April 24-25 Tahoe Qualifier Champions

Another trophy to add to their collection! The boys won another championship which was the Xtremehoops Lake Tahoe Qualifier. They went 3-0 again. In their first game, they beat the Reno Ballers 38-30. The second game they beat the Cameron Park Bruins 50-20, and in the championship game, they beat the Fairfield Ballers 55-31. Way to go Dawgs!!

Next Level Basketball Training Spring Break Skillz Camp 2010

During spring break, we hosted another successfull Next Level Basketball Training basketball camp. It was our largest camp yet with over 60campers! It was also our longest camp running from 9:30-2:30 for 4 days straight!

We had awesome coaches, a great agenda filled with intense workouts, fun games, prizes, even lunch!

It was a complete success and a great turn out! We received nothing but positive feedback and are expected to put on a summer camp as well.

We have some fantastic spring events coming up as well. Stay tuned...

2nd Trimester Grades

Joshua and Jayden had outstanding grades again and this time at their new school! Joshua received the honorary Principal's Honor roll which is the highest honor roll you can receive!

Great job to both of our boys!!

Air Jayden

Here are some great action shots of Jayden, thanks to Tye...Jayden's come a long way and is following in the footsteps of big bro. His ball handling and aggressiveness is getting better and his shot is a very clean one!

Jayden's goal is to become a YBA Dawg just like Joshua and compete at the AAU level. At the rate he's going, he'll be there in no time!

Go Jayden!

Playing With The Big Boys

Since Joshua's team had been winning so many tournaments in row, Lance decided to enter our 5th grade team in a 6th grade division.

Before their 1st game, the opposing 6th grade team and parents were pointing and giggling at our 5th graders, saying things like "awww, look how cute and little they are" and, "they can fit in our shoes!" Blah blah blah! In the 3rd quarter of the game, our team outscored their team 14-0! They weren't laughing anymore, that's for sure! After the game, one parent looked at us and just said, "wow!"

Joshua's team played against the "trees", the 6th grade boys were significantly taller, stronger and their game was a bit faster. In spite of all this, the 5th grade DAWGS played extremely well!

In the first game, they lost by 3 points but were ahead in the 3rd quarter with a 14-0 run!

In the second game, the 5th grade DAWGS won by 1 point. In the 4th quarter, we were tied up, Joshua hit a clutch 3 at a very critical time in the game and gave us the lead! It was amazing!

And in the final game, the DAWGS beat a team from Napa by 18 points! The Napa coach did not, I repeat did NOT like the fact that his 6th graders were losing to a bunch of little 5th graders. He received 2 technical fouls before being ejected from the game (like an NBA game)!

The entire team played their hearts out. Joshua got a number of "oohs and ahhhs" from onlookers. They were impressed with his quickness, defense, ballhandling, shooting, and aggressiveness. He is the littlest kid on the team and the 6th graders towered over him, but he went in there and helped his team fight hard to the end of each game. It was so much fun to watch.

Even though we didn't win the whole tournament, the kids felt like winners! We were so very proud of our 5th graders. They played hard and kept up with the bigger boys, never feeling inferior or intimidated. They were so happy and can't wait to play in another 6th grade tournament. This time they were actually challenged in each game. I don't think anyone expected our boys to do as well as they did, but they proved everyone wrong!

Awesome effort and heart to the 5th grade blue DAWGS!

One Day Shoot-Out

On Saturday, Joshua's team took championship again and were 3-0! YBA beat El Dorado Hills Trojans 56 to 28, Sierra Storm 66 to 21, and the Folsom Force 38 to 35. The championship game against the Force was a great game. YBA was down by 14 at one point and came back to win it by 3! The YBA boys played so hard and fought to the very end. Congrats to the DAWGS!

Martin Luther King Jr. Classic Tourney

This weekend, Joshua's team went 3-0 again! 49-28 against the Sierra Storm, 56-23 against the Rocktown Ballers, and for championship, 44-27 against the Folsom Force. What a great tournament. Last year, Rocktown always beat us by no more than 5! Also, the Force was "THE" team, I don't think any team beat them last year! Way to go YBA Blue!!

New Year's Challenge Tournament Champions

This past weekend, Joshua's 5th grade Division I YBA Dawgs team played in their first official winter season one-day tournament. The boys went 3-0 beating out the Reno Ballers (46-33), Del Oro Eagles (43-14), and the Davis Wildcats (58-24)! Great job to the DAWGS!

The Baller

Our team photographer, Tye http://www.allstar-sport-shots.com/ created this photo collage for each player on our team! Amazing isn't it? She's creative, innovative, and so very generous and puts so much into her projects! Thank you Tye for all you do for our boys and our families in general! What a great keepsake!

