AAU Girls National Champions to Defend Title

 

Metro KC Area Girls Basketball

 

The Missouri Valley Eclipse 12U (Girls born in 1994) AAU Girls Basketball Team is set and ready to defend their Division I National AAU Girls Basketball Championship June 29-July 7, 2007, in Rochester, MN.  The team will once again attend and play in this elite National Championship which teams nationwide must qualify for.  This year the team will go into the tournament as the number 1 seed among a field of some 80 nationwide teams.

 

Last summer the team entered the 11U Division I AAU National Championship Tournament (which due to Hurricane Katrina had been relocated from Kenner, LA to Springfield, MO) as the number 7 overall seed from among an elite field of 63 teams from coast to coast.  The Eclipse went an impressive 9-0 over the week long tournament with victories over teams from Maryland, Tennessee, Indiana, Georgia, California, and New York.  These included back-to-back victories over #1 seed San Gabriel Valley (California) 49-41 and the defending national champions GBL Lady Rebels (California) 58-43. Their 69-60 victory over the Tennessee Extreme earned them the National Championship.  Impressive because it’s rare when a team from our area can achieve and reach this level when competing against areas such as the west and east coast which have much larger populated areas to draw players from than an area such as Kansas City.  Even more impressive considering the Eclipse players were physically outsized by most, if not all, other teams at the tournament.

 

To prepare for this year’s tournament the team has been working and practicing together since March 1 and have played in AAU qualifying tournaments in St Joseph, MO and Ft Osage/Independence, MO.  Women’s AAU basketball rules are the same as Women’s Collegiate with the 30 second shot clock being the most significant difference from High School Women’s basketball.  As a result the Eclipse seeks out tournaments which follow similar rules and tournaments which feature a shot clock.  It is the norm for the Eclipse team, consisting of 11 girls born in 1994, to play older girls born in ’93, ‘92, and ’91 in area non-AAU tournaments as this prepares them for those talented and much bigger national teams they’ll face in Rochester.

 

The team returns 10 of it’s 11 members from last years National Championship team.  These young ladies represent our entire metropolitan Kansas City area.  With the addition of a new player to the roster this years team consists of nine 7^th graders and two 6^th graders.  Included on the roster are Brittany Atkins of Kansas City, MO; Ereka Hunt of Shawnee, KS; Emiah Bingley of Greenwood, MO; Sameia Kendall of Shawnee, KS; Timeka O’Neal of Independence, MO; Ashlee Bilhimer of Gardner, KS; Marissa Ellis of Kansas City, MO; Kylie Gafford of Olathe, KS; Maggie Meier of Overland Park, KS; Jordan Wright of Overland Park, KS; and Ali Patterson of Lee’s Summit, MO.  Coaching staff includes Head Coach Steve Meier of Overland Park, KS; Ashley Patterson (Varsity Basketball Player Mid America Nazarene College of Olathe) of Lee’s Summit, MO; Jeff Atkins (Head Coach at St Pius High School) of Kansas City, MO; with Manager Bart Hunt of Shawnee, KS.

 

No doubt this group will be entertaining to watch at their respective schools in Girls High School Basketball in our area in a couple years or more.  In addition it’s very likely that many in this group could very well go on to play at the next level beyond high school as well.

 

For more information about Girls AAU basketball or the Missouri Valley Eclipse visit

www.aaugirlsbasketball.org     or    www.mv-eclipse.org