We are excited to announce on Sunday, August 22 we will be holding tryouts for our 3rd – 8th grade girls and boys teams for the 2010 – 2011 season at the following times:  (Register for and attend the time slot according to the grade your son/daughter will be entering in the fall of 2010)

1:00 pm – 2:30 pm           3^rd, 4^th & 5^th grade girls

2:30 – 4:00                         6^th, 7^th & 8^th grade girls

4:00 – 5:30                         3^rd, 4^th & 5^th grade boys

5:30 – 7:00                         6^th, 7^th & 8^th grade boys

Tryouts will be held at the All Iowa Attack facility located at 1005 Dickinson Ave., Ames, IA 50014.

We will have limited space at the tryouts so please email Dickson Jensen at ddjensen2010@gmail.com if you will be attending the tryouts with the following items:

1.  Child’s name, age and grade in fall 2010

2. Parents names, phone number and address

3. Child’s previous basketball experience and skill level

4.  Child’s school

Please recognize the All Iowa Attack program is a high level, high commitment private basketball club.  We will be filling only a few spots for each age group.  Please review our website for other information, such as the clubs philosophy, coaches, 2009 – 2010 rosters and schedules, fees, etc.

All Iowa Attack is excited for the opportunity to host a camp presented by Ganon Baker of Nike Basketball. He is the most sought after camp director in all of the country. He has worked with many of the best players in the NBA and is the best of the best trainer that Nike or anyone has to offer. For more information on him and his camps, go to www.ganonbakerbasketball.com. This camp will be a four hour section of court instruction time. The camp will end with a one hour section of watching Ganon work out Harrison Barnes in front of the players and having them pick up on some drills that Harrison works through. This will be an outstanding camp full of new drills and techniques that can really challenge our kids. Don’t miss out on one of the best camps of the summer! This camp is available to current AIA players only.

We are very excited to report the new Attack facility is now complete!

The new home for All Iowa Attack will be called West Towne Courts and is located at 1005 Dickinson, Ames, IA.

All Iowa Attack has posted information regarding the summer camps they will be hosting on our website.  Please look for information regarding these summer camps under the Training section of this website.  If you have additional questions, please email Dickson Jensen at ddjensen2010@gmail.com or by phone at 515-291-5011.

Harrison Barnes, the nations #1 recruit in the Class of 2009 by multiple rating services, has announced his decision to further his basketball career at the University of North Carolina.  In a press conference at the Ames High Gymnasium, where nearly 2,000 supporters and fans of Harrison were in attendance, Harrison announced his decision to go to North Carolina over Kansas, Oklahoma, UCLA, Iowa State, and Duke.  It was also covered live by ESPNU.  We are proud of Harrison and his accomplishments, and it has been a joy to see him grow as a young man and basketball player since he began with All Iowa Attack in the 5th grade.  Harrison has developed into an outstanding basketball player and even more importantly as an outstanding individual of character, honesty, and hard work.  Harrison will always be important to All Iowa Attack and we wish him and his teammates the best in his upcoming Ames High season and his future at North Carolina.  Congratulations Harrison!!! Go Tar Heels!

AIA hosts some of the best tournaments in the midwest located in the best facilities with great organization and quality teams, all at an affordable price. Our tournaments have been some of the best tournaments for years.  We have AIA Shootouts 1 & 2, Cyclone Boys and Girls Showdown, AIA Shootouts 3 & 4, Midwest Festival of Teams, Midwest Girls Classic, and Super 16.  These tournaments have proven to be successful, that is why so many of you have attended them over the years. Please check out this years dates and information under the Hosted Events section and sign up today to ensure your spot in our events.

I want to keep you updated on the future of All Iowa Attack Basketball. I am working hard to get a building drawing completed and to get the city’s approval to build our new home in west Ames. I’m working towards a very nice two floor facility. Things appear to be going very well and I am very excited for it to keep progressing.

We have now established a good, maybe great, core of young men and women for our teams for next year. The girls will have teams in the grades 3-11, and the boys will have teams in the grades 3-11. A high school boys team is a possibility. I’ll be focusing more on that when the time comes. My coaches will continue to be a combination of parent coaches with some partially paid coaches. We will also be having some paid coaches that will be specializing in training the kids. The coaches along with the rosters will be announced in the upcoming weeks. I plan on using my gym until the new facility is finished. The estimated completion time is December 1. We will have Fall Skills beginning in September. I will be sending out more specific information as the time gets closer. The focus of Fall Skills is basic training/practices for our younger teams and a preparation for our high school girls for their upcoming season. I think you will like my plan and ideas that I will notify you when the time comes.

If you know any younger boys or girls that could potentially be All Iowa Attack players and families, please have them contact me directly (515-291-5011) so that I can talk to them about their chances of being on one of the All Iowa Attack teams.

