The dream of playing college basketball is the main motivation of those who spend their summers on travel teams.
The summertime travel circuit has become the ultimate platform for girls and boys players seeking exposure beyond their own high school gymnasium. It’s where reputations are made, coaches at the next level impressed and scholarship offers born.
Families spend their hard-earned money traveling to and from tournaments for the opportunity for such exposure.
But is it worth it?
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“I believe it’s starting to get out of hand,” said Gregg Mason, program director for the Indianapolis-based Indiana Flight girls travel basketball program. “Now you have trainers and you have tournaments every weekend.
“It’s all about college exposure and, of course, those tournaments are very, very expensive to get your team in. Tournament directors will definitely let you know who’ll be there. Which coaches from which schools.”
The price of fame
John Byerly’s son Drew is a junior at Franklin, where he’s been part of the varsity basketball squad since he was a ninth-grader. Drew Byerly is also entering his third season as the football team’s starting quarterback.
The elder Byerly said parents must be realistic when it comes to their son or daughter’s talent and potential.
“It all depends on how far you want your kid to go. The truly elite players need to be seen. The better the player, the more the travel is worth it,” he said. “I think all parents think (their son or daughter is a Division I prospect), but then you go to an elite tournament, get beat by 30 and your kid barely plays. It’s a wakeup call.”
Emma Utterback, a starting guard for Center Grove and a member of Team Indiana on the AAU circuit, knows no other way. She’s been playing AAU every July since elementary school.
“Honestly, I love travel basketball because it fits my kind of game, and I like to meet girls from other schools,” Utterback said. “I definitely think the AAU game differs from high school basketball. With AAU it’s really exposing all of your talents. In high school, because wins are so important, I remember the shot selection has to be smarter.”
Utterback’s father, Eric, said the family has invested approximately $15,000 apiece to make his two oldest daughters’ dream of playing college basketball a reality. Emma has seven Division I scholarship offers (Austin Peay, Cleveland State, Detroit Mercy, Radford, Tulsa, Valparaiso and Vermont) and five D-II offers.
Allison Utterback, Emma’s older sister, received a full scholarship to play women’s basketball at Lewis University, a Division II school in Chicago suburb Romeoville, Illinois.
“From a financial standpoint, we hear all the time that we could’ve saved all that money,” Eric Utterback said. “I’m not going to say there isn’t a financial burden, because there is. But I think it’s how you manage it.”
In an attempt to curtail costs, the Utterbacks have played for teams close to home and competed in mostly state and regional tournaments. Eric Utterback said the first time he put one of his daughters on an airplane was Emma playing in a tournament in Dallas prior to her sophomore year.
As a family, they attempt to do things together in whichever city they’re in at the time.
“Once you get involved and have some success and start making friends, we decided to stay in it,” Eric Utterback said. “As a family, we’ve made so many great friends.”
Back to basics
The shoot-first, pass-second philosophy implemented by many summer teams has been blamed for the erosion of fundamentals and poor basketball habits, which often becomes visible once players return to their high school teams.
Second-year Center Grove girls coach Kevin Stuckmeyer, who hasn’t been tempted to coach a travel team in the summer, sees the positives and negatives.
“To me, it’s is a great recruiting tool, a great chance for kids to get exposure and a great chance for college coaches to evaluate,” he said. “But while they’re recruiting and evaluating, you’re going to get the positive side of things.
“But at times, the (high) school ball gives the coach maybe a more realistic picture of how they’re going to function within their team once they’ve committed. They’re going to get a feel for how they get along with teammates and the team structure a little bit more.”
Whiteland boys coach Matt Wadsworth said it’s possible for summer and high school programs to work together, rather than against one another. This way, the player improves his or her skill set within the framework of the type of offense and defense utilized by their high school program.
“For us at Whiteland, our players and parents have done a good job of balancing the commitment between the two,” Wadsworth said. “There’s value to players having a chance to play competitively over the summer.
“Over the years you get to know the various people who coach them. To this point, I’ve not encountered anyone who has had a negative impact on our players.”
New friends, new foes
Travel basketball excels at removing players from their comfort zones in order to help them grow as players and people.
Whiteland senior guard Megan Harlow, a member of the Indiana Showcase U17 AAU squad, is something of a summer novice. Unlike most of the players she sees in practices and games, Harlow joined her first travel basketball team between her freshman and sophomore years.
