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How to Start an AAU Basketball Team: 8 Essential Steps for Success!
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Jan 26, 2025
Ready to launch your own AAU basketball team but not sure where to start? In this video, we break down the 8 crucial steps to go from vision to game day, including: defining your team's mission, planning a budget, recruiting volunteers, hosting tryouts, securing gym space and equipment, registering for leagues and tournaments, creating a practice/game plan, and building strong communication with parents. Whether you're a coach, player, or basketball enthusiast, this guide will help you turn your dream into reality. Let’s get your team on the court! 🏀🔥 Check out the links below: Link to an article: https://squareuphoops.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-starting-your-travel-basketball-team/
View Video Transcript
0:01
hey if you're watching this video it's
0:03
likely that you're thinking about
0:05
starting a travel basketball team or
0:06
maybe an aaou basketball team and you're
0:09
just looking for a little bit of uh
0:11
inspiration or maybe some tips on
0:13
YouTube um if that's you you found the
0:16
right place uh my YouTube channel is all
0:20
about uh starting and and running travel
0:23
basketball teams I've done this for
0:26
years um I've learned a little bit over
0:28
those years and I'm hoping to share some
0:30
of my experiences with you so if this is
0:33
what you're looking to do um let's jump
0:36
right into it so the first thing that
0:38
you need to think about and most of you
0:40
probably already have is you want to
0:42
know you know what your your goals and
0:45
objectives are with this team you
0:46
basically want to answer the question
0:48
like why like why are you here um
0:52
listening to this YouTube video why are
0:54
you searching for this you know maybe
0:56
you know a bunch of different questions
0:58
pop into my mind you know maybe you just
1:01
simply want to coach your kids
1:02
basketball team you want to have a
1:05
little bit of control on how much you
1:07
know you travel with your team maybe you
1:09
want to control who your kid plays with
1:12
or maybe you coach you know recreation
1:15
basketball and you just want to uh have
1:17
a team that's yours a group of kids
1:19
that's yours and you guys uh play in
1:22
more competitive environments those are
1:25
all really good reasons why um but
1:28
mainly the reason why I throw this out
1:29
out there is because there's a lot of
1:31
different types of programs that you can
1:33
start a lot of different types of teams
1:36
that you can start um you know your team
1:39
that you want might be like super
1:41
competitive maybe you want one of these
1:43
uh you know Advanced teams that you know
1:46
go all the way and play in these really
1:48
Elite tournaments if that's the case you
1:51
know you're probably watching the wrong
1:53
Channel my channel is more for um you
1:56
know coaches that want to start out
1:59
something small you know maybe you know
2:01
run a medium-sized team they're just in
2:03
the beginning phases those are the kind
2:06
of uh folks that I cater to on this
2:09
channel um but you know that's what you
2:11
want to know and and the the answer to
2:14
that question is going to drive uh
2:16
responses to the remaining steps that
2:19
I'm going to talk about in today's video
2:22
so after you know your why and what your
2:25
goals and objectives are you want to
2:27
start and and and really this should go
2:30
hand inand um but you want to start like
2:33
planning like how much of a budget do I
2:36
have or can I have and and I understand
2:39
that if you're you know if you just
2:41
figured out what your reason for doing
2:43
this is you probably have a good idea
2:46
how much money you want to spend um but
2:48
maybe you're hoping to get money from
2:51
outside sources which I would definitely
2:53
suggest when I start looking into
2:55
planning my budget you know my advice or
2:59
what I want to share with you is that
3:01
there's going to be two really major
3:03
Financial points in this and this is
3:05
like incoming you know money or funds
3:08
and outgoing expenses really it's it's
3:11
almost as simple as that um you know
3:15
you're going to need to figure out
3:16
really what you want to do how much
3:18
money you're going to need to make this
3:20
work and then figure out how to get that
3:22
money and and I'll talk a little bit
3:25
more later on about where money comes
3:27
from in a travel basketball program but
3:31
I'll sum it up for you it's either going
3:33
to come from your parents the you know
3:36
the the parents of the players on your
3:39
team are going to pay you a one you know
3:42
one or two time uh uh fee or maybe a
3:45
monthly fee and you're going to use
3:47
those funds to determine you know what
3:51
kind of program you're going to have
3:52
that season um it's very important that
3:55
you plan ahead on these things and
3:57
that's really the reason I created this
