About Us
The Minnesota Southeast Stars are happy to be starting our 7th season of AAU tournaments with some amazing athletes, and another fun and exciting month of Pre-Kindergarten – 3rd Grade Lil’ Stars Camp with the little ones. As we’ve grown, we’ve learned a great deal about how we want to differ from other AAU groups and what our own goals are for ourselves and everyone who works with us.
We focus on learning and getting better first – and winning games later. Our philosophy is that first and foremost, as coaches our focus is to teach and to help kids learn – and they learn team unity, faith, leadership, and compassion, and we feel these skills will take them far in life. They learn basketball basics, ball skills, plays, and some have stayed on to help us with coaching. Winning and big scores is secondary, as we find our main goals are much more important to the child’s future growth.
We at Minnesota Southeast Stars look forward to encouraging the best in each player and helping to strengthen their skills. No matter what experience level your player is at, we enjoy the chance to work with anyone who loves the game. We want players who want to create a ripple effect down the echelons of history and to “rise up, get up and never ever give up.”
Joe Pena
about The Minnesota Southeast Stars
Our program began as an idea in 2019, with our first classes and tournaments in 2020, and has continued to gain popularity among players throughout different cities in Minnesota. We strive to keep our membership fees low, and focus on the players’ skills rather than game wins and points. We fully believe in giving each and every player who comes to us the chance to play, regardless of experience, and make sure that each win is a full team effort rather than a portion of the team. We offer summer program AAU tournament play, beginning with workouts and practices in March and ending in mid-summer. We also offer Pre-Kindergarten through 3rd Grade Lil’ Stars Basketball Camp in the early spring to help younger children learn early skills that they can continue to develop as they get older. We are located in Waseca, Minnesota, and do not limit our AAU membership to any city – if you can come out, you can play!
Our Mission & Vision
Our mission is to be a memorable part of each player’s life journey by providing a healthy and safe environment where confidence in athletic abilities can soar. As an organization, we do not emphasize basketball as the number one priority over other areas of our young athletes’ lives. Our commitment is to complete the personal growth of our players. Our goal is to do everything we can to make them better at the game that they have a passion for. Our organization is built on adversity and hard work. Our goals are to encourage fundamental development, improve individual and team player skill sets, and encourage sportsmanship/teamwork in a fun/competitive environment. The vision of the program is to add strong emphasis on values such as character development, teamwork, discipline, respect and sportsmanship.
Our program goal is to produce quality and competitive basketball players so that they are able to overcome the trials set before them and help them become fundamentally sound basketball players with the proper values necessary to help them continue to grow in the sport that they are passionate about. The mission of the Minnesota Southeast Stars Program is to educate and empower today’s youth with confidence, commitment and integrity, so they can live a productive and successful tomorrow.
Philosophy & Style of Play
We are passionate about making sure everyone gets to PLAY. They do not sit on the bench regardless of skill level. We remember what it felt like to watch our son sit on the bench and how sad it made him and we refuse to let another family feel that way. When the team wins, it’s because of everyone’s hand in the game. Not just the “best”. We want everyone to feel the best and we love helping kids. Our style of play is to prepare our players for the fast-paced, competitive tempo that AAU games continues to have every season. We try to come up with inventive and fun ways to increase the skills of each player so that when they’re done with AAU, they go back to their school teams with more confidence and eagerness to show what they’ve learned.
Why Join The Stars?
The founders and coaches of the Minnesota Southeast Stars all have the goal of making sure all kids get to play, and they get better at their skills. Every one of us has experienced or watched our own children experience being set aside or forgotten on the bench when they just want to get out there and play. We want to see the kids enjoy the sport of basketball, we want to see them smile as they learn new skills, and we want to hear their eagerness to have another practice or another tournament on the calendar. We want to hear our families tell us how happy they are to see their kids playing, and playing better each year, and how much they also enjoy meeting the other amazing families that come to us. If you’re interested, give us a call or come to a practice! We’d love to meet you!
Our AAU Teams & Programs
Pre-K – 3rd Grade Camp
We hold a 4-week camp for grade school children in the spring to teach fundamentals and have some fun!
9U – 17U Boys & Girls
We create teams from ages 9 through 17 to play at AAU tournaments throughout Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota and more.
Pre-Season Workouts
We begin our season in early spring with “workouts”, a way for players who might be interested but want to check out our organization first or previous players to get back in the gym with old teammates and show their year’s progress. These semi-formal practice sessions help us identify who will possibly be joining us and what our teams may shape out to be so we can start working on a tournament schedule.
Weekly Practices
Regular season practices begin a few weeks after workouts, when we have our players who have decided to join us for the season ready and teams are formed. Practices are held in Waseca twice a week, once during the week and once on the weekends. We separate younger teams from older teams due to gym space, and we encourage everyone to try to make all practices to help us prepare for the fast paced tournament season that begins in May.
AAU Tournaments
AAU tournament season begins in May when all high school teams are finished with playoffs and end in mid-summer, depending on what we can get our teams entered in and who can make the dates. Games are fast paced as well, with tough competition and often well-packed and enthusiastic crowds. Spectators are expected to pay entry fees, although coaches and players are entered at no cost.
Stars History
Our Stars organization began in 2019 with a great group of players, including the inspiration for it, our son Brandon. We learned as we went, with bumps and bruises along the way, but we have enjoyed the chance to keep bringing AAU basketball to many talented athletes in Southern Minnesota.
Our Pre-K – 3rd Grade Lil’ Stars Camp took off with big numbers of participants due to the limited availability of programs for such young kids, and we’ve had a wonderful time practicing and learning with these precocious basketball players, and later their siblings!
The Stars have had a steady membership of players to create teams of all ages from 9U to 17U, and we’ve been able to participate in tournaments in several states and won some championships that we continue to defend. Our coaches come from various experiences such as high school team coaching, other AAU club coaching, and playing the sport themselves.
2022
17U BOYS Minnesota State AAU Championship
2023
12U BOYS Minnesota State AAU Championship
2025
12U Girls GameTime Tourney Iowa Championship
2025
11U GIRLS May Madness Champions
2026
15U BOYS Midwest Spring Splash Tourney Champions
2026
15U BOYS Heat in the House of Hoops Tourney 1st Place
2026
15U BOYS Quad cities showdown Tourney 1st Place