Jayden's Hotshots Win

Last Friday, Jayden played in his first game of this new winter season. The entrie team played great and got the "W"! The refs turned the score off once Jayden's team scored 37 points because the opposing team had only 2 points! Jayden's team could NOT miss! Fantastic win. Last season, Jayden's team went 0-8, we already know that this season is going to be a great one for sure!

Farewell To Mom O...

On Monday, November 30th Mom O. (Lance's Mom) passed away. She had been battling pancreatic cancer for over 2 years. To some of you, this may come as a shock but for those of you who knew her, you understand that she was an extremely private person. She didn't want people to know and at one point specifically asked us to not say anything to others about her condition.

Although we knew that her "time" was near, we didn't know it was going to be that soon! We spent Thanksgiving at the house along with Lance's sister, Kim and her family, and his brother Ryan and his family.

We lost her way too soon and there is an emptiness in our lives without her. The holidays will especially be difficult because it was her favorite time of year when all of her kids and grandkids were together. She was such a proud Grandmother and absolutely loved each and everyone of her grandchildren with all of heart.

Thank you all for your support, kind words of sympathy and love. Please help us all by remembering the good times that you shared with her and keep those memories close to your hearts!

Thanksgiving Skillz Camp 2009

Our Thanksgiving Skillz Camp was our biggest camp yet! We had close to 60 campers in attendance. It was awesome! Even with that many kids, the camp ran smoothly, was on time, was structured, fun and exciting.

Next up: Winter Skillz Camp 09

The New School

What can I say about Joshua and Jayden's new school? In one word, amazing. Although the boys started at the end of the first trimester and only a week before the parent-teacher conferences, it was a smooth transition.

Academically, they both had more homework and studying in the first week of school than they did at their old school in a month. They were assessed right away and are at the top of their classes! They have an awesome accelerated math program that is just up Joshua's alley and exactly what he needed to excel and be challenged. In the first trimester, the entire 5th grade class goal was to complete 21 tests. Joshua completed 21 tests in the first week! The exciting thing about this program is that the students can move on at their own pace if they keep passing the tests. Joshua's teacher is waiting to see if he'll ever get stumped and so far he's passing each one with ease. Joshua also was allowed to take a social studies test that his class had been studying for weeks. He only had 2 days to study for it and he had never studied this way for a test before. His teacher didn't expect him to ace it. But, to our excitement, he got an A+!

Jayden is also doing extremely well. He is in the highest reading group of all the 2nd grade classes combined. He is learning and loving his new environment.

At their former school, they would rarely have homework as their teachers would allow them to complete their homework in class because they'd complete their classwork ahead of time.

Now they both come home with lots of homework and studying, but they are thriving and work on it the minute they get in the door. They both have great study habits.

Their principal is a great hands on leader of the school. He takes pride in his school, staff, and students and knows every single student's name (684 students total). The atmosphere is so positive and really has a family feel to it, it's absolutely wonderful!

Joshua and Jayden have made some great friends already and have adjusted so well. The transition to their new school was so easy for them! I asked both boys which school they liked better and they both said their new school!! They are both happy and love being here in Rocklin! This is just confirmation that we did the right thing at the right time!

Rock-Town

In October, we officially sold our house in Lincoln and moved to Rocklin. We had a great experience in Lincoln for the past 7 years and loved our home. However, there were more important things at stake and the reason for our move was to get our boys into the Rocklin unified school district. We knew that we'd end up in Rocklin eventually. Originally our goal was to get to Rocklin before Joshua started 6th grade. However, things happened and we made the decision to just get out to Rocklin sooner than later. Honestly, we had know idea that we'd sell our house that quickly. We put it up at the end of June and closed escrow at the end of October!



Joshua and Jayden weren't being challenged to the best of their ability and I worried that there wasn't enough in Lincoln academically for our boys. They both had great teachers at some point who did challenge their needs, but then there were some who didn't challenge them. In fact, before we left Lincoln, Joshua was informally appointed the assistant teacher. He would go outside during class time to test the kids in math, sometimes correct papers and even log grades into the log book. Although Joshua loved being a helper, I felt that it was inappropriate for him to be responsible for other students and teaching them things when he should have been learning things himself.

It was challenging and sometimes stressful with the selling of our home, offers falling through etc., awful nightmare movers, and so on...but it was all worth it because now we're in a great house in Rocklin and at an amazing school. So it all worked out for the best as it always does and we're very thankful.

Next post: The New School.

Double Digit Birthday

On September 20th Joshua turned 10! It's hard to believe that our 1st born is already 10 years old.

This year Joshua wanted to celebrate his birthday with his friends by....(I'll give you 1 single guess)...playing basketball of course!! We rented the gym for 4 hours. The boys played 5 on 5, had contests, ate pizza, dessert, and opened gifts, then played more basketball. As if that wasn't enough basketball, Joshua's team was asked at the last minute to play in a tournament. So, Joshua and a few of the boys played in 2 back to back games on Saturday, went to the party, slept over, then played in a championship game on Sunday!

