Fowles Summer Classic. Still HOT! Winning 3 and losing just 1 game to the Miami Sun Team Fowles. The ladies put on a great showing with over 30 or more coaches at every game.

The Atlanta Summer Slam was the next stop with over 75 coaches including Connecticut head coach Geno watching the game. The ladies finished 1 and 1 in the event.

Next stop was across town to the Adidas Nationals. The team completed this tournament 3 and 2.

The summer was great for all the ladies! Coach Echols has been called by all the SEC schools, half of the Big 12 schools, some ACC schools and many more universities.

Some of the top players of the summer included Eryn Foster (Ridgeway), Alessia “Danielle” Conley (Craigmont), Rodrea “Dee Dee” Echols (Overton) and Breounna Humphrey (Ridgeway).