INDIANAPOLIS --- The NCAA will host approximately 240 prep basketball players between grades nine and 12 at its 2009 First Team Summer Conference, August 6-9, in Kansas City, Kansas.
The First Team Summer Conference provides male basketball prospects with resources to help them and their parents navigate the collegiate recruiting process and understand the role athletics plays in the overall educational environment. This is the eighth year the program has been held for high school prospects.
The First Team staff works throughout the year to develop the summer conference with assistance from former coaches, NCAA representatives and educators to reinforce the importance of academics and athletics. The three-day conference features sessions on recruiting, education, life skills, health and physical fitness, study habits, preparation for college, time management and table and social etiquette.
The program reinforces how to achieve goals, places emphasis on nutrition and training, offers mock recruiting situations and helps the students understand the transition from high school. Representatives from state high school athletic associations are also present and help emphasize the role of their organizations.
Additional conference highlights include guest speakers from all levels of basketball, including current and former student-athletes, who talk to First Team participants about their high school and collegiate experiences. This year’s speakers will include former college coaches Sonny Smith and Reggie Minton among others. Past speakers have included John Thompson, Bill Raftery, John Lucas, Charles Barkley, Michael Curry, Clark Kellogg, Doug Collins, Nolan Richardson, Adrian Branch, Charlie Ward, Buck Williams, Jimmy Jackson, Dale Brown and Stanley Roberts, just to name a few.
“With information being updated and communicated so rapidly today, we want to make sure that students and their parents are in tune with everything going on in the changing world of athletics in terms of recruiting and initial eligibility,” said Greg Turner, director of First Team. “First Team is a program that prides itself on being an additional connection between prospective student-athletes, parents and coaches, and the requirements necessary to pursue higher education and ultimately earn a college education through college athletics.”
First Team is a year-round program designed to help highly talented prospective student-athletes and their parents as they experience the NCAA recruiting process. Participants receive monthly communication, attend the Summer Conference and remain in the program throughout high school. New candidates complete an application process, which is reviewed by a committee to determine selection. The committee consists of representatives from the NCAA, national coaching associations and high school federations. Program participants are identified based on recommendations and their athletic ability. Participants must maintain a C grade average in school in order to stay in the program.
The First Team program is the result of recommendations from a subcommittee of the NCAA Basketball Study Group, later named the NCAA Basketball Issues Committee. The subcommittee, which was created in 1998, asked that education initiatives be developed to address negative influences impacting the game of basketball, including a year-round mentoring and educational program.
First Team conferences have been held in Tucson, Arizona (2008), Portsmouth, Virginia (2006), Colorado Springs, Colorado (2005), Charlotte, North Carolina (2004), Tampa, Florida (2003, 2007) and in Indianapolis (2002). The NCAA partners with the National Federation of State High School Associations and the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) on the First Team program and agenda.
For more information on First Team, visit www.ncaafirstteam.org.
