Black Club Opens up the spring/Summer season

It was a great start to the Spring/Summer tournament season as we had three teams leave with championships at the Bay City Spring Tip-Off! The 6th Grade Goers took home first place in the 6th Grade Gold Division by defeating the Bay Area Tar Heels 39-24 in the final on Sunday. Ethan Tom led the way with his scoring and defensive intensity.

The 4th Grade Goers also left with a championship in the 4th Grade Gold Division in a 32-31 win over NBBA on Sunday. They erased a 15-point second half deficit before Dylan Wei buried the game-winning three in the final minute!

The 3rd Grade Hitters took home the 3rd Grade Bronze Division championship in their first tournament as a team. Silas Lucas saved the day with a game-winning three to beat the buzzer against Bay City and secure a perfect 3-0 weekend! Check out the buzzer beater below!

It was an encouraging start for our academy with still plenty of room to grow. We’re excited to build upon a strong first weekend!

sign up for AAU Elite camp this summer

Summer will be here before you know it and we hope to see our Black Club athletes at our Team Esface AAU Elite Camp! With six weeks available, we’re offering the best hoop experience of the summer with an advanced curriculum, experienced coaching staff, and competitive competition. All of our current Black Club athletes are automatically eligible and can register without having to apply. In honor of March Madness, we’re currently offering two discounts to our Black Club athletes that expire on March 31st:

-Buy One Camp, Get One Camp 20% Off Using the Code: HC24FAMONLYMAR20

-Save 12% Off One Camp Using the Code: HC24MADNESSONECAMP

Alumni Spotlight: ALL-WBAL Performers

The West Bay Athletic League released their All-League selections from the past high school season and we were ecstatic to see seven members of the Team Esface family on the list! Special shoutout to Sacred Heart Prep senior TJ O’Brien who was named the league’s Most Valuable Player after growing up in our Black Club program and is now training our current athletes in Black Club Vitamins! Great to see him pouring into the next generation of future all-league hoopers before starting his college career at Chapman University in the Fall!

Basketball 101: Increase Parent’s Hoop Understanding

For this week’s Basketball 101 segment, we wanted to pull from the NCAA Tournament and focus on Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson’s thoughts on failure. As he mentions in the video, “The first step on the ladder to success is always failure.” He references former Houston athlete Jarace Walker, a former five-star recruit and eventual 8th overall pick in the NBA Draft, who is now having his own struggles in his rookie season in the NBA.

While we might live in a world of instant gratification and unrealistic expectations, it’s always important for athletes to understand the value of pushing their comfort zones and overcoming adversity. With a majority of our Black Club athletes beginning their basketball careers, it might be the first time they ever experience this feeling of “failure” or be so worried about the outcome that they become afraid to take risks. We want all of our athletes to understand that nothing great can be achieved in their comfort zone and encourage them to keep pushing their limits – even if that means experiencing some losses or mistakes along the way. With lengthy playing careers ahead of them, they’re bound to have some bad games along the way and want to keep them focused on having a growth mindset. Any loss can be reframed as an opportunity to learn and improve upon areas where they may have struggled. As Sampson says, “Prepare for failure, you’re gonna fail, we all fail. Figure it out, nobody’s feeling sorry for you.”

Coming up…

We’re stepping up the competition this weekend at the 4BallersOnly NorCal Easter Showcase in the East Bay. Be sure to check TeamSnap for your schedule and please mark your availability on TeamSnap so we know our roster for the weekend. Our College Prep squads will also be competing at the event so feel free to come out and support in their first tournament of the season! We hope everyone takes their Sunday to enjoy Easter with the family!

You can view our Black Club tournament schedule for the rest of the season here.

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!