3:59
channel channel was to help people plan
4:02
for this type of thing so that you can
4:04
have a good season and everyone will
4:06
know but uh if you haven't already
4:08
thought about this some of the expenses
4:11
that you're going to have to deal with
4:13
or or or or come across will be like gym
4:16
rental
4:17
fees um which can get pretty pricey they
4:20
can also be free um but if you're paying
4:23
it's it could be a large chunk of what
4:26
you do pay for uniforms which can be
4:30
paid for by parents if if you have a
4:33
beginner team um I will throw out there
4:37
really fast and I I will talk a lot
4:39
about Uniforms on this channel but um
4:41
uniforms can take some time to get here
4:43
so if you've got a month that's probably
4:46
what if you got a month before your
4:47
first tournament you might be a little
4:49
behind those uniforms do take a little
4:52
bit of time to put together and ship in
4:54
some cases um travel expenses you know
4:58
it's really difficult to determine how
5:01
much travel expenses are going to be you
5:03
know unless you know are you you know
5:05
your parents getting your their players
5:07
or their kids to the tournaments that
5:09
are outside of your city you know not
5:12
commuting distance are they paying for
5:14
hotels are you paying for hotels are you
5:16
including that in the cost there's a lot
5:18
of things there that you have to think
5:19
about um and that really can uh you know
5:22
if you're doing
5:23
traveling and the parents aren't going
5:26
to take care of their own player and you
5:28
have to kind of figure that out your own
5:30
that's going to take some serious uh
5:33
forward or Advanced planning on your
5:35
part um because hotels and food and gas
5:38
it's all pretty pricey um another thing
5:41
is too is tournament fees and
5:43
registration costs you know tournaments
5:45
can be anywhere from 250 on up uh and
5:49
they're pretty much sets you know
5:51
standard so if you plan your schedule at
5:52
the beginning of the year you know
5:54
you'll know if you're going to pay $500
5:56
a tournament or not you can calculate
5:58
that into your cost you'll also know how
6:00
much registration fees and insurance are
6:02
for each different type of of sanctioned
6:05
organization so those are pretty clear
6:07
cut costs that you can be prepared for
6:11
doesn't make them any cheaper but at
6:12
least you'll know they're coming um
6:14
another thing you want to do and this
6:16
one is super important is just you know
6:19
recruiting some people to help you out
6:21
on this journey you don't want to do
6:23
this alone you know being a if you're
6:26
the coach the coach's job is uh you know
6:30
there's a lot of things to do obviously
6:32
planning and you know getting ready for
6:34
practices making sure you got gear
6:36
getting to the practice place um
6:39
rallying everyone up dealing with you
6:41
know questions that come up from
6:42
parents um you know dealing with
6:44
logistical issues at the gym maybe the
6:46
lights aren't on maybe the gyms there's
6:48
a lot of things so if you can get an
6:51
assistant coach or two um that can make
6:54
your job a lot easier I definitely
6:56
suggest a team manager a team parent
6:59
team mom mom team dad those can always
7:01
be helpful and um you know making or
7:05
having them help you out with some of
7:07
these administrative
7:09
taskings um can really make your job a
7:12
lot easier you can also get a treasure
7:14
especially if you're going to have
7:15
somebody that's going to deal with the
7:16
money um that could be a team parent as
7:19
well and then of course you know if your
7:21
program is going to be a little bit
7:22
bigger and and as your program grows you
7:24
know maybe you're going to get a trainer
7:27
um that can help you out with uh some of
7:29
your
7:31
practices after you get that team set up
7:35
you know you got to start looking at who
7:37
are going to be my players and and how
7:39
do you do that right like you gota you
7:41
got to go out and you've got to start
7:43
recruiting or at least you know hosting
7:46
a try out my suggestion is start
7:49
networking with some of the local
7:50
depending on what grade you are start
7:52
networking with the local uh either High
7:54
School um or maybe Middle School
7:57
basketball coaches or you know uh some
8:00
of the tourn or some of the recreation
8:02
leagues will have the players that you
8:05
want you know you'll have one or two
8:07
players on each team that stand out
8:09
every single season and maybe you want
8:11
to start hanging out at the wreck league
8:14
and you know the various wreck leagues
8:15
in your area and start recruiting from
8:18
there um I would set up a try out where
8:23
you advertise it on social media you get
8:25
with those coaches that you've networked
8:27
with and you let them know hey we're
8:28
having tryouts on this
8:30
day um you know each player should bring
8:32
you know whatever if you're going to
8:34
charge them you know A5 $20 uh uh
8:39