People have asked me where our teams will play and what the fees will be. Let me attempt to answer those questions. The younger teams, grades 3-8, will play fairly locally. The boys will stay local even more than the girls, as there are more boys teams than girls teams locally. During the winter, October through March (6 months), we will probably play twice a month on average (10 tournaments). We may travel to Kansas City, Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, or Omaha; but mostly we will play in Des Moines, Ankeny, and Ames. We will attend 2-4 regional events in the 10-11 tournaments, so we will be challenged by playing many good teams and some great teams. We will win some and lose some, but we will learn, get better, and have a lot of fun! The girls schedule fits the model above and similar to years before.

The spring/summer season, April-July (4 months), will have a similar feel as above. However, there will be a bit more travel and a bit higher level of play. The girls schedule for next year will be similar for the older girls with a few national trips and quality local event against the country’s best club. The younger girls will play more locally than the high school girls. The younger girls will play in places like Wichita, Kansas, Minnesota, Des Moines, Ames, and probably AAU Nationals at their respective grade levels. They need to play where they can be successful and yet be challenged appropriately. In April-July, the 4-8 grade boys will play about 8 tournaments in Des Moines, Iowa City, Minnesota, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Kansas, Ames, etc. Their schedules will be dictated by team personnel and player/coaches availability.  I hope that makes sense and it will work out great.  The program is nearly year round and will have lots of training; skill development; great coaches; quality facilities; excellent communication and organization; and full of quality young men, women, and families. We will play plus or minus 16 tournaments for grades under 8th (plus or minus 80 games) and plus or minus 8 tournaments for high school kids (plus or minus 45 games).

The fee structure is hard to know until I figure out all my expenses. My goal is to do this all for the kids, but with today’s economy I need to try to get all my expenses covered. I am trying to figure out how to run the program with the least amount of expenses but maintain the high level of quality. The goal is to have coaches who want to do this for the kids and will put time into accomplishing the task. I will have to pay the mortgage, taxes, utilities, cleaning, etc on the building so we will have a facility fee.  That fee will depend on how many players I have and what the above bills come out to be. I am hoping the facility fee will be around $75/month for players living outside of the Ames area (30 miles or more). The fee for the players living in the Ames area will be around $100/month so that they can use the facility anytime they want. The tournament fees will be an obvious reimbursable expense. I hope you understand this is preliminary and I will have scholarship dollars for those who need it. Money should not be a reason not to play and should be reasonable which I think you will see that it is.

Thanks for reading all this and let me know any questions you have.

Dickson

The All Iowa Attack Basketball Program is dedicated to serving the youth in Iowa by supporting their academic and athletic goals. The following guide our program:

1. To use basketball as a platform to teach life lessons and character development such as how to be a leader, handle adversity, and work in a team setting. We believe that these disciplines can be used on and off the court and we take every opportunity to instill them into our athletes.
2. To develop a basketball program that is accessible to athletes who desire to become excellent. If this desire is present, then we believe that nothing should stand in the way of the player achieving this goal. We aim to break down the barriers created by financial situations, abilities, and demographics in order to give every opportunity of excellence.
3. To provide opportunities for our athletes to share quality time with family and friends in practice and on road trips. Our desire is to give our athletes and their families something positive and constructive to do with their time.
4. To improve basketball skills. We want our athletes to be the best basketball players they can be. This requires a lot of practice, training, and working on weaknesses. This is the tough part, it means working hard, and we will push them to work harder than they want to.
5. To develop quality individuals who value integrity, fairness, responsibility, and maturity. We expect our athletes to approach every game with the mindset of upholding All Iowa Attack as a classy program. This means demonstrating good sportsmanship and proper basketball etiquette by respecting the opposing players, coaches, and officials.
6. To provide opportunities for the players’ future. Most of these athletes will have very successful basketball experiences. Some may play varsity their freshmen or sophomore year of high school. Many will get the opportunity to play at some level of college basketball, thus many getting their college education paid for. Whatever their length of experience, we want to give them the opportunity to play at the highest level possible, and we believe that means working hard at it right now.

Player and Parent Expectations

We as an organization understand there are other things in life besides basketball. We ask that you make you best effort to keep you commitment to the organization, coach, and most important, you fellow teammates.

We expect each player to:

1. Come to practice ready to practice, ready to learn something new, or to enhance the skills that they already possess.
2. Be on time for practice and attend all practice sessions.
3. Notify the coach in advance if they can’t attend.
4. Attend all tournaments, display good sportsmanship and team spirit.
5. Come to every game and expect to come out a winner if you have given your all.
6. Maintain a minimum 2.0 GPA (“C”)

We expect each parent to:

1. Get their athletes to practice and tournaments on time.
2. Stay updated through emails and the website.
3. Make all payments on time.
4. Help during home tournaments.

Overall expectation:

“Let the coaches coach, players play, officials officiate, and parents cheer!”