SPRING
• Rise as One (Elementary): 3-4 tournaments
• Rise as One (Middle School): 4-5 tournaments
• Rise as One (High School): 4-5 tournamentsSUMMER

SUMMER
• Rise as One (All Grades): 3-4 tournaments

FALL
• Rise as One (All Grades): 3-4 tournaments

WINTER
• Rise as One (All Grades): 3-4 tournaments

SPRING SEASON
The Spring AAU season with Rise as One differs slightly for each grade and team level. However, most teams will follow a similar season pattern:

• Elementary Grades: March 3 – late May
• Middle School Grades: March 3 – Mid June
• High School Grades: March 3 – Mid/Late June

All of our head coaches involved with Rise as One have been thoroughly reviewed and approved by our staff. All have previous coaching/playing experience at the collegiate, or professional level and have accepted their role with Rise as One with the full understanding and agreement of our mission and organizational goals.Many of our coaches have been with us for several years, and repeat in all of our AAU seasons. You will find available biographies on the Rise as One website additional coaches for our teams will be posted on our website.

Yes, Rise as One does have permanent professionals that impact the organization and serve in a variety of ways. You may obtain more information on our coaching staff within the website.Kevin Houston – Executive Director, & Coach Mentorship

Kyle Kielty – General Manager, Tournaments Director, and Administration

Casey Ryan – Marketing, Recruiting and Public Relations

Lee Van Horn – Director of Development

Teaching Academy
Rise as One team are fully committed to being a teaching academy for the development of your child. The Basketball gym is our classroom, and in all aspects of what we do, lessons of work ethic, commitment, integrity, discipline, character, respect for one another, cooperation, and accountability all in part contribute to our foundation of the full development of the best player an individual can become. We strongly believe that these life-long traits are tremendous differentiators from every other AAU Organization in New Jersey.

Club Leadership
Our organization began in 2002, was founded by Coach Kevin Houston, a former collegiate and European Coach with over 10 years of experience at a variety of high levels. He continues to remain as the Executive Director supervising the Club growth and movement of player development. A strong coaching staff ensures a professional leadership team that is dedicated and committed to the holistic development of every young player. Our esteemed coaching staff is comprised of professional basketball players from within the New Jersey region. The staff is committed to ensuring the sustainability and continuity of our mission.

Our Home Facility
In 2007, The House of Sports Facility is a 12,000 square foot multi-court basketball training facility in the heart of Northern New Jersey. The location, owned and operated by The House of Sports will provide a consistent home for the AAU program. An impressive modern, state-of-the-art basketball facility. By operating and maintaining our own facility, this provides an unparalleled advantage for our AAU participants of ensuring a positive, quality, and safe location for their basketball development. Moreover, our players tend to use the facility as their “base club” ; a place to congregate, hang out with friends, play games and foster friendships. Finally, having our own facility allows us to purchase and maintain state-of-the-art technology equipment that is unparalleled in New Jersey. All our players have the opportunity to utilize the revolutionary training concepts, multiple Shoot-a-way Gun apparatus to impact repetition and perfection.

Highly Competent Training Staff
A tremendous advantage our players have is consistent close training with The Basketball Factory to work with our team’s basketball skills. The Basketball Factory will impact all teams through an unparalleled training curriculum. Athletes will improve their strength, power, vertical jump, speed, acceleration, and quickness.

More Practice = More Improvement
Finally, teams are scheduled for practice 3 times each week. With more practice and training, our players do improve; they do get better. Two sessions are scheduled on weekdays and one session is scheduled during the week. Saturday sessions are ultimately at the discretion of the Head Coach, as each weekend practice session will only be held on Saturday dates when they are not playing in a Tournament. Each team will be scheduled, and expected to take full advantage of the extra practice opportunities unless a tournament game conflict would arise.

Your decision to continue your Basketball Career after High School is one that can only be made after much consideration and reflection. The commitment level to play at the collegiate level is extremely extensive. There is much, much more to playing in college than running out the tunnel in front of thousands of adoring fans. For those that desire to play in college, Rise as One will be very active in supporting the recruiting efforts and assisting to promote your child to increase those opportunities.

Payments can be made by cash, check, or credit card online. When paying by credit card, an additional service fee is added.

The ability of Rise as One to provide scholarships or financial assistance to athletes is extremely limited. Any scholarship aid that is provided has been to those athletes who have been with Rise as One in previous seasons, and can validate their need for tuition assistance. We do not use scholarships or financial aid as a recruiting tool. If your athlete is in a situation where financial aid is a necessity, please make arrangements to speak with Rise as One administration prior to tryouts so as not to interfere with tryouts and roster selection.

Every athlete is required to purchase a uniform (jersey and shorts). The standard uniform normally costs around $70 (exact cost available at tryouts). Should you become a member of a team with more extensive requirements, you will be informed prior to accepting a roster position.

Rise as One fees cover court rental fees, coaches fees, administrative costs, trainers fee, and equipment costs.

Tuition will be payable in 1 payment, depending upon the time a player joins Rise as One. Tuition payments are non-refundable. Any payment or tuition concerns or discrepancies should be made in writing to the club director.

