Around 60 kids attended the final Scott’s All*Stars’ basketball tryouts Feb. 8 at the Liberty County YMCA.
Team founder and coach Marcus Scott IV said the tryouts were to build the teams for the 2014 season.
Scott’s All*Stars is a mentoring program whose main mission is to teach basketball and life skills to kids who have the potential academically and athletically to play basketball on the college level.
“This is our fifth year of existence, and we are proud of the tremendous turnout,” Scott said. “We don’t believe in cutting children from the team because we believe we can teach anyone how to play basketball, but we tell them we want kids that want to go to college and make good grades in school.”
All-Stars must be willing to maintain an 80 percent grade average, perform community service and visit colleges.
“It’s not just about how good you are on the court, but what you can contribute off the court as well,” Scott said.  
He said they anticipate a strong team, especially for the eighth-grade squad, which has been playing together since the program started.
“Currently, that roster has four of the top kids in the state with Marcus Scott, William Richardson, Jaylen Jackson and Daquan Humphries,” coach Scott said.
The coach said they added more top players from Liberty, Chatham and Long counties to the squad this season. He said to watch for Henry Blair, Terry Smith, and Trae Broadnax, along with longtime veteran Scott’s All*Stars players like Russell Dandy, Zack Moser, Tamaurio Jenkins, Josh Washington and Keshawn Robinson.
“This team will be one of the best in the state,” coach Scott said. “We also expect to pick up a few more key players from Midway Middle School and other surrounding counties making this eighth-grade team a very deep team.”
The coach said to celebrate their fifth season, they will build the program by adding a fifth-grade boys’ team and a fourth-grade girls’ team. He said the All*Stars are committed to seeing these two new groups grow each year until these two new groups reach high-school graduation.
“We would like for these groups to grow to be better than the currently powerhouse eighth-graders, and we expect them to be there in a shorter time frame with higher expectations,” Scott said. “They are expected to maintain an 85 percent grade average.  We will also have a sixth-, seventh- and ninth-grade boys’ teams this year.”
For more information, call 912-655-4371 or go to www.scottsallstars.com.