It is with great excitement that I announce this year will be the 11th annual Portland Trip that Team Esface Black Club is making.
Our Black AAU Teams will be participating in the HoopSource Grassroots Presidents Day National Championships visiting various locations in Portland. This is truly an unparalleled experience as Portland is the home to the Team Esface founders, the Sobomehin brothers aka Tunde, Remi and myself. I always make it a point to make this trip extra special, giving some nice cultural and historical background on Friday and throughout the weekend.
Cheers to an amazing trip!
Let’s Go!
Coach Dele
#TeamEsfaceHomecoming #TeamEsfaceTakeOver
Detailed Itinerary:
Team DInner | May 23rd: 6:30pm - 9:30pm, at Punch bowl social (Tickets will be available for purchased soon!)
Join us for a night of fun, food, and community at our Academy-Wide Team Esface Dinner!
There will be entertainment and amusement like Bowling (4 lanes), Karaoke, Giant Scrabble , Floor Shuffle & Table Shuffle, 3 Dart Boards (18 & Older), Jenga, Giant Connect Four, and Arcade Access (Arcade Games requires payment).
Dates:
May 22nd - 26th, 2025
Special Team Esface Outing on Friday, May 23rd. Please arrive prior to 10am
Team Dinner with all players and families on Friday, May 23rd from 6:30-9:30pm
Games begin on Saturday, May 24th
Book return flights Monday May 26th for 7:00pm or later.
Hotel DETAILS:
All rooms have been booked and our room blocks have been released. If you made a reservation that only has a King Bed and you need a Double, please let us know -- We can make a switch on the backend with another family that's fine with a King.
location: Portland Marriott Downtown Waterfront | 1401 SW Naito Parkway Portland, OR 97201
The Reservation Link is NOW LIVE!!
Thursday Hotel Updates:
The Portland Waterfront unfortunately does not have anymore doubles available for Thursday night, as there is a corporate group that has booked the remainder of their inventory. What they can do for folks that plan to come Thursday night, is have you book a king room for now via the link above, and then book a double from the original team block for Friday-Monday. Worst case, you’ll have to stay one night in the king room (a roll away bed can be provided at no additional cost), and then transfer rooms on Friday. If at the time of check-in on Thursday, a double has become available, the hotel will move you over for all four nights.
If either of these reservations are no longer available, please email Aimee Roberts at aimee.roberts@tcihousing.com for room availability.
Hotel Features:
Free Wifi for Bonvoy members
Walking distance to the Portland Art Museum and Downtown
Right next to Portland State University
Right next to Mills End Park
Parking is not included in the guest room room rate.
On-site parking is valet only, 27% Team Esface discount $39 daily (normally $54). Self-parking across the street at Crown Plaza $27/day
**Reserve Hotel by April 15th to lock in discounts
Venue Addresses:
Various gyms in the Portland Metropolitan Area (including Vancouver, WA). 10-30 min from hotel.
TRANSPORTATION:
WE recommend Renting a car. Consider coordinating with another family to split costs.
In the past, some families have used UBER on road trips but we recommend looking at the cost difference before making that call.
Tournament Link
Playing Time Philosophy
Team esface game schedule:
attending players and Teams:
3rd Grade Black:
Kareem Khayat
Connor Szeto
Seif Elaraby
Silas Lucas
Thomas Johnston
Aiden Hejazi Moghadam
Darren Lee
Djeylani Ndiaye
Ari Takahashi
Pax Valdez
Harvey Jia
4th Grade Black:
Arjun Sethuraman
Sam Epley
Luca Matteucci
Liam Hardman
Ethan Valdez
Theodore Le
Lev Appelboum
Corben So
James Davis
5th Grade Goers:
Ethan Sera
Thomas Lue
Isaac Ryu
Colin Griffith
Ryan Dong
Dylan Wei
Apollo Lam
Toshi Takahashi
Jace Menor
5th Grade blazers:
Noah Jones
Jacob Ho
Brandon Pita
Dane Parsons
Ayan Shankar
Rafael Marques
Aaron Yang
John Ramming
5th Grade Hustler:
Dylan Liou
Ayan Pottathil
Yohan Cheruzal
Grayson Walker
Kai Gibson
Austan Wu
Noel Littke
Tristan Huang
5th Grade Hitters:
Grant Liau
Ford Liau
Austin Yuan
Benjamin Tom
Phil Yun
Aahvi Verma
Charles Martinez
Benjamin Freeland
6th Grade black:
Sam Patton
Colton Liske
Hunter Hsieh
Marcus Poehlmann
Dylan Enan
Andreas Salis
Carter Kozlov
William Cherry
Jayden Bell
Joji Kanematsu
7th Grade black:
Ricky Tague
Walker Fogarty
Ethan Tom
Seth Wong
Musa Ali
Olataiye Sobomehin
Kepler Gumtow
AJ Ronquillo
Henry Iwersen
James Nicholas
7th Grade Blazers:
Jackson Alvarez
Matteis O’Brien
Trevor Young
Noah Kang
Paxton William
Mateo Gil Chavez
Caleb Martin
Thomas Iwersen
Preston Tollinger
8th Grade Black:
Alexander Yamasaki
Jaxon Baer
Bradley Rittenberg
Nanji Jayadev
Charlie Livingston
Tyler Lee Munson
Jack Spivey
Aaron Emilie
8th Grade blazers:
Lincoln Giusti
Ezra Farber-Drabkin
Darian Trinh
Din Iskandirov
Elliot Kawamoto
Ocean Race
Mason Reichanadter
Yuito Fujita
Jonathan Tang