There may be other costs and fees associated with playing AAU basketball that are not included in tuition, they may include but are not limited to:

Tournament Spectator Fee
Travel Costs (gas/lodging/transportation)
Food During Tournaments
Fundraisers
Extra Gear/Clothes/Shoes
SUMMER & FALL

The Summer & Fall Seasons are a discounted rate from Spring due to the season being shorter. Tuition for Spring and Fall is due in full at the Registration and/or Signing Night.

Definitely not! In fact, we find that you would normally pay less, and the benefits are far, far greater! We find that having our own facility is a huge cost advantage when compared to other organizations that do not, and have to continually strive to “find and search” potential locations on inconsistent nights in creating a practice schedule. Further, this is your HOME! There is no uncertainty about practice locations, there are extra opportunities for training and open gyms to better serve you, and most importantly, for you to utilize!

There are many areas in which parents can get involved with their Team! Each Team will have a Parent Representative to address multiple organizational items. Among those will include handling administrative items, eligibility documentation, sending out communication emails, entering tournaments, tournament fee collection and other related tasks. The parent representative will be a close liaison to the Head Coach. Parent involvement that typically is conducted on a sign-up basis may include keeping the scorebook for games, organize snacks/water/Gatorade, or other similar tasks.

Parents are not required to attend all practices and tournaments. We do encourage all parents to attend as many of the games and tournaments as possible, as athletes will enjoy your support of them and their team.

Please remember no transportation will be provided by Rise as One. It is the responsibility of each family to assure that their athlete is at all events or arrange transportation, and is picked up promptly at the conclusion of practices and games.

The primary role for parents is to be supportive of their athlete and team, and be a good role model during practices and tournaments. While you may not agree with every coaching decision or every call by a referee, parents should focus on the game, supporting the team and ultimately supporting their child.

Each tryout will consist of a specific workout curriculum, which assesses athletes in fundamental skills, strength, speed, acceleration, and competitive game play. All athletes are evaluated using the same criteria and given the same opportunity to make a team, regardless of any previous experience, affiliation with Rise as One, or AAU experience with other clubs.

Once named to a roster, athletes have the opportunity to either accept or decline their roster spot. This would occur at our annual signing night. At the time of acceptance, a fee is required. If an athlete desires to try out with other teams and therefore cannot accept the opportunity presented by either Rise as One, then the athlete would be required to relinquish their roster opportunity. If, they were to decide at a later time that they did want the roster opportunity, they would be required to try out again for the team at the next tryout date (pending roster availability). This policy is in place to assure our rosters are filled, and that we are able to provide athletes on the waiting list a deserved opportunity.

Parents may not watch tryouts. Each tryout session is designed to provide an environment to evaluate each player. Further, there is very limited space in the House of Sports, and no parents/siblings are allowed on the courts during this important time period.

We will be offering teams in the age groups of grades 2-12 seasonally. Athletes may tryout for Rise as One, regardless of previous basketball or playing experience. Tryouts are $25 when the player tryouts!

Tryouts for the teams will take place on the following dates:

September 11 & 18, 2017 (Grades 2 – 11)
December 1, 2017 (Grades 2 – 6)
February, 2017 (Grades 2 – 12)
Athletes are only required to attend tryouts until they have been accepted onto a roster. If an athlete does not make a roster, they can tryout at any and all subsequent tryout sessions.

Every Tournament has two fees: a Team Entry Fee and a Spectator Entry Fee.
The tournament host club or director of the event you are attending sets the team entry fee. This fee can range from $150-400, depending on the size, location, region and organization of the tournament. The team entry fee is paid independently and directly to the organizer. This typically must be paid in advance (1-2 weeks ahead of the event, exception being AAU state events which could be 3-4 weeks in advance of the event). In addition to the tournament team entry fee, each tournament will have a spectator admission fee. Every spectator (age 5 or 6 and above) will be required to pay for entry, and the amounts range (depending on the magnitude of the event) from $5-25. Some tournaments offer a weekend pass option, at a discount while other tournaments require spectators to pay by the day.
Many Tournaments in New Jersey charge the following (though not all):
Friday – $5
Saturday – $10
Sunday – $8
Weekend Pass – $15
Parents should expect to be required to wear a bracelet or other identifying item for the duration of the tournament if they purchase a weekend pass. Most tournaments only accept cash, so parents should plan accordingly. Rise as One has no control over the prices a tournament sets, though they are normally available to the coach prior to the tournament.

Rise as One does not provide transportation to practices or tournaments. However, as long as a parent has arranged transportation to the tournament, the athlete will be able to participate.

Rise as One will participate in tournaments locally, regionally and nationally; thus there would be some limited travel involved with these teams, but as always, electing to participate in out of state or out of area tournaments is the sole discretion of the Head Coach and Team families.

The Head Coach will determine their team’s tournament schedule. Most teams will have their tournaments spread out across the season occurring from March thru early June.

Tournaments always take place on the weekends. Tournaments can be one day, two day, or three day events. However, for the spring season, nearly all Tournaments are 2 or 3 days in duration. Each tournament makes their own schedule, and Rise as One has no control over outside tournaments, organization of tournaments, venues, or schedules. Rise as One does control the events that Rise as One sponsors.