BECKLEY, WV (WOAY) – On Sunday, Tamar Slay, the Woodrow Wilson and Marshall basketball legend, held tryouts for his travel basketball teams.
At the Memorial Baptist Church, groups of fifth-graders and seventh-graders competed to join his Team Slay Under Armour Circuit Travel Ball teams.
Tryouts were open to players from all across the Mountain State.
“This is my home and why wouldn’t I come back here?” said Slay during the tryouts. “There’s not a lot of us that make it to division one. There’s not a lot of us that make it to the NBA. So, why wouldn’t I come back and give these guys some inspiration?”
Kids who make the team will begin competing in tournaments starting in April. Slay views the teams as important pipelines to potential recruitment in high school.
“If you’re in the Under Armour Circuit now in middle school, if you play well, you’ll get an automatic bid to the high school division,” said Slay. “All of the colleges in the country come to every Under Armour Circuit tournament that they have. So, it’s giving them an advantage.”
