youth development festival

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SoCalHoops Recruiting News

USA Basketball's Youth Development
Festival Participants Named--(June 13, 2002)

Having already spent the period from May 31-June 2 in Colorado Springs trying out for the USA Men's Junior National team, and seeing it pay off with his selection as one of 16 finalists for the COPABA Tournament which will take place in Venezuela in late July this year, Reno's rising senior center David Padgett is evidently going to spend more time at the USA Basketball training facility in Colorado at the end of June. He was one of thirty nine high school seniors and juniors, and one of four other Men's Junior team finalists selected to compete at the USA Basketball Youth Development Festival which will take place at the same site in Colorado Springs from June 26-30. Padgett will return again to Colorado Springs in July for a second set of trials and team practices along with the other Men's Junior finalists, and if all goes well, he and 15 other top players will head for South America to represent the United States in the international competition. Looks like we won't be seeing some of these guys in Las Vegas this summer, but that's ok, because in terms of exposure, most of them don't need it anyway, and the honor of representing the U.S. in international competition far outweighs anything they could possibly experience playing in a couple of games in the desert.

The Youth Development Festival isn't necessarily about exposure, nor do the participants in this event compete against any outside international competition, but it's still an honor and the participants are generally recognized as among the elite of the high school prospects. The Youth Development Festival is an annual event, and this year, there were only a handful of players selected from the West, and only two from Southern California: Mohamed Abukar, a rising senior from Rancho Bernardo HS in Escondido, who has committed to Georgia, and Marcus Williams who is currently enrolled at Crenshaw HS, but who will transfer to Oak Hill in Mouth of Wilson, VA for is senior year. Other players from the West were Thomas Gardner from Portland Jefferson, Lodrick and Rodrick Stewart from Rainier Beach HS in Seattle, Ayinde Ubaka from Oakland, and Stefan Zimmerman from Mountain View HS in Orem, Utah.

Here's the official press release which was issued a couple of days ago when the Youth Festival participants were first announced:

USA Basketball Announces First 39
Invitees To 2002 Men's Youth
Development Festival

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (June 11, 2002) -- Thirty-nine of the nation's top prep men's hoopsters, including nine of College Basketball News' top 25 juniors, have been named to regional teams for the fifth annual USA Basketball Men's Youth Development Festival that will be held June 26-30 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. The 39 players have been divided into teams consisting of a maximum of 12 players representing the North, South, East and West regions. Under the direction of eight of the nation's top high school and AAU coaches (to be announced), the teams will battle it out in a five-game tournament that culminates on June 30 with the gold and bronze medal games. The player selections were made by the USA Basketball Cadet and Youth Committee and eligibility for the 2002 USA Men's Youth Development Festival is limited to players who during 2002-03 will be either high school juniors or seniors.

The Youth Development Festival provides participants with exposure to USA Basketball and international basketball rules, while facing off with many of the nation's other top preps. The USA Basketball entry-level event will also feature practice sessions and off-court seminars that touch on a variety of topics.

The Festival opens on Thursday, June 14 with an Introduction to USA Basketball seminar, followed by team practice sessions from 12:00-2:00 p.m. (all times are MDT) and 4:30-6:30 p.m. The first of each team's three preliminary round games begins on Friday, June 28 at 11:00 a.m., and is followed by the second preliminary round games at 6 p.m. The round-robin preliminary play concludes with a 9 a.m. session on Saturday, June 29, and the Festival semifinals are scheduled for 5 p.m. on Saturday. The gold and bronze medal games will take place Sunday, June 30 at 9:00 a.m. with the awards ceremony immediately following.

Selected to play for the USA North Team were:

J.R. Angle (Indiana Creek / Trafalgar, Ind.);
Shannon Brown (Proviso East / Maywood, Ill.);
Brian Butch (Appleton West / Appleton, Wis.);
Brandon Cotton (St. Martin DePorres / Detroit, Mich.);
Dion Harris (Redford / Detroit, Mich.);
Andrew Lavender (Brookhaven / Columbus, Ohio);
Richard McBride (Lanphier / Springfield, Ill.);
Drew Naymick (North Muskegon / North Muskegon, Mich.);
Lorenzo Thompson (Crane Tech / Chicago, Ill.);
Walter Waters (Southeastern / Detroit, Mich.).

