What is AAU?
The definition of AAU is “Amateur Athletic Union” basketball, and is an amateur and youth sports organization.
AAU hoops is made up of independent groups across the United States that form teams and participate in tournaments under the aegis of the AAU as the governing body.
The league is meant to give young athletes across the country the opportunity to participate in the game of basketball, improve their skills and showcase their talents in front of college and NBA scouts.
AAU History
The AAU was founded in 1888, in Chicago, by a man named William Buckingham Curtis, who wanted to standardize amateur and youth sports. For a time, the AAU was the official governing body of the United States’ participation in the Olympics and international competitions, until the Amateur Sports Act of 1978 removed it from that position after the AAU received criticism of its ability to properly oversee the multitude of sports underneath its umbrella.
How Many AAU Teams Are There?
Each state is broken down into various “districts” to which teams are assigned based on geography. AAU basketball currently has 56 districts across the country. Teams are defined by age group and gender. There are 12 age groups in all. The number of teams within each district varies.
Source: www.stack.com
I’m a parent. What should I expect?
When your child joins the MN SE Stars, we want you to feel comfortable in coming to practices, watching how our program operates, and communicating with us in any way you’d like. New this season we will be using an app called TeamReach to keep in touch with our families about everything from practices to tournaments to fundraisers.
When we have a tournament, we would like to encourage our families to attend as often as they are able. If you cannot transport your child to their games, we have other wonderful families that might be able to help and we try to participate in as many one-day tournaments as we can to cut down on the need for long travel for an entire weekend for everyone.
Tournaments are an expense so we like to warn everyone that you will as a spectator be charged to enter and refreshments are always available just like at school functions. We like our families to be aware of the expense of attending tournaments so the “sticker shock” isn’t a surprise.
Most of all, please expect us to be eager to listen and use feedback to keep benefitting our program for the kids that come to us each year. We appreciate the trust everyone puts in us to teach their kids and we hope you will find that we learn from them as well!