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Top 10 blog and article posts for 2017 and Festive Season thankyou message

What a big year this was for www.HighPerformanceHoopsNetwork.com.

Throughout this year 4x featured athletes commenced their division 1 college careers and so far 2x2018 athletes have committed for next year.

VIDEO| Highlighting the commitments of the history 4xdivision 1 commits out of South Australia and 3x2018 prospects, 2 of whom have no committed to division 1 programs.

The way we operate is somewhat unique and groundbreaking in Australia and we thank everyone for coming on this journey and supporting us. We are 100% volunteers working as a team so support and shared efforts are much appreciated.

We won't even single people out from this last year to thank. You know who you are. We've had many mutual efforts, phone calls, emails with people supporting and assisting in what we do there are simply too many to mention. We say thankyou to all that has worked with our team, and featured athletes.

We also specifically thank you all that have been positively involved for playing a role in the development of Featured Athletes, from local coaches, state, national coaches, nbl coaches, college coaches. Their success helps us build a brand to help future athletes coming through and so many people contribute to them being successful on and off the court. We also thank those that provided content for blogs & articles and guiding and supporting us behind the scenes in our efforts.

This next year one of our many goals is to define "the what". What we do. We know why we do it (Blog: I have no idea "what" but I can tell you "why") but we are now ready to define "the what". We've built a team of trusted advisors and supporters that will have a lot of input into that, many listed here, some to be listed soon and some behind the scenes. Happy to hear from any interested contributors in this regards.

As we did last year we look back at our top 10 blogs in terms of traffic for the year. With 10s of 1000s of readers and almost 40 blogs & articles there has been some great content, insights and knowledge shared.

In defining "the what" we do we will be looking at how we select athletes to feature on our platform. We will be very heavily focused on core values and the intangibles that we feel will help them continue to be heavily recruited and build winning programs wherever they play as College athletes, national team players or professionals. Some blogs that allude to these values that we will use to select athletes have been written throughout the year. Some blogs on these qualities and values this past 12 months included;

For featured athletes, these blogs & articles are providing visibility and exposure to US College coaches.

For Aussie based coaches they give you insights and knowledge from our personal experience in developing teams and youth talent.

For future potential featured athletes you find out insights, inspiration and lessons learned direct from the athletes whose footsteps you hope to follow in, in playing division 1 college basketball.

For US College coaches they are a great source to learn about Australian pathways and featured athletes.

For parents they are a useful tool to give you insights on what to expect, how to guide your child and you can use the the blogs to motivate and educate your child.

Our featured athletes provided some great insights on their journeys so far:

Some blogs and articles did not hit the top 10 that I personally love to read, reread as a resource. These contributors include some very successful names in Aussie basketball and people involved with the college basketball system such as:

One of the really enjoyable things about developing these blogs is it is a great chance to work with friends, former players and those that we respect to develop these articles with. We also get to sometimes build new friendships. I personally enjoyed developing these 2 blogs for those reasons.

I got to catchup with all of the 2017 featured athlete commits to review their or pre-season. Isaac White, Jacob Rigoni, Lat Mayen and Brent Hank giving us insights about their own and their team's progress over their preseason. It was great to get contributions from their coaches too David Patrick (Associate Head Coach with TCU), Adam Cohen (Assistant Coach with Stanford), Shaun Morris (Assistant Coach with Quinnipiac) and Josh Pelletier (Assistant Coach with University at Albany).

Likewise, interviewing the Glovers about their son Angus Glover, one of the top young players in Australia, was a chance to get to know some new people too. I really enjoyed working with the Glovers on their story of parenting an elite youth athlete.

Of course there were many other great contributions around specific issues such as:

Thanks to these and all our guest contributors.

So having said all that, these were our top 10 blogs for 2017 as voted by you (your visits, shares, likes). We hope that if you missed these you check them out now, share with your friends and colleagues, or just have a re-read.

Number 10

Brent Hank, as a regional athlete out of Port Lincoln Basketball Association (800 kms from our home of Adelaide), and his family, made a major commitment to his basketball development at a very young age. His journey has been one he has greatly appreciated. He recently committed to the next phase, with a commitment to Albany Great Danes men's basketball, in the America East.

Brent provides his story which we hope will provide inspiration for all regional athletes about the opportunities that can be achieved in the game both and off the court. Brent attributes some of his success to the support networks and community at Central District Basketball Club and Trinity College, Gawler a potential model of school/clubs working together.

This is a great read for regional based athletes Australia wide, their support networks, families and anyone interested following the progress of kids like Brent making a great commitment to their journey to eventually be rewarded

Number 9

We are extremely lucky to hear from the U20 Men, Gold Medal winning head coach of the Basketball SA Men, Scott Whitmore. Scott breaks down the team make up, tournament preparation, during the tournament and post tournament.

