New Haven Independent

The Blazers are an American Athletic Union (AAU) basketball program headquartered at the Boys and Girls Club in the Hill. Over last three years, the program developed six teams to be on a level to compete for state AAU championships in their age levels. This year four teams recently competed and became state champs: under-11-year-old boys, under-12-year-old boys, under-13 boys, and under-14-year-old girls (who were 35 and zero for the season).

Ivery Tanner and Cardell Walter’s (pictured) U-12 team went to the nationals held in Hampton, Virginia and came in 16th in the nation.

The U-14 girls just returned from their nationals in Washington, D.C., where theycame in second. And tomorrow, Thursday, the U-14 boys, although not state champs,still earned a spot to compete in their nationals and will be boarding a bus to give it their best effort in Coco Beach, Florida.

There are 64 kids in the program, largely from the New Haven area. All are highly athletically talented but still must try out for the teams. Many get turned away.

According to Socrate Joseph and Kenroy Woodhouse, sports directors at the Boys and Girls Club, who established the teams, the AAU program is the premier league for middle-school kids. The aim is more than winning. “The goal is to create scholar-athletes,” said Joseph.

Kevin Walton (pictured), who coaches the U-12 team (and is also the coach of the girls varsity at Career Magnet High School), put it this way. “We tell the kids of course to reach for the moon. Because if they fail, they end up, anyway, among the stars.”

He was at pains to point out that members of this team include a talented musician, two kids at Sheridan Magnet School with great skill in computer technology, and Ivery, who goes to St. Francis School on Ferry Street. Ivery wants to be a school principal. Cardell Walters, who attends St. Aedan’s in Westville, is interested in becoming a teacher.

The Boys and Girls Club, he said, has the same scholar-athlete goal. “Our goal is to have sports be the avenue to get these kids into good high schools, and to have good college experiences, too. That’s key to the rest of their lives.”

It takes lots of work, on the part of kids, volunteer coaches, and parents. The extensive practices, travel, and uniforms are supported by the Boys and Girls Club and by donations from local businesses. Kids practice three times a week for two hours. They travel on weekends to some 30 games from November to April. Then, in the late spring and summer, they compete in AAU state and then national competitions, the high point.

Kids must maintain a minimum C average to play. If they don’t, the program supplies tutors from Quinnipiac University or Southern who work with the players to bring them along academically.

With so many practices and travel — to say nothing of these gifted young men playing on their school teams and in other sports as well — how do the families manage? Valerie Tanner, Ivery’s mom, credits not only herself for encouragement but her ex-husband for the daily “being there.” (He’s pictured with their other son, Kaymar).

“I work for the state,” she said, “and sometimes I put in long hours and at night. Ivery’s dad is at home and he makes sure he gets his chores done, his homework done, and that he gets to all the practices.”

Valerie Tanner, a tall woman, said she did play basketball for Hillhouse. Her son is much better, she said. “I clutched on the court,” she said, “but Ivery has learned on this team to concentrate, to focus. You should have seen them in Hampton, at the nationals. They were superb. They could have gone to the final four.”

What did Ivery learn from his experience? His mother said it was a more realistic sense of himself. In his own words: “I learned that as good as you are, there is always someone who is better than you. And the other lesson is that if you work harder, you can get better too.”

The full squad of the under-12 state champs are (left to right) Corey Staggers, Corey Barret, Malaik Suggs, Amos Ford; (back row, right to left) Justin McClendon, John Dzeurda (who scored eight points in ten seconds, at the nationals), Cardell Walters, Harold Cooper, Kevin Walton, Jr., Rashan Boyd, Ivery Tanner, and (missing) Robert Grissent.

While the under-12 kids posed for pictures and knocked around, nearby the under-14 boys were practicing seriously. On Thursday, they leave for their nationals in Coco Beach, Florida.

Having grown from two to six teams in three years, and with so much talent in New Haven, the organizers said the plan, funding permitted, is to to double the number of teams next year. For information and/or to support, click here.