AAU Recap: Team Loaded 434 17U

Jack Herron

August 18, 2015 @ 04:30 PM

After years of success as East Coast Fusion, the newest member of the Team Loaded family, Loaded 434, experienced some growing pains during the season, especially in the way of players coming and going every week. However, the scrappy team played the style of basketball you would expect from a group of blue collar kids, and were a tough out all summer, especially come July when they finally got down to their core group of kids. They finished the season with a .500 record, but going forward you can expect them to be a formidable force in the Virginia AAU scene. Here's a recap of their summer. All quotes courtesy of Head Coach Paul Redgate. Overall Record: 16-16 Co-MVPS: Afanna Offor. “Afanna was our most versatile player. He has the ability to shoot it well from deep and can also beat you off the dribble when attacking. Brett Buisson. “Brett has an uncanny ability to score in all facets of the game. He’s a strong guard with a high basketball IQ that plays hard on both ends of the floor.” Defensive MVP: Jared Jauch. “Jared is a pest defensively and does a great job at getting a ball handler out of his comfort zone. He’s a great anticipator as he was one of our leaders in steals and charges taken.” <h2>Coach's Take</h2>“With the typical ever-changing AAU team from weekend to weekend, our guys did a great job at buying in to what the coaches were asking and playing solid team basketball. For being undersized against our opponents often, the guys did a great job at not getting beat inside, as Josh Goode was our anchor and was a very versatile post player for us. The team did a great job forcing our opponents to play our style and tempo. We received strong and consistent play from guys like Jemeil King, Josh Colon, Zane Lewis and Sasha Yadrishcenskiy. Jay Barber joined our team the last couple weeks and he gave us a huge offensive spark. Overall, we were a very well balanced team and received contributions from all of our players."