AAU Girls Basketball - AAU Basketball

The AAU Girls' Basketball Program was established in 1972 as part of the AAU Junior Olympic program. Prior to 1972, the AAU Men's and Women's Committee conducted basketball championships, which included a single junior division. The National Championships started in two age divisions (15u &18u) with eight teams in each and have expanded to include (8/u through 19/u) plus the Junior Olympic Games.

In 1998, we introduced AAU National Invitational Championships (NIC) with a total of 117 teams in seven different Age Divisions. These are now called Division II National Championships and in 2006, 304 teams participated. This was in addition to the 723 teams that competed for eleven AAU Girls' Basketball National Championship crowns.

Last year, we also added a separate Grade Based Program designed primarily for school and community based teams. In 2006, AAU Girls’ Basketball unveiled its long anticipate Coaching Excellence Program. Under the direction of our own Dr. Leroy Fanning and Kay Hawes at Sports Association Management Inc.

This Program is offered in collaboration with the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA). It is an online education program that is much more than X’s and O’s. It includes history, philosophy, teaching, sportsmanship, positive motivation and burnout prevention in addition to basketball skills, preparing for emergencies and the sometime difficult task of communicating with parents

In 2007, we continued to expand the new and exciting ways to advance to our National Championships through 333 total Tournaments in 64 sanctioned Super Regional events over 16 week ends. This is in addition to 3,880 District Qualifying Tournaments in our 56 Districts. Also this year, we have added the 8/u Presidents Challenge at Disney’s Wide World of Sports using a smaller (26.5”) ball, but maintaining the 10 foot high goal as in all the other Tournaments.