As part of the Jr. NBA Flagship Network and a USA Basketball Youth Accredited organization, we at Pro Skills Basketball are constantly trying to make improvements to our organization so our players, coaches, and parents can have the best youth basketball experience possible, and 2019 will be no different!

This upcoming year, we’re excited to make a bunch of really great upgrades to our Club Team structure, season, and policies and procedures for our Club Teams in Charlotte (NC), Chattanooga (TN), Denver (CO), Greensboro (NC), Raleigh (NC), and Winston-Salem (NC)!

Because we don’t want to overwhelm you and make sure as many people are aware of the changes as possible, we’ve decided to communicate the changes in a few parts.

This announcement is part 1 and covers the general upgrades we’re making to our spring/summer season below.

#1 More Training for Coaches

We’ve invested into building our own online training for our team coaches, so this year they’ll not only be trained by PSB in person but will also take online PSB coaching courses as well!

#2 No More Color Coding Teams

All teams will be called by the last name of their team coach instead of by color. For instance, instead of PSB 5th Grade Gold and PSB 5th Grade Black the teams might be called PSB 5th Grade Jones and PSB 5th Grade Miller. Not a huge change, but one that we do will have a positive impact for our players and teams.

#3 Volunteer Day

While life lessons have always been a part of PSB, we want to do more, so this spring/summer, we’re including a PSB Volunteer Day as the first official team event. Along with their coaches and teammates, players will all participate in a local volunteer activity, which could be anything from bagging lunches for those in need, working in a soup kitchen, picking up trash at a park, etc. Aside from it generally being a nice/good thing to do, we think that this will be a great way for kids to get to know each other and bond off the court while also giving back to the local community!

#4 Training Camp

After the Volunteer Day, we’re setting up a “Training Camp” for each age group. This Training Camp will be one final time for us to set the tone with our teams before they step out onto the court for tournament competition. Players and teams will participate in a variety of skills, drills, and controlled scrimmaging while also participating in team/culture building activities and listening to speakers.

#5 Middle School Teams Done after June

This spring/summer all middle school teams will finish up playing at the end of June. In July, some players/teams may be given the opportunity to continue to play by going to nationals, but all players will be invited to our new Competitive Summer Camps (more on this below).

#6 Summer Camps

We’re going to have 3 types of camps this summer: #1 week-long Summer Camps, #2 Competitive Camps, and #3 Showcase Camps. The week-long Summer Camps are our normal camps, and all elementary and middle school players will have the option to these. The Competitive Camps are for serious and intermediate/advanced elementary and middle school players, specifically our team players. These one-day weekend camps will be more advanced, intense and demanding. Our Showcase Camps will be for our high school players with the purpose of improving their skills while also showcasing their abilities to college coaches.

#7 Younger Team Options

In all our team cities, we’ll be offering teams to younger age groups, which means either 2nd or 3rd grade. Just FYI, 2nd-grade teams will not actually play in games in the spring/summer, but will instead just practice until the fall/winter when they’ll begin to play games as 3rd graders.

#8 New Under Armour Deal

We’ve just signed a new Under Armour deal and we’re excited to pass along our discounts to our players and parents. This deal includes some absolutely sweet new custom uniforms that the kids are going to love. They will definitely be the best looking teams around 😉 Also, this hasn’t been officially announced yet, but some of our high school boys and girls teams will play on the new Under Armour Rise shoe circuit!

#9 Season Ending Party

In order to foster more of a family atmosphere with our teams, all cities will finish up the season with a party or barbeque of some sort to celebrate the close of the spring/summer season. This should be really fun for the players!

Ok, that’s all for now. Your city director is going to be in touch next week piggybacking off of this email with some more changes specific to your city. However, if you have any questions on this email, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us!

We’re looking forward to this upcoming 2019 season being our absolute best one yet, and with these upgrades, there’s no doubt in our mind that this will happen!

Tryout registration will be available within the next few weeks, so please continue to check our website and/or social media.

Also, be on the lookout for Part 2 of this announcement as these aren’t the only exciting upgrades coming to PSB!