695HOOPS WHERE IT'S ALWAYS ALL ABOUT THE GIRLS
2017 Recap
May 10, 2017
AAU's Maryland district has been in a steady decline for the past 7 years or so. For various reasons the district has not been able to put together a quality tournament that would attract teams who wanted to play locally for a championship and bragging rights. The Potomac Valley district has seen a similar decline as well. I remember sitting in on a district meeting with some other program directors trying to figure out how to turn things around. One of my suggestions was to join forces with the PV district and create one competitive event. I was told there was no way to do that. At that point I realized "AAU" was on life support and we needed another direction.
The Official DMV Championship (Don't Duck The Bump) was created to bring back the excitement that has been lacking in regards to an area championship tournament. With all the politics created in girls basketball by shoe sponsorships and elite summer leagues, I figured we would take a crack at settling some scores on the court by inviting everyone to stay home one weekend and slug it out.
Although is was a very successful inaugural event, we didn't pull in all of the local heavyweights. In fact, it turned out that a few out of area programs were more excited about the event than some of the locals. Out of state programs like NY Exodus and Philly Triple Threat ran off with DMV Championships in hand. I have no problem with that and I was excited to see new programs like Team Durant, DC Blue Devils, Powe Move, CTAB and others mix it up with longer tenured programs like the Germantown Lady Panthers, Maryland Lady Tigers, PSPA and others. The landscape is changing and it was fun to get an up close look at some of the emerging talent from 4th through 11th grades. There were also some very talented young coaches involved in the event and I'm looking forward to watching them evolve.
We are already planning to make the event much better next year but not necessarily bigger. Thank you to all the teams that participated. Like our 695Hoops Facebook Page or follow me on Twitter @695hoops for updates during my travel around the circuit this summer.
Philly Triple Threat 4th grade Champs!
DC Blue Devils High School Gold Champs
PSPA High School Elite Champs
Philly Triple Threat Blue, Middle School Gold Champs
Power Move 5th Grade Black, 5th Grade Champs
DC Blue Devils, High School Silver Champs
New York Exodus, 6th Grade Champs
Tania White, Havoc City Sol 
Madison Moore, Power Move
Madison Scott, DC Blue Devils
Nicole Melious, NY Exodus 
Sydney Williams, Philly Triple Threat
Jerzell Banks, Philly Triple Threat, 2027
Amya Scott, Philly Triple Threat 
Azanah Campbell, Philly Triple Threat
Karmen McDuffie, Power Move