The junior class had the fantastic idea to create an All Aboard Elite (AAU) team for March and April. This team, coached by Myles Twyman and Felipe Selle, has an interesting starting five. This team is named All Aboard Elite and consists of six junior boys so far. Most of the team has never played basketball before or at least not in several years. The boys are playing with the intention of spring and summer activities and their passionate love for basketball. The players so far are Byrson Jones, Brent Bell, Hayes Parsa, Henry Ledbetter, Grayson Clark, and Toby Burns. The boys came up with this springtime activity one day at the lunch table.
Byson Jones is a football and lacrosse player who decided to play for the team. With little basketball experience, he was willing to play for All Aboard Elite.
“All Aboard Elite is an AAU team where my friends and I will play against some hoopers,” said Jones. “We just wanted to play basketball this summer and needed to figure out a way to. Our coaches Myles and Felipe will help guide us to some big wins as well.”
The team must appoint a starting 5 for these games and at least 1 bench player. They do not have many people so they will have to play the majority of the game.
“I’m playing point guard and I’m also a captain on our team. Our coaches assign the captains and I am one. The other starters are Brent, Hayes, Henry, Grayson and then Toby is coming off of the bench.” Jones said.
The team has to raise money to play in the AAU Tournaments. These leagues and tournaments are not cheap, and many teams have fundraisers to pay for them. With this being said, the boys decided to start a GoFundMe and attempt to raise enough money for the team to play in tournaments.
Head Coach Felipe Selle constructed this team and has a passion for the All Aboard Elites mission. The team needs money for the tournaments and he had a brilliant idea to make money for the tournaments.
“We started a GoFundMe for our team to try and make some money for these tournaments because they can get really expensive,” Selle said. “We have had many donations in the first couple of days but then it started to die down.”
The team encourages their friends and family members to donate to their GoFundMe. Several Darlington students have helped the team with donations.
“We need people to donate to our GoFundMe so All Aboard Elite can play some high level basketball over the spring and summer,” Selle said. “We have raised up to 169$ so far.”