registration fee to come and try out to
8:41
help offset the cost of that gym rental
8:44
and then you can you know host tryy outs
8:46
and you can start determining which
8:49
players are going to be on your team or
8:52
at least the ones that you want I will
8:54
share a video on how to run a successful
8:57
try out it's actually really simple but
8:59
if you don't have a good solid plan it
9:01
can be pretty uh it could be chaotic
9:04
right you know 50 kids showing up and um
9:07
you know maybe just you and another
9:08
coach how do you look at everybody so um
9:11
there's some ideas that I have on how to
9:13
do that um I can give you I will include
9:16
some drills to help evaluate you know
9:18
the individual skills of the players
9:20
their you know ability to operate as a
9:23
team and of course most importantly
9:26
attitude and I will say um that
9:30
selecting players who align with the
9:32
goals and objectives or the at least the
9:34
mission or values that we talked about
9:36
earlier in this video is super important
9:38
you don't want um you don't want to
9:40
bring a problem onto your team you don't
9:42
want uh kids or parents with attitudes
9:45
that you're not going to tolerate um you
9:48
don't want to be the person trying to
9:49
fix those problems it may just be best
9:51
to just develop somebody but that's uh
9:54
really you know a decision for you to
9:56
make
9:57
independently um once you you know are
10:01
faced with that
10:02
dilemma uh the next thing and and a lot
10:05
of these are just running simultaneously
10:08
right is you want to start securing
10:10
facilities and procuring some equipment
10:12
to do the job that you want to do as a
10:14
coach um the facilities can can be easy
10:18
in some cases it can be hard in in my
10:21
area you know we have a couple gyms that
10:24
um will rent them out to you it's
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they're all mainly School gyms but there
10:28
there is a church gym you know I don't
10:30
know what's in your neighborhood or
10:31
what's in your area um but hopefully you
10:34
have some contacts and you can get that
10:36
if you don't and there are schools in
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your area middle schools high schools um
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maybe not the high schools it might be a
10:42
little bit difficult but maybe so um you
10:44
can reach out to the school board and
10:46
try and rent the gym space there to see
10:50
how much it cost you know I'd like to
10:52
give you an estimate on how much that is
10:53
but it's it's really dependent on the
10:55
area you're in and um and how much they
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charge
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um and then once you know how much they
11:01
charge you can always split that cost
11:03
with another travel team um or maybe
11:07
create another travel team and get some
11:08
more coaches involved you can split that
11:10
cost because it does get expensive and
11:11
you can effectively run a uh two teams
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practicing in one gym facility if it's a
11:18
full like full court and you have you
11:20
know at least three um I mean if as long
11:24
as you have at least one but if you have
11:25
the three uh uh rims and back boards on
11:30
one side of the court and the other team
11:31
has the other three that can be uh that
11:34
that's that's good and I suggest an hour
11:36
and a half practice um you know as many
11:39
nights as you're going to practice
11:41
you'll also want to
11:43
um you'll also in in the schools that
11:46
you go to too as well they may they will
11:49
definitely require insurance and things
11:51
like that and I'll talk about that in a
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little bit but um you can usually get
11:54
that pretty cheap through like aaou or
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even some of the other organizations
11:58
will have it and and they'll offer you
12:00
either individual insurance or team
12:01
insurance and and and I probably won't
12:03
go into detail in this video but I will
12:05
talk about my experiences with with that
12:07
later on
12:09
um you know you're you're definitely
12:11
going to need when I first started out I
12:13
I definitely bought a a set of
12:16
basketballs right like for the size I my
12:18
first team was fourth grade so I bought
12:20
the appropriate size basketball for
12:23
those um players air pump bag uh all
12:27
super important things I bought cones
12:28
and I think that was pretty much it and
12:30
I think practice jerseys or pennies um
12:33
those were the things that I that I
12:34
focused on initially but you can you can
12:37
you know procure more equipment as time
12:39
goes on um you definitely you know you
12:42
want to I use cones you know to help out
12:44
with drills I'm sorry I use cones but I
12:47
also use chairs too um we practice in a
12:49
church so I was able to use some of the
