The Selma Shock Amateur Athletic Union basketball program is gearing up for another year with a few changes in store.

Roosevelt Johnson, director of the AAU in Selma, said the program will be a part of bringing a Five-Star Basketball camp to Selma in April, an organization that has produced some of the best players in the game of basketball.

“Along with AAU, this year we’re conducting a Five-Star Basketball Camp partnering with Five-Star Basketball out of New York through Reebok,” Johnson said. “They’re coordinating with the Concordia College athletic program to bring in a Five-Star Basketball weekend camp for kids in this area. Five-Star, they’re really huge in the East and the Midwest in terms of producing five-star athletes like Dwayne Wade, LeBron. A lot of greats have gone through Five-Star. It also facilitates workshops and things like that. Five-Star is really instrumental in rankings for our kids that schools and other people can look at. It kind of gives our kids exposure.”

While a specific day has not been set, Johnson said the camp will be in the month of April, and is a part of the Southern Youth Sports Initiative of trying to expose kids so that they get recognition in order to get scholarships.

“Bringing Five-Star here will be huge for the area. So coach [Fredrick] Summers, the men’s basketball coach at Concordia College, is really excited about working in conjunction with Five-Star Basketball and Southern Youth Sports Initiative to be able to bring something here,” Johnson said. “We’re looking at April to get the camp here.”

Johnson added the Selma Shock AAU program will make a few changes this year.

“This year, we’re going to do things a little differently with AAU. We’re going to have tryouts for 13 year olds, 14 year olds and 16 year olds. We’re not going to do a lot of fundraising this year. A lot of kids, their parents are going to have to step it up and get the necessary money in for their kids to play,” Johnson said. “Of course, there’s a lot of costs involved in AAU because we’re going to be traveling to the high-exposure tournaments, the NCAA-certified tournaments where the coaches from all the different colleges will be. This is where we want our kids to be to get exposure. So it’s a bit expensive when we go to these events because these events can be expensive to enter. We are taking donations for that and all of our donations that are given to us are tax-deductible because we are a non-profit organization.”

Johnson added the program is different in that it helps players take the necessary steps to get to the next level academically as well.

“We’re really interested in just working with the kids that want to be helped,” Johnson said. “Our program has always been different than any other program because we key in on the ACT, SAT, they have to be studying for that or taking that test. We’re really excited about this year and the direction that we’re going because we feel like a lot of kids, if they come out and play with us, that they’ll be exposed and they’ll get recognition that they need to really do what they want to do.”

For more information on the Selma Shock AAU program, contact Johnson at 349-0952 or email selmashockforlife@gmail.com.