AAU Play: teams learn more than basketball

By Monica Young
Special to the Kernersville Journal

This page is hosted by JournalNow.com, web site of the Winston-Salem Journal. This story was originally published Thursday, December 8, 2005.
In 2002, Ted Mead drove his son, Aaron, to High Point several times a week to play AAU basketball. One of those times, he had a sports-minded epiphany.

Kernersville needed its own AAU nonprofit basketball team instead of shuffling its athletes off throughout the Triad to play ball.

He called Rusty LaRue, who was playing then in the NBA, to see if he would help, Mead said. Mead's boys had been attending LaRue's summer basketball camps, so Mead said he believed that LaRue would know what a new AAU organization would require.

What began with one team of 12 boys has grown to 13 teams of 150 boys playing AAU tournament basketball. LaRue pitches in his expertise and gym time at Forsyth Country Day School in Lewisville, where he coaches basketball.

In addition to LaRue's involvement, his brother, Chan, also helps, Mead said. The brothers are members on the board of directors along with Mead, Bob LaRue (Rusty's and Chan's father) and Thomas Lofton.

Tryouts are open, a rare thing when many AAU teams are formed with top picks from recreational leagues. The tryouts are run like LaRue's summer basketball camps, Mead said. Ten coaches evaluate the boys and then choose 10 to 12 players a team. They will have more than one team for each age group if the numbers are strong enough.

Braeshaun Dozier plays on Mead's 12-and-under team. Dozier played basketball in Florida before a job transfer for his mother with BB&T Corp. brought the family to North Carolina.

"We had just moved to the area. I was looking for basketball teams and searched the Internet," said Dozier, who plays center and forward. "The competition here is a lot tougher since North Carolina is more of a basketball state than Florida is. (The Triad Titans' program) is good because it teaches good discipline. It is teaching us not only about basketball but about becoming young men."

Its mission statement is that "the Triad Titans aim to teach our players great basketball fundamentals and develop the character traits of teamwork, leadership, commitment and responsibility in a Christian environment."

"We want to impact kids' lives for Christ," Mead said.

The fees cover scholarships for needy children who want to play on an AAU team. Several young people have "tough home situations," Mead said. Many coaches take on a fatherly role - making sure their players get to practice on time, even if that means picking them and taking them home, he said.

The board of directors is trying to get computers for the kids who do not have one at home by refurbishing donated computers.

Coaches and players put in four hours each week practicing and then play seven to eight tournaments a season. The younger teams play December through the end of April. The older teams' schedule runs from February to May to allow them to play basketball at their schools.

"We just enjoy working with young children to develop leadership traits," Chan LaRue said. "It is a place to develop basketball skills, but they also learn discipline, character and teamwork. There is value in that no matter what you do."