12:51
chairs there to uh make my program or my
12:54
practices a little bit more uh
12:56
interesting I should say um
13:00
so and the other thing that you want to
13:02
start doing while you're getting all
13:03
that stuff set up is you want to start
13:05
looking at the different tournaments in
13:07
your local area earlier I said I cater
13:11
to the uh beginner teams the you know
13:14
the the medium teams if you're in a big
13:17
metropolitan area you probably have
13:19
tournaments that are within driving
13:21
distance every single week in um go for
13:25
them right like don't make this hard on
13:27
yourself in the beginning it'll or
13:28
otherwi otherwise it'll be tough and you
13:30
won't want to keep doing it so what I
13:32
would suggest with that is look for the
13:37
tournaments that um the you know
13:40
probably the bigger tournaments that are
13:41
going to have a varying amount of teams
13:44
you know pick those tournaments they're
13:47
they'll be fun they will if you're a
13:49
brand new team they'll suck at the
13:50
beginning because you're going to be
13:52
you're going to
13:53
play bigger better teams in the
13:56
beginning in your different pools but
13:57
you will get narrow down to teams that
14:00
are more um your you know your speed
14:04
towards you know towards after pool play
14:06
so um you you'll be you know you'll
14:10
you'll get in there but if you go to
14:11
these teams where you know these
14:12
tournaments where maybe um you know it's
14:16
it's just a bunch of you know bigger
14:18
teams playing you know that could be
14:22
that could be terrible for your team
14:24
you'll want to look at who's playing you
14:27
you can call these tournament directors
14:28
up and say Hey look we're coming out we
14:30
plan on coming out in 3 weeks who's
14:31
who's showing up and then you can look
14:33
up their rankings on AA or whatever
14:35
website they use to figure out if this
14:37
team is a uh um a tough team you can
14:41
also find easier
14:43
tournaments um like division 2 or
14:45
division three tournaments especially if
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you're in these bigger cities I mean
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that's where I would go initially when
14:51
you're first starting out is play these
14:52
easier teams unless you know you have a
14:54
rockstar team um but uh the worst thing
14:57
that you can do is go out and play some
14:58
of these these tougher ones and as you
15:00
start getting into the basketball
15:01
community in your area people will tell
15:03
you which tournaments are um are you
15:06
know suitable for your players
15:08
commensurate with their skill level and
15:10
and um and I suggest you you know you do
15:13
play commensurate with their skill level
15:15
until you're ready for them to get a a
15:17
better
15:18
challenge
15:20
um also keep in mind as well that
15:24
there's different organizations out
15:26
there so like there's a there's aaou as
15:28
a big one
15:29
um but some some of them have different
15:32
rules and depending on the age and grade
15:35
of the player that you recruit you know
15:37
whether or not they've been held back um
15:40
some of these tournaments have rules
15:42
that might prohibit one of the players
15:44
in your team so for instance let's say
15:46
you've got a a fifth grader who's really
15:48
an age maybe who is held back he should
15:50
be in sixth grade but he's in fifth and
15:53
if you're playing in a Grade based
15:56
tournament um fifth grade
15:59
who's supposed to be in six is okay even
16:01
though he's older than everybody but an
16:04
age-based tournament you know you're
16:06
going to run into some issues that
16:07
player will be ineligible that player
16:10
won't be able to play and they will
16:12
check I mean people get away with it but
16:14
I don't suggest that I don't encourage
16:16
that so just make sure you're aware of
16:19
that especially when you're figuring out
16:21
your plan on on which tournaments you're
16:22
going to do just know what the rules are
16:25
so that you don't um find yourself in a
16:27
uh in a in a bit of a picture
16:31
um another thing too is you just you
16:34
know you want to be able to develop a
16:35
practice and and game plan um you you
16:40
want your structured practice schedule
16:41
to be focused on skill development
16:44
probably first and foremost you should
16:46
have players that have good uh you know
16:50
good individual skills but you know you
16:52
you need to work on that obviously
16:55
there's a lot of videos on YouTube that
16:56
can help you out with that um but but
16:58
they need to know their fundamentals I
17:01
will I will say like wholeheartedly that
17:04
if you're going to get in travel
17:06
basketball um start practicing on day
17:09
one you got to know like how to break a
17:12
press you're going to get pressed um and
17:14
if you can't break a press that you're
17:16
just going to be working on on on
17:18
passing the ball to their team for the
17:20
