Westmoreland notebook: ITPS Sports basketball lands key sponsorship

By: HSSN Staff
Sunday, April 1, 2018 | 5:48 PM

A local AAU basketball outfit just struck gold.

Pittsburgh-based ITPS Sports was accepted into the adidas Gauntlet Gold Division of the national AAU circuit.

Programs can't make it any higher. Drawing sponsorship and exposure from a shoe company — Nike and Under Armour included — is the mecca for AAU teams.

“The kids got us here,” said Nate Perry, a former standout guard at Hempfield and Seton Hill and the director of ITPS Sports. “The kids have trusted the process and are seeing the results.

“This is the first-ever shoe deal in Western Pennsylvania.”

The ITPS Wildcats will have three teams on the Adidas circuit: ages 15, 16 and 17-under. Players from Pennsylvania and West Virginia will make up the rosters.

Practices begin Friday night at Chatham.

“This is what all of us have been working for, especially Tom (Droney) and Nate,” said ITPS player Brandon Stone, the former Southmoreland star now at Christ School (N.C.).

Stone has been with Perry and Co. since the beginning, when the program went by Bridge City Basketball.

Perry started TTG Basketball in 2015, and it quickly grew with the merging of the West Virginia Wildcats.

The reputable Pittsburgh JOTS program played in large, nationwide tournaments but as Perry said, “They had their own fundraising.”

“This is big for us and the whole tri-state area,” Perry said. “People don't realize what this means for the best players around here. We want to put Western Pa. and West Virginia basketball on the map. We want kids who are first-graders now to be on the Adidas Gold Gauntlet when they're in ninth grade.”

The ITPS camp also consists of CEO Eric Cunningham, co-director and coach Droney, who played at Sewickley Academy and Davidson, and Shane Phillips, a coach who also runs Baseline Recruiting.

The group is responsible for putting on the ITPS #CancerSucks Charity Classic on Saturday at Chatham. The event is a showcase for top senior and prep players and also features slam dunk and 3-point contests. It started at 2 p.m.

Other coaches include John Geiger, Tim Tyree and Lloyd Hill.

AAU provides an avenue for better players to go against better competition and reach the college level, and this move will give ITPS players “preferential treatment,” so to speak, in that top Division I head coaches will attend many of the “live period” tournaments.

“Sometimes you get second or third assistants, which is no offense to them,” Perry said. “But here, you may have 50 head coaches right under the basket watching you. The kids who go to the invite-only camps are going to get that kind of exposure.”

Perry said the deal with Adidas is for one year.

“It's a trial run,” he said. “We have to prove ourselves, and it takes a lot of support from the community and within our program. It's like a business. We'll also do a lot of training in the gym to help get these kids ready for college.”

Five key tournaments for ITPS will be in April and July.

ITPS stands for Information Technology Procurement Sourcing. The company is headquartered in Wexford.

Baseball honors

Franklin Regional catcher Bryce Harper and Hempfield pitcher Tyler Wiederstein, both sophomores, earned high-honorable mention preseason honors by Perfect Game, an amateur baseball scouting organization that hosts showcases and tournaments around the country.

Penn-Trafford juniors Maclean Maund, a first baseman, and catcher Cade Patterson made the honorable mention list.

Soccer clinic

Pittsburgh Riverhounds coaches helped conduct a free youth soccer clinic last weekend at Southmoreland, the 4th annual Samuel S. Hicks clinic.

Hicks, a FBI Special Agent, was killed while on a job in 2008. He was a Southmoreland graduate.

More than 80 children attended the event, which was held indoors because of weather.

Recruiting

Belle Vernon senior Bryce Washington decided to continue his basketball career at Waynesburg.

• Derry senior sisters Faith and Charity Fannie will continue their swimming careers at Chatham.

Bill Beckner Jr. is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at bbeckner@tribweb.com or via Twitter @BillBeckner.

Tags: Franklin Regional, Hempfield Area, Penn-Trafford, Southmoreland