COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—With Thursday night’s skill session 144 players began their quest to claim a spot on the roster of the USA Basketball U17 World Championship team that will go for Gold this summer in the Czech Republic. In all, 144 athletes will be participating in two more skill sessions before the trials themselves get underway Friday evening. All 12 members of last year’s Gold Medal FIBA Americas Women’s U16 Championship squad are on hand as is Head Coach Sue Phillips and assistants Mary Coyle Klinger and Brian Robinson.
Of all the athletes competing 37 are here at the invitation of USA Basketball while the remaining 107 are competing for a spot by way of application. The geography of those hoping to wear red, white and blue represents 35 different states with double figure competitors coming from Texas (18), California (14), and 10 from Georgia. The class breakdown has 43 graduating in 2015, 75 in the 2016 class, 18 more finishing in 2017, 6 in 2018 and one each in 2019 and 2020. Nine other athletes had applied for and were slated to attend but for various reasons did not make the trip to Colorado Springs.
Before Monday morning’s official roster announcement a total of nine sessions will be held at the United States Olympic Complex. Thursday’s skill session will be followed by two more Friday morning and afternoon. The trials begin Friday night and feature three more sessions Saturday and an additional two Sunday for the athletes surviving the selection committee’s roster trimming. The plan is to have the U17 team down to 45 players by Sunday morning.
The skill sessions are one of the few settings where today’s elite grassroots players are getting the fundamental instruction sorely missing from both the scholastic and non-scholastic landscape. Phillips, a long time ultra-successful coach at Archbishop Mitty High School in California, is right at home teaching on the floor. Joining her and her staff on the floor are Ellis Barfield of Lynwood High School (Calif.), Dianne Lewis from Edison High School (Va.), Teri Morrison of Carroll High School (Texas) and Mt. Lebanon High School’s (Pa.) Dori Oldaker. Friday afternoon’s final skill session will also feature a three on three competition.
For more information on the trial, participants and coaches follow the link below to the USA Basketball Web Site. Also, check back with Blue Star Media throughout for coverage, evaluations, interviews and images from all the action.
