By RICHIE HALL
The future is bright for Hamilton County girls basketball, based on the success that local organization Indiana Girls Basketball’s third-grade team had a recent tournament.
Actually, it might be more accurate to say that the future is now.
IGB’s third-grade team, IGB 2030 Shade, won the AAU World Championships, which took place in late June in Cincinnati. The tournament began June 25 with pool play, where the IGB team – competing in the 2nd/3rd Grade Girls’ Division 1 category – went undefeated in four games. The team then went 3-0 in bracket play, culminating with a championship win on June 28.
The IGB team was coached by Matt Shade, also the Director of Operations at the organization. He noted that his team beat the state champions from five different states: Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Ohio and Oklahoma. In the final game, IGB beat what Shade called a “really good” team called FOE, an All-Star squad featuring players from West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee.
Of the 10 players on the team, five of them are from Hamilton County. Four reside in Fishers: Brooklyn Bizila, Kirby Hankee, McKenzee Mezera and Zoey Brinley. A fifth county player, Bryce Webster, lives in Sheridan.
The other five players on the team are all from Central Indiana. They are Adalyn Nicley from the Western Boone school district, Kendall Doss (Avon), Molly Popp (Indianapolis), Quinn Sowder (Brownsburg) and Sydney Newkirk (Plainfield).
While they are only third graders, the IGB team players are already veterans. Some of the players participated in Lil Ballers, a program geared for girls from pre-kindergarten to second grade that started in 2019. Team members also participate in IGB’s training program called The Circle.
“It’s a scalable training program for girls that want to play high-quality basketball,” said Shade. The program takes place all around Central Indiana, in Carmel, Fishers, Noblesville and Plainfield, and Shade said it is looking to grow into the northern and southern parts of the state.
All that work has paid off for the third-grade team, in fact, Shade said it’s “probably the difference-maker” when it comes to its success. He said the players are “highly skilled for third grade and that only comes through repetition and quality work.”
“The girls have bought into the system,” said Shade. “It’s fun to watch it on the court at such a young age.”
Shade is also quick to give credit to others as well. That includes assistant coaches Alissa Hankee and Will Webster. He also gave praise to Natalie Morse, IGB’s Director of Training and College Recruitment.
Morse played at Hanover College, graduating in 2013. In a short period of time, she has developed an impressive resumé, including assistant coach stops at Noblesville High School and Butler University; she was also Director of Operations at Butler for two years before moving into coaching.
“She came to IGB and she’s taken on the role as the lead trainer at The Circle,” said Shade. “She’s the difference maker for the organization. She just has a passion and a drive to train these girls at an incredible level.”
The team had another assistant coach, one whose name might be familiar: Ashlynn Shade, Matt’s daughter and a star basketball player for Noblesville. Matt Shade said that the girls’ favorite coach “is definitely Ashlynn.”
“When Ashlynn isn’t training or playing, she’s generally at practice or the games,” said Matt Shade. “It’s neat to see it through Ashlynn’s eyes, remember the days when she played at that age.”
Matt Shade said that Ashlynn enjoys coaching, and that she can emphasize with the third-grade girls.
“I’m a pretty hard coach,” said Matt Shade. “It’s nice for them to hear that voice. The nicer version of it. The girls just really look up to her. She basically balances me out as a coaching staff.”
After the World Championships were finished, the IGB team members got away from the gym for a while. Shade said the coaches like the girls to take a break from basketball “for four to six weeks,” then resume training in The Circle in August before playing games in the winter.
When they do, the girls will be refreshed and ready to go, although motivation doesn’t seem to be a problem.
“These girls all have that fire in their eyes and they want to play basketball,” said Shade.