Welcome to the NEW Western North Carolina Tigers Boys Basketball Travel Team. The purpose of this team is to take players that have the heart, the skills and the learned and acquired talent to take basketball and team sports to the next level in their lives. To learn time management, how to achieve success in the classroom and on the basketball court, to become better young men and to inspire thos
e around them, to learn that working together as a team will get you further than the individual, and that true hard work pays off in becoming champions. Normally, many middle-school students spend the summer months lounging around the house enjoying a break before the next school year begins. Players with the WNC Tigers travel basketball team have other ideas, however; ideas that revolve around bettering their skills individually and collectively, seeing hard work pay dividends in both the short and long term. Western North Carolina Tigers Athletic Association works to take players that have the heart, skills and learned and acquired talent to take basketball and team sports to the next level in their lives. According to the team’s mission statement, the association strives to help players “to learn time management, how to achieve success in the classroom and on the basketball court, to become better young men and women and to inspire those around them, to learn that working together as a team will get you further than the individual and that true hard work pays off in becoming champions.” As well, the team and association was created to give young athletes, both male and female, an opportunity to participate with a year-round competitive focus in their particular sport in order to help them continue to develop their skills in hopes of creating college student athletes. WNCTAA begins its quest on the basketball floor with its first team of seventh- and eighth-grade students that forms the WNC Tigers. The Tigers are affiliated with both the National Travel Basketball Association, Basketball Association of the Carolinas and the United States Basketball Association, allowing the club to travel across the region to play in sanctioned tournaments.
“The biggest thing we hope our players pick up are the solid fundamentals of basketball. We want the players to be taught and to learn the important skills and developments that college recruiters are looking for; concepts like true pick-and-rolls, the pick-and-pass, flashes, being able to v-cut and being aware of where they are on the court,” Tigers head coach Clint Carraway said during a recent practice in Banner Elk. “What we’re looking to do on the court is help players expand their awareness and perception so they are able to start turning the heads of people while they are out there with their ball handling and ball control, for instance. We want to take the skill level of players and raise that level, and travel ball raises a player’s level quickly.”
Travel basketball players are eligible to participate through age 14, with some players at ninth-grade playing down to participate with students at the seventh- and eighth-grade level. According to Carraway, the travel basketball level is a step up from recreation league or YBOA leagues that many players are accustomed to.
“Travel ball is definitely a step up from where players locally customarily play, but still a step below the AAU level,” Carraway added. “Still, though, travel basketball gives players the opportunity for the exposure that we want to give these kids and put them in the competition level that they will be playing at when they enter high school or into a Division-1 college.”
Multiple areas across the western portion of the state have active travel basketball teams, leagues and tournaments, including Asheville, Lenoir, Wilkesboro, Morganton, Hickory and Winston-Salem. WNC Tigers expands the reach of travel basketball into northwestern North Carolina, giving players from across the High Country a place to play, to develop or showcase skills and prepare for the future through skills enhancement.
“We have a few players who have come over from Watauga, and we welcome more players from across the High Country to be part of this team and association,” Carraway explained. “We have a good mix of players from various locations across Avery and Watauga that has blended well from the beginning.”
As with many extracurricular activities, a major factor to the participation of children is cost, which is no different with the WNC Tigers. Players’ families pay a fee to participate with the team, costs which contribute toward team apparel, lodging and meals, tournament registrations and other needs. The team continues to seek sponsorships and new ways to aid in its growth, however, including the acceptance of donations online through a secure server on the team’s website.
“Players who have practiced since we began practicing 10 weeks ago, and their parents, are committed to us and to this team. We’ve been able to initially buy custom uniforms with help of a private donor, so we’re using our contacts and parents are helping with that. We’re also doing fundraisers to help keep our costs to a minimum,” Carraway said. “We are working with contacts that we as a coaching staff have in the community, as well as the folks our parents know in the community that are able to help us.”
According to the coaching staff, travel basketball meets a need to provide year-round opportunities for basketball players to enhance their skills and play the game they love.
“Travel basketball provides a level of competition that is a step up from rec leagues or pickup basketball. It’s the next step for kids that are getting better and improving their skills where they need that competition that challenges them for when they get to that middle school, junior varsity and varsity high school level,” former college player, longtime coach and Tigers assistant coach Rob Somes said. “Without that step upward in competition, the kids won’t get better, whether it’s between each other or off the mountain. Exposing players to different types of players, different types of defenses and offenses, it makes them more well-rounded players in a lot of ways, while focusing on skills that high school and college coaches teach their players.”
WNC Tigers welcomes new players and parents to join its team. For more information about the team and association, visit the team’s website by clicking to www.wnctigers.com, email [email protected] or call Carraway at (828) 737-0849.
