68 SLAMONLINE.COMhaven’t been. Now the top kids want to
play. It’s just different,” says Stevens.
“They don’t even wait for summertime—
winter and spring, kids are saying, ‘Hey,
you think I can get me a spot on Team
Dyckman for NYvsNY?’ Whereas before
no one was talking like that, now the
teams are really starting to build out
résumés. Everyone is trying to win it all.
It’s good to see the competitiveness.
Three years ago there was nothing. Threeyears later, the kids are really trying to
figure out who to play with in NYvsNY.
Before it was all about the live period and
it made it dry in New York for that
month.”
It goes without saying that the first
two seasons were competitive. Ultra
competitive. Nonetheless, the results by
August were the same. Gersh out of
Brooklyn claimed the title both times.
And they did it convincingly on bothoccasions—going undefeated in each of
the first two seasons. Their success,
according to Gersh league director
Damian Pitts, is credited to the strategi-
cally structured coaching staff that was
set in place for each season.
“The biggest thing for us is our
coaches. Our coaches connect with the
kids. We’re not getting coaches that are
just random and don’t have a connection
with the kids. Brooklyn guys with aClockwise from top left:
Gersh, Tri-State, Watson