This program was started by my son Sam over 15 years ago with a young boys team participating in the many different programs in the Albuquerque area. His dream was to some day have a program with multiple teams to take to the next level. I helped him as much as I could and when I retired I made a decision to continue the program. So in 2011 with the help of friends and family we started the progra
m searching for boys and girls to recruit from the smaller schools in rural New Mexico.
2011 – We started our first team, a boys team with 7th and 8th graders. We had a great summer for being our first time seeing tournament action together. We won several games and lost but just didn’t make it to the finals. Our boys competed up in grade level and against much bigger school age boys. They never gave up and never got discouraged, the games we played were very competitive and we always gave them a good game.
2012 – We added two 10th grade boys to the team so therefore had to play our mostly 8th and 9th grade level boys in the JV division. Here again playing bigger school teams, playing more tournaments with more winning games but just not making the championship games. We were playing against 3A, 4A and 5A school teams with boys from B, 1A and 2A schools. Our boys never gave up and gave it their all, playing with true heart every game. This was also their first trip to the “Jam On It” tournament in Las Vegas, Nevada. In Las Vegas we played in the JV division, competing well. The boys played outstanding beating a team from Mexico and one from Hawaii, then losing to a San Antonio, Texas team and a team from Utah. Competition was greater but our boys shone, they made a great appearance. The trip over all was a great learning experience for all, but also fun and a great treat after the summer tournaments. It was great playing against teams from other states and countries.
2013 – Our program gained popularity, we had more interested boys and girls so we started our Girls JV team with 8th and 9th grade girls. We had a 9th grade JV Boys team and a 10th grade JV Boys team. The first few tournaments we mixed the 9th and 10th grade boys because most of our boys were participating in track or baseball with their school teams. We started play in April at the Sandia Prep Spring Fling. Our team took the championship which was a big accomplishment. Next tournament was the Hope “Last Chance Shootout” we had one boys team go up against some big school teams – again 1st place trophy. At this point in our program the feeling was that we had accomplished what we set out to do which was to develop and give the kids the opportunity to compete in tournaments with teams in the higher class than theirs. Our teams come from class B, class A and class 1A and one from 3A playing 4A and 5A teams. Beginning we knew we had a good team as they had improved tremendously, we just didn’t know how much. All three teams, two boys and one girls teams, played in the MAYB (Mid America Youth Basketball) tournament. The boys 10th grade JV team took 2nd losing to a last second shot in overtime. The girls brought home the bronze with a 3rd place win. The mixture of girls blended well against the competition. Next tournament was the New Mexico Games, probably the biggest tournament in the State. The boys 10th grade JV team lost their first game to Hope and had to come up the losers bracket. Laguna Acoma was the first team in the semi-finals and defeated them. Hope was undefeated and we had one loss. We beat Hope in the first game and had to play again. We beat Hope again and took the New Mexico Games championship. K9 tournament, the 10th grade boys team placed first with the 9th grade boys taking a 2nd place and the girls taking a 2nd place. We had two Lubbock tournaments, the first one we took one boys team, placing 1st against teams from Texas and Oklahoma. In the second tournament we took one boys and our girls team. Both teams did extremely well against the out of state teams they played losing in the semi-finals. Next was our Las Vegas, Nevada “Jam On It” Tournament for the second time only this time we took our 9th and 10th grade boys teams. The 9th grade JV team ended up 4th losing to a San Antonio team. The 10th grade JV team ended up in a 3 way tie in pool play so based on percentages we ended up playing in the 3rd place bracket. We ended up in 3rd place playing against teams from Seattle, Hawaii, Utah and California. Our final destination was to Wichita, Kansas for the MAYB Nationals. Competition level was at the D-1 caliber with players from all over the country. We took one team formed by players from both our teams. We did quite well considering the level of play winning three games and losing two. There were 96 teams competing in our JV bracket. Good experience for the team going up against the best of the best competition. In 2014 we are happy to announce that our now 11th grade boys will be playing in the Varsity division, 10th grade still in the JV division and 10th grade girls still in the JV division. We are also proud to announce that due to the programs success we are adding an 8th grade girls team. Our players have come from Hondo, Magdalena, Fort Sumner, Santa Rosa, Tucumcari, Logan, Jemez, Grants, Ruidoso, Albuquerque and this year adding new locations Vaughn, Anton Chico and Carrizozo.
