Former HoopStar player Hillary Wenning is once again in the local newspapers for her basketball journey. This year Wenning took her hoops skills to the University of Indianapolis. While most of her growth was made from the bench, she did seize her opportunities down the stretch to shine.

I was first introduced to Hillary when she was in 4th grade and played YMCA basketball with my younger brother Dustin. Even back then I was amazed at her playing ability. She brought a tenacity to the court that dominated the boys she played against.

Here is a brief recap of Hillary’s first season as a Greyhound. We look forward to more to come from Miss Wenning.

DJ Wright Prom Court Story Our second HoopStar spotlight victim guest is DJ Wright. DJ just completed his senior season at Greensburg Community High School (HoopStar’s alma mater. While his season was plagued with multiple foot injuries, we was also a success off the court. He was nominated to the prestigious GCHS prom court. In his newspaper picture, DJ sported one of his most prized possessions, a HoopStar tournament shirt. We wish DJ the best of luck in his future pursuits.

This is always a touchy subject as I do a lot of training for youth in Indiana. It is always evident in youth league play which children are spending a lot of time with a basketball. I get hundreds of clips and emails about the next child prodigy. I am happy that these youth are tearing up their league at age 7 and no one can touch them, but the sad truth is that this success doesn’t last long (usually past high school).

I went to school with a child prodigy in junior high. His name was Brad. He was 5′9″ in fifth grade, could handle he ball, could almost dunk, and played every position on the floor. Six year later (His senior year), Brad was still 5′10″ and could almost dunk. He was a streak shooter and was typically not a starter for our Varsity team. Now I like Brad (Congrats on the job, wish I was making that kind of change) but he exemplifed a lot of the typical prodigy features that ultimately lead to his demise as a basketball player.

Physical maturity. A lot of young child stars hit their growth spurt, are trained in the weight room, and/or gain a better sense of body coordination at a younger age. This is why Pee-Wee football has rules about running backs being a certain weight. It is an advantage that does not necessarily have anything to do with a prediction on talent level.

Early practice. In my example of Brad, he was given the freedom to do anything to help our team win in junior high. As a result he shot a lot of threes, fade-aways, and used pure athleticism to score. When he lost his athletic advantage (or when everyone else started catching up) he hadn’t developed the skills necessary to move on. This same athletic advantage in junior high limited his progress in high school. That is why when I see clips of kids hitting 10 NBA distance 3’s in a row, all I can think is that kid has a lot of work ahead to break bad habits. Typically when a young kids shoots at too far of a distance, he shoots from his hip, cocks the ball over his head, or uses both hands to shoot. So now he is getting a lot of positive reinforcement and practice with a negative form. When the competition catches up, it typically leaves this child star in the dust because the child has to either learn an entirely new shot form and start over or stays with the current form and can’t get the shot off or is very streaky (10 3-pointers might be impressive in junior high, but not in high school or in college).

So with all that being said, here is a neat clip of a little kid making 18 baskets in row on a full size goal. I wouldn’t encourage this, but then again I don’t train this child.