Harlow wishes she had started earlier, but she is savoring the now.
“I just love playing travel basketball. It’s fun to play with different girls, make new friends and see new places,” Harlow said. “I was in Louisville the week before the Kentucky Derby and we watched the fireworks over the Ohio River. It was amazing.
“I wish I had started playing (travel) earlier. It’s so much fun, and I’ve become a better basketball player because of it.”
Tony Marlin has coached girls AAU teams the last five summers, including five members of the 2018 Indiana All-Star squad. He previously coached AAU boys teams for nine years while his son Jonny, a 2011 Center Grove graduate, was coming up.
The elder Marlin has great respect for the school programs as he knows that’s where players are developed. However, players who want to display their basketball talents in front of college coaches at all levels often need to play hours from home.
“AAU is a circuit where college coaches can go to see a lot of kids at one time,” Marlin said. “As an AAU coach, I cannot develop their skills like a good high school coach. They have more time and more knowledge of the game.
“I am fortunate to get the skilled kids and hopefully put them in a position to be seen by all levels of college coaches. The high school coaches and trainers do the tough work.”
Staying closer to home
More often than not, travel teams attract the best high school players. This is a point of contention to Franklin boys coach Brad Dickey, who feels the growing sense of community fragmentation isn’t good for high school programs.
Some players might be talented enough and have the means to travel throughout the summer as part of an elite AAU team. The rest stay home and play when they can, whether at an open gym or in outdoor pickup games at a local park or residence.
“Sure, we struggle with player habits. I look at more with just personal fulfillment. I’ve got kids that run off and play, and it’s a hard job out there traveling,” Dickey said. “It’s exhausting and they’re alone, for the most part.”
Nonetheless, the chance of being seen by a college basketball coach is too tempting to pass up. Landing a full or partial scholarship can make paying the money to travel to unfamiliar destinations a worthwhile investment.
“It’s for that prize. Everyone is convinced at this point that you have to do this to get a college scholarship, and so we feed into that,” Dickey added. “If you take a weekend off, that’s bound to be the weekend that you were going to get a big offer.
“I don’t blame the parent, and I don’t blame the kid, either. It’s just the perception of what’s happening. If you don’t maintain your attitude and maintain your enthusiasm, then you’re headed for disappointment whether you play or don’t play.”
Hurting the high school game?
Barring a matchup of top-10 teams or a once-in-a-generation talent like Romeo Langford coming to town, regular-season games don’t attract the crowd support they used to.
Various factors are at play, whether it’s advancements in technology, more teens having jobs or the increased number of entertainment options.
Travel basketball, Dickey said, plays a part as well.
“I’m much more about the excitement and the enthusiasm we’re chipping away at,” he said. “When you play 65 (travel) games, in the summer and that’s your big shot of going to a college, then why would my 22 high school games be important?
“It’s clear that relationship is damaging our 22 games.”
The athletes themselves aren’t to blame for the situation they find themselves in. Travel basketball started growing into its current version before any of them were born. Parents, too, aren’t at fault for money they must spend on travel, lodging, apparel, etc., to make the dream possible.
Home-court advantage
Since arriving in Franklin in 2014, Dickey started making Franklin the hub of the Midwest Youth Tournament, which attempts to modify the AAU blueprint by keeping players and teams closer to home. The tourney utilizes the seven courts at Franklin, four more at the nearby middle school and some at Triton Central High School.
“I love playing and I love coaching. I don’t want to spend six hours a week in a car to go and do the thing that I like doing,” Dickey said.
However, by the time player is a sophomore or junior, if Dickey feels they’ve matured enough physically and their basketball skill sets have improved, he’ll make the contacts necessary to make sure that player becomes part of a more visible AAU team.
This, naturally, leads to the opportunity to showcase skills in front of Division I and small-college coaches.
“I think it is catching on. We’ve got 14 RimRoc teams now,” Dickey said. “It lets you play with your teammates. Let’s you play with your neighbors. Your friends from the community and neighboring communities.”
A high percentage of those playing travel basketball won’t be offered a Division I scholarship. In some cases, there won’t be any scholarship.
The elite players will continue to board airplanes and make long drives to experience unfamiliar cities, gymnasiums and opponents. There, off in the distance, will be the prominent college coaches from the blueblood programs jotting notes.
Then there are the players simply trying to get noticed by someone.
Anyone.
