Four-peating Hoop Stars

The Dayton Lady (Ohio) Hoopstars 17-and-under "Black" team made history last summer in Orlando at the Amateur Athletic Union Nationals. Their victory over the Potomac Maryland Fusion by a score of 56-48 represented the fourth straight National Age Championship won by this group of players. It also was the sixth national AAU title won by a team coached by John Coffee.

Three Hoopstar players - Marcella Packer, Sarah Hull and Ashton Sprouse - were named AAU All-Americans, with Hull receiving the Most Valuable Player award for the championship series. In addition to Packer, Hull and Sprouse, the core team members include Kirn Ingle, Katie Streck, Amanda Jackson, Megan Thompson, Jamie Finney, Ashley Burtsfield and Angie Marshall.

Coach Coffee is happy to reveal the team's winning formula. "The secret is to maintain a family atmosphere," he says. "We do a lot of things together as a team. That's all my assistant's doing. She's wonderful at that."

Perhaps Coffee particularly appreciates a family atmosphere because it was family ties that introduced him to basketball and to coaching. As Coffee explains, "I got into coaching in an odd way. It started with my niece and nephew. They played basketball growing up. They weren't the best players out there, but they were tall and played on a lot of teams. Their father works odd hours, so I'd take them to practice sometimes. I got interested in the game that way.

"Taking them to practice gave me an opportunity to hang out in the gym, and I got a chance to observe a large number of coaches," he continues. "I learned something from each one of them. Some taught me things I'd do, and some taught me things I wouldn't do. Then an opening came up, so I became an assistant for a high school coach. I assisted on both girls' and boys' teams for many years. From there I went to AAU and the Hoopstars organization."

Says team member Ingle, "Coach Coffee's got a lot of experience under his belt. he got us to play together instead of separate. I really like his coaching style. He's very down to earth and he hardly ever yells. I know that he's always there for us. And he's good at helping us get scholarships."

During the Ohio high school girls' basketball season, Ingle plays with the Beavercreek High School team. While she acknowledges that "you learn the fundamentals in high school," she prefers playing for the Hoopstars.

"AAU is totally different from high school," she says. "The competition is more consistent in AAU, everyone is good and has potential. Playing for an AAU team helps us get better because we scrimmage against good players all the time."

Ingle has not committed to any college as yet. "I'm still open and looking at my options," she says. Many of her teammates have declared their college choices, however. Hull and Jackson will attend Miami University of Ohio, while Finney will attend Urbana University and Thompson will go to Lewis University.

Past Hoopstar players represent a veritable who's who of women's college basketball. Recent team members Marcella Packer, Brandie Hoskins and Stephanie Blanton now attend Ohio State University, while Alison Bales is a freshman at Duke University.

Founded in 1989, the Dayton Lady Hoopstars field teams at the 9-10 through 18-year-old divisions. At many age levels they support three or four teams, and Dayton squads are a fixture at national tournaments for every age group. The Hoopstars are an elite club, having won eight National AAU Age Group Championships and 31 Ohio AAU Age Group State Championships.

With high school season in full swing, there is no AAU basketball being played right now. But Coffee is already looking forward to next season.

"I've been with this team for four years now, and we've won the National Championship every year," he says. "We've had a lot of really good players. And while the Hoopstars have lost some really good players to college - girls like Alison Bales and Brandie Hoskins - there are still some very good girls coming back.

"I'll be coaching them next summer at the 18U level," he adds. "It gets harder at that age because so many go to college by that time. But we've had a really good run so far, and I really enjoy these kids."

To learn more about AAU basketball, log onto www.aaugirlsbasketball.org.

Copyright Ashton International Media, Inc. Feb 2004
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