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Omaha Biliew Commits to Iowa State!

Cyforce

Cyforce

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Nov 24, 2009
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Gunnerclone said:
If you think the same info isn’t spread around the internet/social media I would like to talk to you about an investment opportunity of a lifetime. Just need your SSN, Passwords, and a cashiers check for $10,000 to get you started.
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Like Tark, I only deal in cash.
 
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AuH2O

AuH2O

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Sep 7, 2013
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Lyon309Cy said:
I think we can all agree that adults making money off of kids playing a game just feels sleazy. AAU has always felt dirty, but in this specific case, it is absolutely a necessary evil. Knowing Omaha's family and background it seems highly unlikely he would have been noticed or developed into a D1 player without year round basketball factories. He 1000% needed to leave home to have any chance of success. As much as we might cringe at 14 year old kids leaving home to stay with strangers and focus only on basketball, sometimes the alternative is worse.
He has committed all of his life to get to this point. I hope he is a one and done and lives up to all his potential regardless of where he chooses to go after high school.
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Omaha was already a top 25 player in his class as a Soph. at Waukee. Yes he probably had to play the typical AAU circuit to get there, but probably did not need the year of prep school. Now, he made the decision to do that to better develop, and I can't argue with that choice. This is what he plans his career to be, so it makes perfectly fine sense if that's what he wants to do.

Whether it's prep school, AAU, USSSA baseball, personal training, and all these money making things for kid's sports, it's clearly out of hand. But it's here to stay and unfortunately for most kids just to be able to actually play baseball and basketball in a large high school it's damn near impossible to compete if a kid doesn't partake in at least some of that stuff. It would be great if it was like 25 years ago in podunk Iowa, when I could play all the sports in HS, do some offseason stuff with teammates and that was it. But that's just not reality. However, there's a way to do these types of things without breaking the bank or burning kids out. We do volunteer-based USSSA baseball, and my son's team was more successful than a vast majority of the high dollar academy type programs. And we always kept it to 5-6 local tournaments and 2-3 practices per week. Our approach was to err on the side of kids wishing there was more. For basketball, it takes parent volunteers and the school getting you into the gym to practice during the week. I have volunteered to do both of these things for many years, and am just wrapping it up, as my youngest is now entering HS this year. So you can do it, but it's a hell of a lot of work, and few parents are willing to do it. My goal in those things was simply get kids in a position so they could have a chance to play in HS. It was painful going through it, but when my daughter was in 5th grade I opened it up to any kid that said they wanted to do it. And the girls on that team were literally the only remotely functional basketball players on their team when they played school ball in 8th grade. Now in a 5A HS the only girls even out in their class are girls I coached as kids. And there are kids in other grades that play Attack, but frankly that girls program consists of a team of phenoms that win national tournaments

The burnout problem is real, but personally as a kid I don't think I could ever get enough sports camps and tournaments. Those were the best times of my life as a kid.

I really was impressed with Omaha at Waukee as a Soph. He played a secondary role to DeVries and to some extent Sandford. He had a great feel for when to cut, when to attack the offensive glass. He was clearly skilled and probably could've been more assertive, but he was a part of a really good team, and he did what made that team play it's best. Looking forward to seeing him again this year.

Man, I hope he picks the good guys. What a class that will be!
 
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madguy30

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Nov 15, 2011
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AuH2O said:
The burnout problem is real, but personally as a kid I don't think I could ever get enough sports camps and tournaments. Those were the best times of my life as a kid.

I really was impressed with Omaha at Waukee as a Soph. He played a secondary role to DeVries and to some extent Sandford. He had a great feel for when to cut, when to attack the offensive glass. He was clearly skilled and probably could've been more assertive, but he was a part of a really good team, and he did what made that team play it's best. Looking forward to seeing him again this year.

Man, I hope he picks the good guys. What a class that will be!
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I can't relate as we had limited leagues/camps etc. but I think a lot of this depends on how things are managed. We had a super small fast pitch little league that was only like 15 games in the early 90s but looking back the coaches were so toxic that I think it really burned people going forward into later experiences including myself.
 
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