During the summer as a service to the Herndon youth I would like t inform parents/players about the Herndon high school basketball program. I have been a Herndon Youth coach/referee for over 20 years; commissioner of the Herndon boys and girls travel program for 4 years; coached AAU for 12 year, and currently 4 year with the Western Fairfax Mustangs AAU club; and for the last 4 years assistant coach of the Herndon varsity women’s basketball team.

My experience over years has been that communicating the opportunities for our youth about those programs has been difficult each year. We have some gifted athletes in our community laying in many programs and remainder needing good coaching so they can get in the mix. They deserve to have the options of our county neighbors’ for success in high school.

We currently have several of our youth playing on developmental AAU teams this spring before entering high school. They are learning many skills useful for future play and enjoying the experience of network with youth from around the county. Most AAU team play a season from late March through the month of June.

The young ladies/boys interested in playing for the high school teams in the winter generally play in a local fall tournament with other prospective Herndon players.

There are several area high school basketball camps during the summer for improvement. Age groups generally begin at the forth grade and continue through the high school grades.

The Herndon high women’s and men’s coaching staff provides three separate weeks of basketball camps. The men’s camp start in June and the women’s start in July. Please contact Coach Reggie Barnes for the women and Coach Chris Whelan for the men’s information on the high school web site.

Hoops Magic located in Chantilly, is also a wonderful place to find skilled instruction for young basketball players. They provide many other sports related services as well. Check their web site for details.

Western Fairfax Mustangs web site provide player development information; AAU team travel and practice information; photos of local players; successful college players from the program and other details about playing in the spring. The Mustangs web site provides coach bios for parental information.

As a Herndon varsity coach I am looking forward to a exciting winter season. We have several exciting young freshmen arriving this year for our underclass teams. We will return our starting lineup of talented players, two earning all district honors last season. All of them and several of our underclassmen (women) have been playing some development AAU basketball this spring. I would like to invite the community out to see some very good high school basketball this winter.

For those parents interested in coaching in the winter house/travel leagues I have been talking to Hoops Magic about their annual coach clinic each fall. I will keep you informed as I get the information or you can keep checking their web site.