The Scott’s All-Stars middle school team got their first opportunity to play in an AAU tournament this season, and despite going 0-3 in the tourney, the kids got to enjoy the camaraderie of playing and had the opportunity to visit four colleges over the weekend.
“Our kids are mainly sixth-graders, but because we have three seventh-graders, we had to play in the seventh-grade pool,” Marcus Scott said. “It was a great opportunity for them to see the various skill levels of kids in their age group. Our middle school group is our training group and we knew that they were not ready for an AAU tournament, but we did want them to experience that level of competition.”
Scott said the main purpose of the trip was to visit various college campuses in Atlanta.
“Research shows that college readiness should begin in middle school and that this plays a major role in college success,” he said.
Scott said many of his players never had set foot on a college campus.
“I believe the experience of visiting these college campuses has whetted our students’ appetites and shown them that college will be a reality for them. We spent about three hours touring Spelman, Morehouse, Clark Atlanta and Georgia Tech,” he said.
Campus guides provided the boys with information and answered questions.
“Although this was many of our students’ first experience on a college campus, it is our goal to ensure it is not their last visit,” Scott said. “I assured all of our kids that if they were not planning to graduate from college, then they were on the wrong team. All of our students understand that basketball is great, but college is the goal.”