Representing the USA South Team will be:

T.J. Bannister (Arlington Country Day / Jacksonville, Fla.);
Dane Bradshaw (White Station / Memphis, Tenn.);
Jackie Butler (McComb / McComb, Miss.);
John Clark (Cascia Hall / Tulsa, Okla.);
JamesOn Curry (Eastern Alamance / Mebane, N.C.);
Ndudi Ebi (Westbury Christian / Houston, Texas);
Taurean Minor (Booker T. Washington / Houston, Texas);
Tim Morris (Whitefield Academy / Mableton, Ga.);
Travis Outlaw (Starkville, Miss.);
Vakeaton Wafer (Lisbon / Homer, La.);
Brandon Wallace (Silver Bluff / Aiken, S.C.);
Mike Williams (Wilcox Central / Camden, Ala.).

USA East Team players include:

Shagari Alleyne (Rice / New York, N.Y.);
Artie Bowers (St. Benedicts / Newark, N.J.);
Brian Johnson (Bishop O'Connell, Va. / Glenarden, Md.);
Michael Nardi (St. Patrick's / Elizabeth, N.J.);
Demetrious Nichols (St. Andrews / Barrington, R.I.);
Terrance Roberts (St. Anthony's / Newark, N.J.);
Mustafa Shakur (Friends Central / Wynnewood, Pa.);
Will Sheridan (Sanford / Hockessin, Del.);
Sebastian Telfair (Abraham Lincoln / Brooklyn, N.Y.).

Players for the USA West Team include:

Mohamed Abukar (Rancho Bernardo / Escondido, Calif);
Thomas Gardner (Jefferson / Portland, Ore.);
David Padgett (Reno / Reno, Nev.);
Lodrick Stewart (Rainier Beach / Seattle, Wash.);
Rodrick Stewart (Rainier Beach / Seattle, Wash.);
Ayinde Ubaka (Oakland / Oakland, Calif.);
Marcus Williams (Crenshaw / Los Angeles, Calif.);
Stefan Zimmerman (Mountain View / Orem, Utah).

This year's rosters feature players from 26 states, Michigan featuring the most participants with four. Of the 39 announced Festival participants, nine were included in Chris Monter's College Basketball News' top 25 juniors (Abukar, Alleyne, Brown, Harris, Johnson, Morris, Nichols, Padgett, Roberts and Shakur), 30 were featured in the Top 100 by Fansonly.com (Abukar, Alleyne, Bannister, Bowers, Bradshaw, Brown, Butch, Butler, Cotton, Ebi, Gardner, Harris, Lavender, McBride, Minor, Morris, Nardi, Naymick, Nichols, Outlaw, Padgett, Roberts, Shakur, Sheridan, L. Stewart, R. Stewart, Ubaka, Wafer, Waters and Zimmerman), eight were selected as top juniors by USA Today (Alleyne, Brown, Butler, Ebi, Harris, McBride, Minor and Outlaw) and one was named All-USA Boys Basketball third team by USA Today (Telfair).

The Festival also features 10 participants (Abukar, Alleyne, Brown, Harris, Johnson, Morris, Nichols, Padgett, Roberts and Shakur) who recently participated in the USA Basketball Men's Junior National Team Trials, which took place in Colorado Springs, Colo., May 31-June 2. Additionally, four Festival players, Abukar, Harris, Padgett and Shakur, following the Trials were named among the 16 finalists for the 2002 USA Basketball Junior World Championship Qualifying Team that will reassemble for training in mid-July.

The USA Basketball Men's Cadet and Youth Committee is chaired by Don Showalter (head coach, Mid-Prairie High School, Iowa), and includes Ron Crawford (head coach, AAU Arkansas Wings), Marcellus ‘Boo' Williams (head coach, AAU Hampton Roads, Va. ) from the AAU; Eric Fittlerer (head coach, Sehome High School, Wash.) and Eric Flannery (head coach, St. Edwards High School, Ohio) assigned by the National Federation of State High School Athletic Associations (NFHS); and the Committee is rounded out by athlete representatives Damon Bailey (1999 Pan American Games team / Bedford, Ind.) and Brian Rahilly (1993 Tournament of the Americas gold medalist / Tulsa, Okla.).