It's that time of year again and would like to give a brief summary of our first tournament of the season at the All Iowa Attack-Spring Tune-up in Ames, IA, April 2-3.  It's always exciting to get started and there's no place better to begin than an AIA event by a quality program that does such a great job year end and year out.  So let's start with a huge "Thank You" to them.

You never know what to expect from your group first time out until you actually get on the court against other teams that are in the same boat as you.  So we'll start with the 17-Harris EYBL team who got a chance to compete against teams other than themselves for the past two weeks and it was nice to see everyone perform as one unit and in sync with each other like we've been together for two months.  It was great to see newcomers to the program fit in as if they've always been part of the Pulley Family like Gabe Kalscheur and Jeremiah Coddon while the most improved player this weekend was D.J. Hunter.  We will see if all the hard work plays off in the first EYBL events in Brooklyn, NY April 15-17 and Indianapolis, IN April 22-24.

Next is the 16-Walker EYBL team that played up in the 17U Division and represented themselves very well by going 2-2 which could have been 4-0 but had a slight rocky first game while trying to figure each other out along with the coach trying to remember everyones name in addition to finding a chemistry among all new players together for the first time.  But they got better each game which showed how talented the young players are while playing up against the bigger, stronger competition.  I can't wait to watch the progress that the two talented freshmen, David Roddy and Courtney Brown, make as the season continues through a tough start in April with NY2LA-Minneapolis, EYBL-Indianapolis, IN and JayHawk Invitational-Kansas City, KS.

The 15-Washington and 15-Maxey EYBL teams both were undefeated this weekend winning the 15U Championships in the Red & Black Divisions.  I was pleasantly surprised with Zeke Nnaji and Malik Lamin with huge upsides and the lights out shooting of Blaise Beauchamp on Team Washington.  Also was thrilled to see the "Junkyard Dog" play of Team Maxey players, Adrian Adams, Omar Brown and Josh Fogel who wreaked havoc each game to ensure victory along with solid performances from teammates.  Congratulations on being the 15U Champions in both divisions.  Their next challenge is NY2LA-Minneapolis,  EYBL-Indianapolis, IN and JayHawk Invite-Kansas City, KS.

Last but not least is the 14-Wade and 14-Taylor teams that were more than what I expected because I had no expectations since I never knew or seen these players before in my life so I was elated to witness 14-Wade finish runner-up, 2nd place, in the 14U Red Division while 14-Taylor broke even, 2-2, with six (6) players with missing three (3) players on a spring break school function to Washington, DC.  Please check out the website for the names of these talented young men or you can see them in person in the Colin Powell event April 8-10.  Looking forward to watching the two teams throughout the spring/summer of 2016.