2012 Spring AAU - Middle School Tryout Session Recap

Congratulations to the 300+ players selected for team placement on a Spring AAU team at the National, Local or Regional levels. Players represented over 60 local cities and towns from Eastern Massachusetts, Southern New Hampshire and surrounding areas. Just some of the towns represented include Peabody, Topsfield, Middleton, Danvers, Beverly, Manchester, Essex, Georgetown, Newburyport, Amesbury, Hamilton,  Lynnfield, Lynn, Wakefield, Reading, North Reading, Woburn, Melrose, Burlington, Bedford, Lexington, Arlington, Westford, Tewksbury, Billerica and many more!

Check out some of the photos below from our “Invitational Tryout” sessions for players in grades 4-8.

Mass Elite 7th and 8th Grade Players got a “Small Taste” of Prep School Hoops during Christmas Break as some of the programs young players attended a morning practice session for the Pingree Prep School Basketball team,  a team that has started off the Winter season undefeated!

Associate Program Director and Head 8th Grade Coach Dave Latimer who also serves as Assistant Varsity Basketball Coach for Pingree, invited many of our programs top young talent to participate in a practice session with the Pingree Varsity and Junior Varsity teams! The morning workout consisted of a shootaround, some extensive drills and some fun-spirited shooting competitions.

After the morning workout, Mass Elite players got the opportunity to hear some lectures from both past and current Pingree players, the topic of the discussions being “Pre-Game Preparation”. The boys also got to take their picture (see left photo) with members of the Pingree Basketball teams and got the chance to ask members of the teams questions about their experience thus far playing prep school basketball!

A special thanks goes out to Coach Gibbs, Coach Latimer and all of the Pingree players for hosting us at your school! The players all got a lot out of the experience.

Mass Elite Basketball recently was profiled by “Real AAU Basketball” the official online magazine for National AAU Basketball. To read the entire article then please Click Here

November Madness 2011 – Tournament Highlights

Our annual Fall tournament was a huge success for the 45+ teams who attended, making our tournaments one of the most popular AAU tournaments offered in New England. With participation from many of New England’s most popular and well respected program, words cannot describe what a great event this was for all involved.

Not only did the weekend consist of 120+ games of competitive Fall Hoops, the weekend represented the unity of family that represents the Mass Elite Basketball community!The tournament was held at a variety of popular sites in the North Shore and Middlesex County. Participating teams included – Mass Elite Basketball, MIBC (Mass Intensity), RI Hawks, Boston Spartans, Kingston Thunder, M-Plex Basketball and many local town travel teams who are gearing up for Winter Hoops. See above for a photo of the 7th grade Burlington Town Travel team that won their respective division!

Respective champions from each division included: 4th/5th Grade – Mass Elite, 6th Grade (North) – Boston Spartans, 6th Grade (South) – Billerica Travel, 7th Grade (North) – M-Plex, 7th Grade (South) – Burlington Travel, 7th Grade (East) – Kingston Thunder, 7th Grade (West) – Mass Wildcats, 8th Grade – Boston Spartans, 9th Grade – MIBC, 10th Grade – MIBC

Special thanks goes out to all of the volunteers from the Mass Elite program who donated their times and energy to make the tournament such a success. Volunteers included players, parents, fellow administrators and coaches. Thanks again to all for making the weekend so memorable. Stay tuned for information regarding our 2012 Spring Tournament that will be held this Spring AAU season!

Hard Court Happenings @ Rockingham Athletic Club Tournament Highlights

The 16U Tobin team had a successful weekend, winning the Hardcourt Happenings championship in Plaistown, NH. The team went 3-0 in pool play, defeating Mass Evolution and Northeast Ice by 16 apiece on Saturday.

The front-court play was strong on Saturday, with 6’4″ PF Nick Baltayan (Billerica HS) and 6’8″ C Joshua Sharma (Lexington HS) asserting themselves in the paint. PG Chris Van Etten (Lexington HS) again steady, facilitating offense and applying strong ball pressure. Sunday morning, Mass Elite then defeated Chesire Knights, to advance to the title game, where they faced an also undefeated Gladiators team. The championship was a back and forth affair, with each team holding leads as high as 9 points. With the score tied at 57 with 1:30 remaining, Daniel Najarian (Billerica HS) drilled a straightaway 3 to push the lead to 60-57. After a Mass Elite stop, it became a free throw shooting contest, with a final score of 66-65 in favor of MA Elite. Perimeter shooting was the key in this one, with Mass Elite knocking down fourteen 3s. Shooting guard Mickey Lyons (Burlington HS) led all scorers with 25 points, including 5 triples. Joe Fontaine (Chelmsford HS) provided a strong defensive effort, and point guard Zack Sabri (Salem HS) had one of his best games to date, with 10 points and 4 rebounds. Gilly Hodge (Peabody HS) and Andrew Hall (St John’s Prep) also gave nice boosts off the bench in key situations. ”

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Mass Elite teams this Fall continued to have lots of success. This past weekend our high school teams made the trip down to Kingston Massachusetts to attend the Fall Brawl Tournament hosted by the Kingston Thunder.

