The Coastal Crew Rebels ended their summer season with a decent showing at nationals in Disney World and had three of their players receive invitations to an elite hoops camp that offers participants a chance to be featured on Rivals.com
"Talent-wise we had a good showing at national," 17U Rebels coach Ernie Walthour said. "We finished 1-3 in the tournament. We lost a tough game in double overtime and we lost by 11 in the other game to the team who ended up taking the whole thing. But overall with the number of scouts that are calling regarding our players it was a successful trip."
Due to the Rebels’ successful summer at Clemson, Georgia Tech, Orlando and other places, Walthour said scouts offered good opportunities to three of his players who had a good showings all season.
Jimmy Bacon, Joey Bell and Justin Boyd were invited to the Georgia Hoops Fall Showcase at the New Birth Church in Lithonia. The camp, scheduled for Sept. 6, is an invitation-only camp for the top elite basketball players from Georgia only. The camp is for players from the high school classes of 2009 to 2012.
The top performers will be featured on Rivals.com National Basketball Recruiting and channeled to Yahoo! Sports, the number one online sports website on the Internet. Rivals.com is the online leader in recruiting information and is read by every college program in the nation.
The Georgia Hoops Report is sent out to hundreds of college programs across the country. Each participant will featured in a camp report written by the Georgia Hoops staff. This report goes straight from Georgia Hoops to the college coaches' hands. College coaches from the NCAA Division II level and below will personally attend the event to identify prospects, check on their growth from event to event and year to year. Many coaches will use these events as a primary source of initial prospect identification, and then contact us for our impressions on players of interest.
"They were selected based on the tournaments we took them to and they had a great showing at national," Walthour said about the trio. "We are proud that they are getting a chance to be seen and represent Liberty and Long County as well as the Rebels."
Walthour said his work on helping the kids athletically and academically is not through. While the high school kids prepare to play for their respective schools Walthour said he is ready to work with the up and coming Rebel squads.
"Our plans are to start working with the 14U, 15U squads," he said. "Get them ready because they are the future of the Rebels teams."
Walthour offered sincere thanks and appreciation for all the people and companies that made the Rebels season possible including Osteen and Osteen, Budget Car Sales and Liberty Chrysler.
"I also want to thank all the coaching staff," he said. Mike Brown, Darell West, Rodney Davis, George Sanders, Reginald Castille, they all did a great job in helping the Rebels have another great season. I need to thank Ben Scott and David Linderman also for all the hard work they put in this season."