TeamMelo Rising In Year Three

We sat down with Recruiting Coordinator Dwayne Wise to discuss how TeamMelo became the premier grassroots program in the Baltimore area under Nike umbrella. Well it all started with a vision. Carmelo Anthony himself as well as our program CEO Robert Frazier wanted to bring the program under the Nike EYBL banner in Baltimore where Carmelo Anthony grew up as a kid. We started 3 years ago as a friend of Nike grassroots program ,and it allowed us to build and compete against other Nike programs in eybl format. That 16u squad really opened the doors for our program.That team featured Darryl Morsell Class 2017 now a freshmen at Maryland, DeVondre Perry who is a freshmen at Temple, Former TCU commit Andre Rafus and former Hampton commit Chris Orlina.In year 2 we put together  a strong group of talents at 16u that featured Noah Locke, Demetrius Moms, Wynston Tabbs, Ike Nweke that lead us to prestigious Peach Jam under Coach Keith Goodie.Nike then felt as if we earned our keep, so in this past year we became a fully sponsored Nike EYBL member at 15-17.So how did Melo do in 1st year at 17u,on the most competitive circuit?Wise said out of 11 kids on our 17u eybl travel squad I truly  believe every kid will play D1,and that team made Nike Peach Jam Finals at 17u.We saw at least 3 kids make Top 150 Nationally in Class 2018 in Brendan Adams, Noah Locke and Wynston Tabbs said Wise,and we already have solid verbal commits in Mims(Long Beach State)Ike Nweke(Columbia) Winston Tabbs(Boston College).From our TeamMelo Red squad we already have solid verbal commit in Josh Cornish, who is headed to Southern Utah. Our commitment from the management side as well as our Coaches is to get as many student athletes to College,and build a winning culture under the Nike umbrella. We asked Wise what are some of the roles within the program that make it successful?Wise said it always start with Team and you can’t have egos.With that said Robert Frazier CEO has a strong supporting cast in Donald Duncan his assistant, Julian Lil Man Brown to go along with myself that work around the clock. We work as a team and we all pretty much grew up together in Baltimore as kids.When you share a common vision, it’s contagious.The Coaches we have also play a major key to our programs success. We have loyal Coaches who are dedicated to our kids and goals. Coach Keith Goodie, Kyle Locke as well as Coach Black are strong candidates for College gig’s. Coach Sam Brand is now a fixture with USA Basketball and is also an exceptional High School Coach, along with his assistant Anthony Fitzgerald. We also have Coach Smiley, Coach Jerard Rucker,Coach Warren,Coach Teddy,Coach Jay English,Coach Kyle and Chris who were loyal stable members.Our goal is to continue to build, and for that we brought in Carmelo Anthony former aau Coach  and now Middle School Director in Darell Corbett. He basically anchors the development for our middle school division and is the face of Mt Royal Recreation.