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Last year, the Emmorton-based Maryland Elite basketball team for girls 14 and under, “played the number 5 team in the country and the number 9 team in the country. We led at the half and then lost by 40. How come this team we can beat them in 20 minutes but in the next 20 minutes we just die? That’s when I realized we were out of shape,” says their coach, Adopho Negron.

The Maryland Elite team ranked nationally before training with Athelites, but they needed more to compete with the top teams in the country. “The problem is when you keep going up in level, you may be in great shape to play rec. or travel ball, but when you play on a national level, you’re not even close,” Coach Negron explains. That’s when he called in Ephraim Dorsey from Athelites.

Athelites went to the team’s practice facility at the Emmorton Rec. Center and worked with them twice a week for five weeks. They worked with the coach to ensure that the training met the team’s needs. “Ephraim would come in, so some training, and ask what I thought, and I’d say, ‘I want more basketball skills or I want more basketball conditioning.’ My concern was we’re dying, so I wanted to make sure they could last the whole day.”

As a result, the training focused on being a better basketball player. Coach Negron explains, “There was a lot of running, but everything was with the ball. He taught them how to warm up properly. How to shoot the proper way, making moves to the basket, passing, good defensive positions and postures and rebounding.”

Athelites’ training encompasses more than just drills. It includes motivation and education. “Ephraim relates to them very well. The kids look up to him. When they’re doing drills, he’s talking to them and telling them stories. ‘This is what so and so did that’s why she was or wasn’t successful.’”

It is worth the time. TEAM time is a premium, so some coaches have to decide whether they’re going to do the training or whether they’re going to do the coaching. What Ephraim does, is the fundamentals and the conditioning, but you still have to do the coaching to prepare for games. Some of the coaches say they’ll do half and half, but they end up just focusing on the “X’s” and “O’s”. Then during the season there players start to get out of shape because their training sessions were less intense and less frequent as the season when on. As a team you might be really good in Harford County, but when you go to the next level, you may be at the bottom of the pack.

We went to nationals and lost in the quarter final in youth basketball of America age 14 and under. These girls are now 9th graders and 10th graders. All of the girls are doing great at there high schools this year.

“I would recommend the athelites training program to anybody, it’s worth the time and the money!” says coach, Adopho Negron.

Written By Terri Pilcher

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