entire game until they until you they to
17:23
those mercy rules set in and and then
17:25
you'll be able to um start working on
17:28
some stuff but if you can't break a
17:29
press you'll you'll just be eaten alive
17:32
um everything's speed in basketball
17:35
nowadays especially travel so like work
17:38
on your fast breaks work on like teach
17:40
the kids the lanes um I'll try to break
17:43
up a video on like how you should
17:46
schedule your practices out but you know
17:48
that's my number one advice on this
17:50
video is make sure you're ready for you
17:52
know fast breaks learning how to you
17:54
know run different lanes and that's
17:56
important too um anyways but you know
17:59
definitely press breaks that's super
18:01
important
18:03
um you you know you'll also want to come
18:05
up with like you know what is your team
18:07
going to specialize in on offense and
18:08
defense like what kind of Defense are
18:10
you going to run um you know you you
18:13
know obviously you want to really know
18:15
how to run a man but you know whenever
18:17
you do go into a Zone depending on the
18:19
situation like what do you want your
18:21
players to do you know what do you want
18:23
them to know like you want them to be
18:24
able to make decisions on the court
18:27
without you you want them to be able to
18:28
you know if you put them into a two
18:29
three Zone you want them to know what to
18:31
do um so you want to start like working
18:34
on like your own Playbook like your
18:36
strategy as a team you also want to uh
18:40
you know you want them to know when they
18:41
go out there how they're going to run
18:44
against a man defense how they're going
18:45
to run against different types of Zone
18:47
defenses so you got to work on that
18:49
stuff in practice um I I I will try and
18:52
get a good video on that on that
18:54
eventually but um I really just want
18:56
this channel to be mostly about like
18:58
just setting up a team and like things
19:00
that you need and and um and ways to be
19:03
successful um after and you know one of
19:06
the first things that you're going to do
19:08
once you get a lot of these
19:09
administrative things figured out is
19:10
you're going to have a parent meeting
19:12
and you're going to communicate with
19:13
parents a lot because you want to make
19:16
sure that there's no miscommunications
19:18
and there's no problems so you know the
19:20
first parent meeting when you decide
19:22
like hey these 12 players will be on the
19:25
team you want to you know you want to
19:27
collect emails obviously during tryouts
19:29
and you want to get that out to the
19:30
parents like hey you know and I would
19:32
even suggest calling them hey like your
19:34
son or your daughter has been um you
19:37
know we want this kid on the team you
19:39
know maybe have a conversation with them
19:41
initially like hey this is what it looks
19:43
like you know real quick this is what it
19:44
looks like we're going to travel you
19:47
know once a month we're going to travel
19:49
to another city we're going to stay the
19:51
night in a hotel we're all going to stay
19:52
in the same Hotel you know what are your
19:54
thoughts on that like are you willing
19:56
you know this is you know this is what I
19:59
want as a coach I want every parent to
20:01
be there or I want them to be able to
20:03
find them you know a ride with another
20:06
parent you know or maybe you plan on
20:08
taking all the kids on your own maybe
20:10
you have a van whatever the case is give
20:12
that parent the like upfront expectation
20:15
of what you're looking at um tell them
20:18
about cost tell them about time tell
20:20
them about attendance tell them you know
20:23
what your philosophy is on attitude um
20:26
you know everything that you want them
20:28
to know make a list tell them about it
20:30
tell them how much this thing's going to
20:31
cost see what they say um parents will
20:34
tell you if they can't afford it um talk
20:36
about fundraising I will do a lot about
20:38
fundraising on this channel and um you
20:42
know give them the deadlines and then
20:44
set up a parent meeting and do all that
20:45
all over again um but I would suggest if
20:50
you know collecting money a month before
20:53
you need it or more so that you aren't
20:57
holding the bill when it comes time to
20:59
pay for some of these registration fees
21:02
um
21:05
so that is really um it for today's
21:09
video I'm going to do a lot of these if
21:10
this is the kind of content you're
21:11
looking for please uh subscribe to the
21:14
channel I'll put a link to a website
21:16
that I have that talks a lot about these
21:18
things in detail and uh you know and I I
21:22
hope that this gives you some sort of
21:24
inspiration to you know number one
21:27
determine if this is right for you and
21:29
if it is I hope that it gives you the uh
21:32
the um the courage to start your own
21:34
travel basketball team and enjoy it like
21:35
I have for many years
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