A great read for all involved, supporters, families included, club team mates and friends, and any coaches or players in Australia that want to learn and get inspired by this amazing team. College Coaches wanting to get an understanding of this talented and successful team, as well as Aussie pathways and coaching, should also check it out.

Number 8

In this blog we outline our global shooting challenge for players all over the world at any level to try to beat arguably two of the best shooters in the world in their age groups. Who can beat these young men?

You can also watch footage of their amazing shooting displays in our benchmark drills, including seeing their score and time in the footage. Great for coaches and parents alike to share amongst their teams, players and programs.

Also, in what will be a series of blogs on the subject, Coach Andrew Jantke provides his insights on individual workouts. A specialist in small group workouts for our high-performance athletes in South Australia, over the years, Coach Janx has been one of the coaches that have provided small group workouts to countless players in the South Australian SA Metro program. This is including all of the featured athletes at www.highperformancehoopsnetwork.com, all of whom are division 1 College prospects, including 8 of whom have represented Australia, been in a National squad, and/or are based at Basketball Australia's Center Of Excellence.

A great read for all athletes, challengers for the records, parents, coaches, high performance managers, workout coaches anywhere in the world that want to be challenged and learn some insights on small group/individual workouts that they can apply to their own workouts too.

Number 7

The man is invested, tough and selfless and he has found himself in a place that seeks to build a culture around that very ethos, a place that is going to be a great home for Isaac, and a place he has a chance to leave his mark on, along with his teammates, his top freshman class, and the coaching staff who are now entering their 2nd season with the Stanford Basketball program.

This blog focusses on between January 2016 and February 2017 where Isaac White went on a journey that is inspiring, motivating and a great story for all of us.

Playing in a very successful premier league season for Sturt Sabres Basketball Club, winning a national championship with Basketball SA, representing Basketball Australia in two overseas tournaments, plus his international visits to the United States and a few other things.

Oh and did I mention he completed Yr 12 as a straight A student at Sacred Heart College and was an Assistant Coach to probably the best U16 youth team in the country.

Number 6

Former South Australian baller Uche Dibiamaka (Uche Dibs) has chosen an alternate path to many Aussie kids. One that is not for everyone but is hopefully going to be reaping huge benefits for him. We provide some great insights and footage in this article on Uche and his basketball journey in the US High School system.

Number 5

History has been made for South Australian basketball with 4 men committing to Div 1 College programs in the United States for the same year.

A collection of the FieldLevel.com announcements of the collective commitments of our first batch of successful featured athlete commits for 2017. We would not be where we are today if it was not for these men and their families

Number 4

Paul Mesecke ranks top 20 players in the men’s comp at the recent Australian National U18 Championships tournament held in Townsville. The rankings are based purely on a statistical model developed by Paul.

All those interested in the championships, be it locally or overseas , will find this article interesting. Including the discussion on Paul’s model, also where the various top players have been ranked.

Number 3

All about the tournament that included Dante Exum, Ben Simmons and a massive number of division 1 college commits, and current and future pro athletes.

What is Australia's most talented U18 National Championships ever?

There is no right or wrong answer but in this blog the case is put forward that it was infact in 2012 -- OR maybe 2004?!?! Dare we throw 2017 into the mix???

This may bring back memories for many players involved, coaches and supporters. It is for anyone that has played, participated in or watched national championships, or aspiring to do so in the future.

US College coaches reading the blog will gain appreciation for what these championships are about and why they need to keep watching talent coming through these championships.

A lot of the official information put out by sporting bodies is very helpful theoretically. BUT! This unofficial blog is different. It is hoped that this blog will help educate and inform those in Australia and overseas on our Aussie pathways and the level of prospects that these championships helped develop over many years, using practical, real and insider examples. We'd welcome it to be shared by anyone and everyone that supports our Aussie pathways.

This blog will excite; excite about the past, excite about the future.

Number 2

A blog by Paul Mesecke that attempts to rank the top 20 players in the men’s comp at the recent Australian National U20 Championships tournament, based purely on a statistical model developed by Paul himself.

I am sure that all those interested in the championships, be it locally or overseas , will find this article interesting. Including the discussion on Paul’s model, also the rankings themselves as well, as where the players have been ranked.

Number 1

1000s of visits and likes from the NBL Owner, NBL Coaches, through to international coaches and high performance managers across Australia, from all corners of the earth. Inbox full of questions and ideas, after this blog. Luke Allen, a valued member of our team at www.HighPerformanceHoopsNetwork.com made these comments on this blog:

"The 3 side actions article is a very useful tool for a broad demographic- it is probably the most user friendly guide of compiled information a FLOW available. A quick Google search on the subject won't reveal much... Not just my opinion - I have heard it from others. Well done with it- very useful resource!"

So in closing we say THANKYOU and Merry Xmas ALL.

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