Garfield Heights welcomes future hoop stars

Thursday, April 05, 2007

By Mike Holzheimer

Garfield-Maple Sun

The pursuit of a dream can travel many roads.

For many young women hoping to join the elite group of professional basketball players in the WNBA, that road begins in several gymnasiums throughout the country where selected individuals hope to impress a scout or two and be invited to an organization's training camp.

Merit Management’s Women’s Free Agent Basketball Camp celebrated its 10th year this week with Garfield Heights High School hosting the event. The camp comes to selected cities during the NCAA Women's "Final Four" being played in the area.

"We're very happy to be hosting this special event," said Kevin Hartman, the director of student activities and athletics for Garfield Heights. "Tim Baab, a former coach at John Carroll University who works as a camp coordinator contacted me about opening up our building for the players and coaches to come in. It's a great opportunity for us to be able to showcase and further use our basketball facility."

And the Bulldogs' Fieldhouse was utilized to the fullest with the action being contested in both the main and auxiliary gyms. Players, by invitation only, came from such programs as Duke University, Michigan State, Rutgers, Tennessee and North Carolina hoping to show that one quality that might help a professional team's quest for the ultimate prize of a world championship.

Stephanie Stanley, an agent to several WNBA players is also the president of Merit Management and coordinated this special one-day camp.

"A lot of these players were top performers on their respective college teams. But in a lot of cases, these individuals fly under the radar and don't get the national notice others would get prior to the draft" said Stanley.

The competition was filled with players demonstrating a variety of qualities from long-range shooting to a strong presence inside the key regarding scoring and rebounding. Both courts had tables circling the playing surface filled with coaches and scouts from the WNBA including former "bad boy" from the Detroit Pistons Rick Mahorn and Richie Adubato, former assistant coach with the Cavaliers and current head coach of the Washington Mystics.

And from player to coach to committee member in town, everyone had high praise for the 'Dawg House.

"This facility is tremendous," said Stanley. "It's by far one of the better gyms we've visited in the last few years. I know Garfield Heights has some great programs and that certainly have a state of the art building for their athletes to perform in."

Many a success story began from humble beginnings. And for these women who came to Ohio on a rainy Sunday in April, it is their hope that the travel and the skills they showed will enable them to make WNBA team.