H.S. Star Power is in Coaches' Hands

Mar 30, 2009 | By: Tropics Staff

 

High School Star Power is in Coaches' Hands

BY JOSEPH GOODMAN

For every high school star who made the trip to Miami this week for the McDonald's All-American Game, there was an Amateur Athletic Union basketball coach who first promoted the player as a future Big Mac.

For every squeaky sneaker that cuts to the rim at BankUnited Center on Wednesday, there was an AAU basketball coach who helped tie the laces and sign the shoe deal.

For every Kemba Walker (UConn), Ty Lawson (North Carolina), Scottie Reynolds (Villanova) or Kalin Lucas (Michigan State) competing in the NCAA Final Four, there was an AAU basketball coach who helped broker the recruiting process.

Simply stated, AAU coaches are the Don Kings of amateur basketball.

They are not certified teachers, yet they wield more power than high school coaches. They are not regulated by the NCAA, but the governing body of collegiate athletics has empowered them. They are not employed by shoe companies, although shoe companies pay their bills.

''Everybody can't get into high school basketball,'' said Kenny Gillion, coach of the Broward County-based AAU squad, Team Breakdown. ``Anybody can be an AAU basketball coach, unless you have like a felony or something. If you wanted to start a summer team, basically you just need the funds to pay for it.''

SHOOTING STARS

Gillion is the AAU basketball coach for South Florida's two most highly publicized players, Kenny Boynton Jr. of Pompano Beach and Brandon Knight of Fort Lauderdale. Boynton, a shooting guard, played high school basketball at Plantation American Heritage and is a 2009 McDonald's All-American. He will play for the East All-American team Wednesday in Coral Gables. Knight, a junior at Fort Lauderdale Pine Crest, is one of the nation's top-rated point guards for the recruiting class of 2010 and will likely follow in Boynton's footsteps as a McDonald's All-American next year.

With Boynton and Knight running the backcourt for his AAU team, Gillion has a considerable amount of power and influence in the basketball community. Reebok pays him $50,000 a year and helps his players choose where they are going to play college basketball.

''Most of these college coaches, I know them on a first-name basis,'' said Gillion, whose 17-and-under Team Breakdown is a two-time AAU national champion. ``Throughout the course of me doing this, I've had every college coach in the country come in and try and recruit the guys.''

How did Gillion become so influential? Is he a basketball-coaching genius? Hardly. After all, he didn't even play college basketball. Like all AAU coaches, he is a product of the system. The NCAA regulates how often college coaches can visit players at their high schools during the school year. In the summer, coaches have free reign to travel to AAU tournaments, where thousands of recruits converge and play hundreds of games in one weekend.

AAU coaches are the promoters, and the AAU coaches with the best players often are the AAU coaches with the best connections. College coaches clamor for the recruits, and high school coaches often succeed or fail based on where AAU coaches tell their players to attend high school.

''You have AAU coaches that really have a lot of control over kids. I'll say I'm one,'' said Gillion, whose brother, Darrance Gillion, coached the Oakland Park Northeast High boys' basketball team to a district championship this year with several Team Breakdown players. ``I have a lot of control over my kids. But it's a thing where I don't abuse the power.''

Gillion graduated from Coconut Creek High in 1997. He played for Eugene Richardson, a well-known coach in Broward County who now coaches at Lauderdale Lakes Boyd Anderson. Gillion broke into AAU coaching after starting a website to track the best high school players in Florida.

The next logical step, as Gillion put it, was to start his own team. He had the contacts, he knew the players, and the website, which later blossomed into a recruiting magazine, funded the start-up.

'I'd be writing at events and seeing it for yourself, and I'd be wondering, `Man, Florida has some pretty good basketball,' '' Gillion said. ``How come a Florida kid is never mentioned? The best thing we could do is throw our name into the hat and put an AAU team together and go out and see how Florida can do.''

Like Gillion in Broward County, Art ''Pilin'' Alvarez, coach of the AAU team Miami Tropics, has a similar story. Alvarez played varsity basketball at Miami LaSalle and parlayed his basketball connections throughout MiamiDade's Latin community into a successful summer team. Sponsored by Nike, Alvarez has coached AAU stars such as Guillermo Diaz and Denis Clemente, who both went on to play at UM.

COLLEGE BOOSTERS

''A lot of high school coaches criticize the AAU system and travel teams, and I can understand that, but if the goal is to get kids into colleges, the AAU coaches are doing a better job right now than most high school coaches,'' Alvarez said. ``High school coaches do what they can, but they're also history teachers, math teachers -- they have other responsibilities, and they don't have the time to go the extra mile and travel with these kids, get them in front of college coaches.

``Say what you want about AAU coaches, we get them in front of college coaches.''

In addition to Team Breakdown and the Miami Tropics, other influential AAU programs throughout the state include Nike Team Florida of Orlando (coach Tom Topping), the Florida Rams of St. Petersburg (general manager Matt Ramker) and the Lee Bulls of Jacksonville (coach David Jones).

Gillion, Alvarez, Topping, Ramker and Jones might not be familiar names to the average college basketball fan, but these men are well known throughout the college coaching profession. The University of Florida men's basketball team is fueled by AAU teams throughout the state.

This season, the Gators had three former players from Nike Team Florida (Nick Calathes, Chandler Parsons and Walter Hodge), two former players from the Florida Rams (Kenny Kadji and Ray Shipman of Miami Monsignor Pace) and one former player of Team Breakdown (Eloy Vargas of American Heritage). Boynton, of Team Breakdown and American Heritage, will be a freshman at UF this fall.

''I know for my AAU coach, [Topping] was real involved with Nike,'' Florida sophomore forward Chandler Parsons said. ``He was sponsored by Nike, so he had a better relationship with college coaches than my high school coaches.''

Nike sponsors Topping's Nike Team Florida and also sponsors the Gators. It seems like an obvious connection, but Gillion said it is ``very rare that shoe companies have any influence on where those kids are going to go to college.''

Miami Dr. Krop coach Shakey Rodriguez disagrees. A longtime coach at Miami Senior High, Rodriguez's teams were sponsored by Nike.

''The shoe companies have a guy in every major city,'' Rodriguez said. ``They sponsor the team, and he puts the team together. If Nike sponsors a particular college and a kid is a Nike kid, they push him to go to a Nike school.''

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Florida's most influential coaches

1. Art 'Pilin' Alvarez, Miami Tropics, Miami-Dade, Nike.

Former players: Jose Juan Barea (Northeastern/Dallas Mavericks), Guillermo Diaz (Miami/Los Angeles Clippers), Denis Clemente (Miami/Kansas State).

2. Matt Ramker, Florida Rams, St. Petersburg/Miami, adidas.

Former players: Kenny Kadji (Florida), Ray Shipman (Florida), Gary Clarke (Wake Forest), Jared Swopshire (Louisville).

3. Kenny Gillion, Team Breakdown, Broward County, Reebok.

Former players: Eloy Vargas (Florida), Kenny Boynton Jr. (Florida), Eddie Rios (Miami), Brandon Knight (undecided, current player).

4. Tom Topping, Nike Team Florida, Orlando, Nike.

Former players: Vince Carter (North Carolina/New Jersey Nets), Nick Calathes (Florida), Chandler Parsons (Florida), Sasha Kaun (Kansas).

5. David Jones, Lee Bulls, Jacksonville, Reebok.

Former players: Jamon Gordon (Virginia Tech), Terrance Vinson (Virginia Tech), T.J. Bannister (Liberty), Michael Townsend (Tennessee-Chattanooga).

 

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