Black Club Newsletter 12/7/2023

Esface Back in Tournament Action

After taking the week off for Thanksgiving, it was great to see our Black Club back competing last weekend! We split into two events with teams entered into the Winter Jam and Roaddawgs tournaments. Huge congratulations to the 3rd Grade Goers, 5th Grade Goers, and 6th Grade Goers for winning their divisions at the Winter Jam! We also saw notable performances from the 4th Grade Hitters, 6th Grade Hitters, 7th Grade Hitters, and 8th Grade Goers who all walked away with a pair of victories. Exciting to see the results from the weekend and hope to finish strong with just one more event in 2023!

Black Club Testing Results

*Click Left or Right of the Picture to Scroll*

We wanted to take a moment to shoutout all of our top scorers from our Black Club Testing this month!

The Splash Boy (or Girl, shoutout Aila…again!) is given to the top scorer in our shooting drills. We combine our Star and 72 shooting drills to take the top overall makes, with a max score of 24. 3rd-5th grade shoot from mid-range while 6th-8th grade shoot from 3-point range.

The Fastest Feet of the Month is given to the winner of our NBA Box drill. This requires an athlete to sprint, slide, and backpedal within a short distance.

The Marathon Man is given to the winner of our 17 drill. We record the overall score in seconds and see how fast an athlete can touch the sideline going back-and-forth 17 times. Congratulations to all of our winners and excited to see our growth next month!

UPCOMING Team Esface Events

We’re excited to announce two upcoming Esface events this month with our own Black Club teams competing at halftime!

On Sunday, December 17th come out to Maples Pavilion to watch Stanford play Idaho at 2pm. Our 5th Grade Black teams will be competing at halftime while Esface alumni Miles Klapper will be suited up for the Idaho Vandals. We’ll meet at the Town & Country Village beforehand at 11:30am to eat and depart for the game at 1pm. You can purchase tickets for the event using this link.

On Saturday, December 30th you can make the trip to Haynes-Prim Pavilion to watch Menlo play UC Merced at 3pm. Our 4th Grade Black teams will be competing at halftime while Esface alumni Jon Taylor will be suing up for UC Merced. Menlo will also feature Landon Seaman who coached our camps and transformation sessions this summer. All kids wearing Esface gear will get in free while adults can purchase tickets at the gate or beforehand using this link.

Portland Details

It’s official: Team Esface is headed back to Portland! For the second consecutive year we’ll be traveling to play in the Presidents’ Day National Championships hosted by HoopSource. Out of our 11 teams, 10 are already confirmed and families can start booking their travel accordingly. The event takes place from February 17th-19th but we recommend getting there Thursday, February 15th. This will be the most comfortable arrival time to attend the optional academy-wide bonding events starting at 10am on Friday morning.

Please visit teamesface.com/portland for all the details which includes hotel booking information. You can reserve rooms up until December 27th to lock in discounts. We’ll also be updating the site with an itinerary and details for our academy-wide dinner. You can take a look at last year’s event here. Looking forward to seeing everyone in Portland!

Alumni Spotlight: James Beckwith

It’s been a strong senior season for James Beckwith at the College of New Jersey! Most recently, the Menlo-Atherton High School graduate poured in 17 points while shooting 5-for-11 from three-point range as he helped the Lions win the Greg Grant Tip-Off Tournament Championship. On the season, Beckwith has started all eight games for the College of New Jersey and is averaging 9.0 points and 3.3 rebounds per game per game. The Lions are 7-1 to open up the year and positioned to compete for a NJAC Championship at the Division III level. Beckwith grew up in our Black Club since the fourth grade where he famously set the record for most three’s in a championship game by drilling eight as a seventh grader. Great to see his shooting translate to the next level!

Coming Up…

We’ll be back competing this weekend in our final tournament for 2023 as we’ll be splitting to play at the 4Ballers Only Jingle Jam and Bulldawgs Holiday Hoops events. Be sure to check TeamSnap for your schedule and please mark your availability on TeamSnap so we know our roster for the weekend. Let’s finish out 2023 on a high note!

For information on the rest of the Black Club tournaments click this link.

Following this weekend, we’ll have our regularly scheduled practices plus our Saturday competitions up until December 22nd. We’ll have two optional open gyms during the break on Wednesday, December 27th and Friday, December 29th, both at SportsHouse from 4:00-5:30pm.

We’ll also be having our Christmas Holiday Camp December 27th-29th at SportsHouse and our New Year’s Holiday Camp January 2nd-5th at the Arrillaga Family Gym. You can register for days on an individual basis and find more information by clicking on the button below.

We crave to learn and grow. The best way for us to grow is with your valued feedback. Please use the above link anytime to let us know how things are going (positives and negatives) for the Black Club. There’s an option to get in contact with an HQ member in the link as well. We look forward to hearing from you!