Needless to say, the boys were exhausted! But it was a fun filled birthday weekend for sure. Joshua said that this was the best birthday ever.

Here's to a fantastic 10th year for our little (or not so little) Joshie!

Oh...what a year it has been!!!

Here is our post from exactly 1 year ago, about us starting our own youth basketball training business - Next Level Basketball Training.

Fast Forward to today...the past year has been a great year for us! We haven't surpassed the million dollars in revenue just yet, but we are having a blast! We started small (1 client) and have grown every month (a key in business). In the beginning, we were renting gym time at different locations (the Lincoln Community Center has been great to us - and is a great gym), and schools. We even did some sessions outside in the winter! Then we took a step (a chance, really) and became the youth trainers for Johnson Ranch Racquet Club - where we entered into our first "contract". All of these places were great - but my initial vision when we decided to start the business was bigger! I saw us in a much bigger "venue" at some point (where there were multiple courts, even other trining-such as plyometircs, speed & agility training), and knew it would take time. Not only that, I felt we'd have to buy our own place, so it'd take money AND I figured we'd have to become a VERY "established brand" - like Nike.

Over the year we worked on making a name for our business...we wanted to be professional and organized, but most of all we wanted to provide VALUE to all families we touched. We did camps in the winter and the summer, topping out at about 40 players. We also did an after school program with the City of Lincoln. We donated food to the local food closet, and we were able to sponsor a couple of kids through our "Make an Assist" donations so they could continue their basketball passion (a dream of mine - to provide some sort of "scholarship" opportunity for kids to keep their passion for sports.)

Ever heard the saying "you have to believe it,before you can see it"? Well...recently (9/8/2009) we held our first training session as the "Official Youth Trainers" for Hardwood Palace! Why is this so important? Only because the Hardwood Palace is over 100,000 square feet of indoor basketball & athletic training facilities (including plyometrics and speed & agility)!! 8 Hardwood courts, and more importantly - it is THE hot spot for youth basketball leagues and AAU basketball tournaments. Translation: HUGE amounts of traffic, and people!!! It is very close to my vision from a year ago! Needless to say, we are excited about the opportunities!

Here's some perspective: They had a big academy coming in from the Bay Area on the weekends to train their youth. This academy is VERY big in the Bay, and the GM of the Hardwood Palace brought us in to replace them! Wow!!

We've started a Training Academy for grades 1st-7th, we've got Shooting Academies, Special I.T. (Intense Training) Clinics and we'll be soon scheduling upcoming camps.

We consider this a VERY big step in the right direction, and we are very thankful for Hardwood Palace putting their trust in us and for all of the people that have supported us in our decision to start the business! We are looking forward to exponential growth in the coming months, and are excited about the opportunity to touch many young players' lives!!!

Here's to a great year!!!

Alex & Marisa's Summer Visit

Last month, after Mom and Dad spent a couple of weeks in Colorado, they brought Alex and Marisa here to stay with us for a little over a week. This was the first time Alex and Marisa traveled without their parents. Donnie flew in a few days later and joined us. What a fun visit we had. The kids had a great time playing, singing, dancing, and acting goofy as usual. They have always gotten along so well and are such good friends. Of course when Donnie arrived, all 4 kids attacked and terrorized him like they always do.

What a great way to end the summer!

Best Cupcakes Ever

On Lance's birthday this year, I ordered some gourment cupcakes at Icing on the Cupcake. Boy or boy were they YUMMY! These are definitely the most delicious cupcakes around. The Icing on the Cupcake shop is very cute! What a great thing they have going on...serving beautiful, scrumptious, decadent cupcakes. They have so many wonderful varieties and really unique flavors like,macaroon, peanut butter & jelly, chai, caramel apple, red velvet, etc. They're about $3 per cupcake but so very worth it. You have got to try some!!

3 Peat CHAMPIONS

Earlier this month, Joshua's team played in 3 tournaments in 3 weeks. They came home with 1st place trophies for all 3 and were undefeated each week! Congratulations Joshua and the DAWGS!

August 15th-16th "To The Hoop" tourney, 4th grade division.


August 8th-9th "Fast Break" tourney, 4th-5th grade division.

August 1st-2nd "Fast Break" tourney, 4th grade division.

Say CHEESE!!

Can you guess why Joshua is smiling so wide? No more braces! He's had his braces for approximately 9 1/2 months total. He used to have a Class III cross bite, or "underbite". Now, he has a perfect bite and a great smile! During the 9 1/2 months he had many restrictions...no caramels or sticky candies, no gum, no popcorn, etc.etc. The first thing he wanted after we left the orthodontist was gum! He was gum happy for about a week straight. Yeah! No more braces!!