Looking at some highlights and notable accomplishments from teams over the weekend, the 15U team coached by our High School Program Director Brian Tobin team won the tournament in resilient fashion. After going behind by as many as 12 points in the first half to host team KSC Thunder, they stayed composed and chipped away at the lead, cutting it to 6 at the half. Early on, Paul Terrazzano (Peabody HS) was the lone offensive bright spot in a sluggish 1st half. As the second half began, Mass Elite began to turn the tide, dominating the glass, and creating transition opportunities. What was once a 12 point deficit became a 3 point advantage with under a minute to go, and the 15U squad got multiple stops, eventually stretching the final margin of victory to 8. Tim Collins (Concord-Carlisle HS) was massive in the second half in the lane, and Deion Williams (Woburn HS) displayed a nice midrange game, making timely shots against the zone. During the tournament, the boys also defeated Dana Barros’ “Team Barros” squad by 34, and beat a 10th grade Thunder team by 15. Ray Veguila (Maconomet HS) was steady as always at point throughout the weekend, and received nice contributions from Bobby Sullivan (Peabody HS) and Nick Raucci (Reading HS) on the perimeter. Tyler Figenbaum was a nice contributor overall by bringing his 110% effort to the court every game.

The 16U Tobin team also had a productive weekend as they advanced to the championship game in the KSC Thunder tournament, losing a heartbreaker 48-46 to East Coast Elite. The tournament started of very well for the boys, with a 22 point win over host team KSC Thunder. 6’8″ big man Joshua Sharma (Lexington HS) had his way on the defensive end of the court, blocking 7 shots, and altering countless others. Point guard Chris Van Etten (Lexington HS) was also very efficient, controlling tempo, and creating shots for his teammates. Next up for the 16s was Cape Cod Crossover, and they were dispatched in similar fashion. Zach Sabri (Salem HS) gave a nice scoring boost off the bench, knocking down three 3s, and Mass Elite cruised to a 16 point win. In the championship game, the 16U team played East Coast Elite, who had beaten them by a margin of 41 points just 3 hours earlier. The team came in with a much different mindset, and were in the game wire to wire. Nick Baltayan (Billerica HS) was dominant throughout, 17 points and 16 rebounds in 30 minutes of floor time. Daniel Najarian (Billerica HS) and Joe Fontaine (Chelmsford HS) defended very well, and each was able to get to the rim against bigger, longer opponents. With 8 seconds left, Mass Elite had an out of bounds situation, down by 2 points. The play was executed well, and Mickey Lyons’ (Burlington HS) 3 point attempt was halfway down for the win, but rimmed out. Najarian and Lyons ended up with 12 and 11 ponts, repectively. Gilly Hodge (Peabody HS) played a terrific floor game, committing only 1 turnover in about 24 minutes of floor time.

Mass Elite 7th grade Select team went a dominating 3-0, outscoring opponents by a margin of 204-65 to win their bracket/pool at the annual Fall Classic AAU Tournament. The team defeated programs such as Boston Spartans, The Rivals and the Shooting Stars to earn the 7th grade title. Leading the charge throughout the weekend was the dominating MichaelDemartinis (Burlington) who is making big waves in the local basketball scene. Michael played his trademark ‘in your face” defense and was also a tough player to beat on the offensive side of the floor where he was not only attacking the basket well but also hitting outside jump shots from 12-16 foot range. Michael was helped by equally strong performances by the teams starting guards Matt D’Amato(Peabody) and Ryan Veguilla (Middleton) each of which distributed the ball nicely to teamates and also were very effective from shooting outside the arc. Other key players to the teams success this weekend included Cooper Penniman(Lexington), Cross Meehan (Wakefield), Andre Braga (Winchester), Alex Frawley (Billerica), Kyle Cortese (Billerica), Matt Foutter (Lexington),Thomas Dulski (Manchester) and Matt Wallace (Billerica).

New England Recruiting Report highlighted our 7th grade team’s 3-0 performance at the Fall Classic Tournament held this Fall. For the full story please click here!

Myles Penniman (Lexington) who was a member of last Spring’s Junior class had a nice performance at the Hoop Mountain Fall Classic Showcase held last weekend. Covered by New England Recruiting Report, the recruiting service was again praising his game stating that he is a “big man who is at his best on the low block, rebounds well and had a consistent scoring presence.”

Big things are expected for Myles this Winter season (at Lexington High School) as he has made some major strides in his overall game since his last high school season. Myles has also been getting a lot of attention from many colleges and universities as he heads into his senior season. Please check back this Winter for more updates regarding Myles senior season.

Big-Man Josh Sharma from our Class of 2014 got a lot of attention at the Elite 75 Showcase.

held last weekend, this event attended by top recruiting service NERR.

Josh’s big weekend earned him a write-up on the New England Recruiting Reports events recap. Many scouts noted that Josh was the “biggest surprises” of the event and figures to be big-time force this Winter for his Lexington High School team coached by Reggie Hobbs.

NERR had the following remarks regarding Josh’s performance at the showcase - “Josh Sharma, was a virtual unknown on Friday and had the gym buzzing a day later. He’s six-foot-nine, long, and relatively skilled with the potential to improve by leaps and bounds in the coming years. Definitely one of the day’s top discoveries.”