Basketball at the Ponte Vedra YMCA is beginning to make a name for itself at the national level after the organization’s sixth grade squad won the Amateur Athletic Union Division II world title July 18.
The team traveled to Hampton, Virginia and compiled a 7-0 record en route to the tournament championship.
In the process, they finished ahead of teams from throughout the nation, including larger cities, such as Philadelphia and Washington D.C.
Ponte Vedra YMCA Sports Director Phil Tensley started the AAU basketball program five years ago with the hopes of one day seeing success.
Although he was not sure the success would come this quickly, it was also not a complete surprise because he could see that the pieces were in place.
“When we started the whole goal was to create a program and let’s develop these kids,” Tensley said. “There were so many kids out here playing basketball, and after the first couple of years we kind of saw.”
One of the challenges Tensley continues to face is that in the Ponte Vedra area there are so many sports that kids can play.
However, they have seen a growing number of interest and passion developed for the game of basketball in recent years and Tensley expects the national title to only add to that.
“We (Tensley and head coach Antwoin Conerly) are basketball people and when we got kids that understood they were going to focus on basketball, that’s where we started to find success and it has just snowballed from there.”
According to Conerly, the blueprint for their success is largely due to the fact most of their team have played together for a while, including Tyler Kroog, Austin Bacus and Tyler Speace, who have been with the program since its inception.
“They are the foundation for our entire program,” Conerly said.
Kroog was injured but made the trip with the team and was able to get on the floor in the last 13 seconds of the championship contest.
“He was ecstatic,” Conerly said. “We have a tight nit family going here, and these players love each other.”
Others on the teams were Kru McEuen, Nolan Nelson, Brenton James, Isreal Hayward and Na’Vanti Soule.
“A lot of our guys are high I.Q. guys, so they understand the game and we can easily implement what we’re trying to teach them,” Tinsley said.
One of the most impressive things about the Ponte Vedra YMCA’s run to a world title is that they are often smaller than their opponent.
However, they were able to overcome the height disadvantage by playing a team game that specializes in involving all five players on the court by using a motion offense approach that relies on players moving without the ball to help setup scoring opportunities.
“We definitely have a great system in place,” Conerly said. “Pretty much after every game, the opposing coach is like ‘you guys move the ball so well and they are so unselfish.’ That’s exactly what we’re trying to teach. We want unselfish basketball because anybody can have a great game any game.”
Although some AAU teams recruit and reach out for players from outside their area, every player on the Ponte Vedra squad was from St. Johns County.
The team played 11 tournaments over a three-to-four-month span during the regular season.
“That’s an insane amount, and we’re actually second guessing doing that again next year,” Conerly said.
However, one of the advantages of playing that many games is that the group had experienced just about every scenario.
“We were battle tested,” Conerly said. “We had lost on a buzzer beater and won on a buzzer beater. We played just about every team in Florida and were perfectly prepared.”
The YMCA’s third grade AAU team, who Tinsley coached, won their respective state title in May.
According to Tinsley, that third grade success is key to making sure the program maintains moving forward.
“We’re trying to get our foundation strong, so that we can build that next group coming up,” Tinsley said.
