Virginia is for Lovers and (DC) Assault
Ron Bailey, Publisher
December 25, 2008 – The DC Assault travel team has been putting in work since around 1993, winning travel team games, placing young people in colleges nationally, and even having alums like Michael Beasley, Andris Biedrens and Keith Bogans grace the National Basketball Association.
Previously drawing primarily from the Washington, D.C. area, Assault, led by Curtis Malone has expanded to Charm City with Baltimore Assault, Florida, and North Carolina. Next up is Commonwealth of Virginia. Helping lead the new entity is Jerry McFarland.
A long time high school coach that has been on the travel team scene for several years, McFarland recently moved to Virginia’s capital and saw an opportunity. “With me being in Richmond and being part of Assault” McFarland explained at a recent high school tourney, he plans on bringing his expertise, which is not only coaching but also “identifying good players”. Add management expertise to that list.
VA Assault's Jerry McFarland.
In short order, McFarland has added a partner to VA Assault, Ty White; formerly the head of Petersburg Elite, White has a large footprint in southern Virginia, having coached and trained numerous players to college scholarships. McFarland also indicated such a history will allow VA Assault to “get into North Carolina”, one of the organization’s planned recruiting goals.
“It’s a great thing, a great opportunity to showcase some high major kids” said White of the new organization, one in which Petersburg Elite will still exist. “We are just going to combine forces”.
That support, according to White, who has been with Petersburg Elite for six years “is going to help us to do more with the travel and being invited to certain tournaments”. McFarland noted resource provision “is not all on Adidas or Curtis, we will have some of our own”.
Expect VA Assault to field boys teams in the 14-17 and under age groups in a number of events, including “probably the Tim Thomas” (Playaz Ball) in April, and DC Assault’s own Assault Classic after that. July holds a tournament in Richmond, dubbed the Elite Showcase, while other dates will become known in the near future.
Malone, the Director, sees nothing but positives in this venture. “I think pretty much being DC Assault and what we’ve accomplished we’re branded already” said the well known figure in youth hoops, of obtaining more recognition through VA Assault. “This will allow us to help some kids in other places outside of D.C.”.
Per McFarland, VA Assault will not be your run of the mill travel team organization: “What we’re doing is trying to do AAU a little different…We want to have a collaboration of coaches – including high school ones – and be fairly comprehensive; educating, mentoring, and preparing for college.
“We want to kind of eliminate some of the myths of bad AAU coaches (and organizations)”.
That includes pushing young people, not coddling them, as McFarland believes “You can’t coach kids afraid to lose them”, since doing so definitely does youngsters a disservice.
Could the various Assault imprints end up cannibalizing one another – basically undermining the entire operation? McFarland rejecting that notion, defined the Assault structure in corporate terms, sharing “Curtis is CEO” while Damon Handon is tantamount to “Vice President of Operations”. According to him, the disparate Assault teams are headed by ‘regional managers’, a title that would apply to both he and White in the corporate world.
McFarland also doesn’t think acquiring talented players will be of issue, as they abound. Moreover, he shared “If you don’t have the best players, you coach up the ones you have…Sometimes when you are very much into what everybody else has, you forget what you have”.
Drawing an analogy to dating, he continued “the girl you have could be just as good or better, if you work with her”.
He and White plan on making VA Assault pretty darn attractive.