More hardware
What's the biggest need of the Northwest Indiana AAU program out of Gary?
After another spring and summer of success on the basketball court, it might be a larger room to hold all the trophies its teams have accumulated over the years.
Those teams -- six boys and one girls -- grabbed more hardware in the past six months before their school years started.
The most impressive might be the program's two first-year teams -- the 10-and-under fourth-grade boys and high school girls.
Both placed second in their respective AAU national tournaments. The 10U boys finished runner-up in the Boys National Division II in Lexington, Kent., going 6-1 in the tourney.
The girls were runner-up in the Girls National Open Division event last month in Orlando, Fla. Among the standout players on the team were Brianna Davis from Merrillville, Juaneice Jackson from Calumet, Jennifer Sandford from Morton and reigning Post-Tribune player of the year Tatianna Washington from Roosevelt.
NWI AAU founder Toi Baylor was most impressed with the girls' effort in their first season together.
"This was a big accomplishment for our organization," she said. "To see the girls come back with the smiles on their faces, their confidence was priceless."
Not to mention the girls' effort inspired Baylor's high school boys team, which won its age group's national title soon after the girls finished second. Overall, Baylor couldn't have been more excited about her program in its ninth year of existence.
"This is the most success that our children have achieved at the national level," she said. "We were mentioned as one of the upcoming programs in the country on the ESPN broadcast at the AAU Super Showcase. The kids played in front of every major Division I college. I worked so hard for so many years and finally, I have seen the real rewards. I am so proud of the success of the girls and boys."
The 17U and 15U boys teams reached the Sweet 16 of that AAU Super Showcase.
And to think Baylor, who played for legendary West Side High School coach Rod Fisher, started with only one team made up solely of Gary players nine years ago.
"I started out with 15 sixth-grade boys from Gary who had no idea what AAU was or the exposure it would bring them," she said. "Now, 13 out of those 15 were 2008 graduates from high school and all received athletic scholarships to Division I, II or junior colleges."
Now Baylor's program has kids from Merrillville, Hammond, Highland, Schererville, Portage, St. John, Munster, East Chicago, Cedar Lake, Griffith, Dyer, Indianapolis, Illinois and Wisconsin, in addition to still cultivating student athletes from her hometown of Gary.
Baylor's AAU program shines in
National Tourneys
8/26/2009 12:00:00 AM
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