Storming the nation


Members of the current University of Northern Iowa men’s basketball team, who are former members of the Iowa Barnstormers, pose with coach Greg Stephen (second from left) at Old Chicago in Cedar Falls. From left are Spencer Haldeman, Greg Stephen, Luke McDonnell, Jeremy Morgan, Klint Carlson, Adam McDermott and Wyatt Lohaus. (Photos submitted)

Iowa Barnstormers players warm up for a 2015 tournament in New York City.

The Iowa Barnstormers Basketball Club, of which Greg Stephen of Monticello is executive director, will join the Adidas Uprising program in 2017 to play in national tournaments.
Barnstormers club signs deal to play in Adidas league
By: 
Pete Temple
Sports Editor

BASKETBALL

     Barnstormers basketball is getting noticed, now more than ever.

     The Barnstormers Basketball Club, led by executive director Greg Stephen of Monticello, had already grown and succeeded to the point where it was regularly preparing young players to earn college scholarships.

     Now, the club has picked up a sponsorship from Adidas, the famous athletic shoe and gear company, and will play in the prestigious Adidas Uprising program as a sponsored team in 2017.

     “It’s been a goal of ours to try to get involved with one of these shoe company programs,” Stephen said. “The last few years we’ve had a lot of success. We’ve had some really highly-touted, highly-recruited kids lately in our program.”

     Stephen started the program in 2005, with two teams. It currently has 18 teams in levels from fifth grade through 11th grade.

     “It’s about preparing these kids for the next level and helping them find college scholarships,” Stephen said.

     It has been enormously successful. For five years in a row, the 10 kids in the Barnstormers’ top 11th grade (17-and-under) team have all received college scholarships.

     Former University of Iowa player Jarrod Uthoff is a Barnstormers’ alum. Uthoff was the first Barnstormer to go professional, and is currently playing with Raptors 905 of the NBA Development League.

     Two current Hawkeyes, Jordan Bohannon and Ryan Kriener, went through the Barnstormers’ program.

     The current University of Northern Iowa has eight former Barnstormers on its 13-player roster.

     Area players have been part of the club as well. Sawyer Herman of Monticello is getting playing time for Wartburg College. Devin Green of Cascade plays for the University of Sioux Falls in South Dakota.

     Among current players, Joe Wieskamp of Muscatine tops the list. The junior is averaging 29.6 points per game during his high school season.

     Barnstormers’ teams practice at Monticello and Mount Vernon high schools. The middle school teams have been practicing this winter, and the high school-aged teams start practice once the Iowa high school state tournament ends, and play into July.

     Since the club began, Stephen said, “it’s become more and more about the recruiting side of things and getting kids in front of college coaches.”

     That has led to shoe companies getting involved. The Barnstormers met with three of them, Adidas, Nike and Under Armour.

     “They all sponsor a league, and they select certain teams from certain states,” Stephen said. “We spoke at length to all three companies this year, and Adidas was the company that put the best offer on the table, the best opportunity for our kids out there to play on their circuit.”

     So the club signed a multi-year deal with Adidas, and will play in its Gauntlet Series. The company will pay travel expenses – including flights – for the Barnstormers to play across the nation, and shower them with Adidas gear that they will be required to wear at tournaments.

     The biggest perk, Stephen said, is “the opportunity to play at the highest level against some of the other best teams around.”

     It helped that last year, the Barnstormers got their feet wet in the Adidas circuit.

     “We weren’t on a sponsorship yet. It was just the opportunity to play,” Stephen said. “We were testing the waters, and trying to prove ourselves.”

     The Barnstormers’ 15-and-under team took first place in a tournament in Dallas, second in Atlanta and in South Carolina, and third in Las Vegas. The 16-and-under team won in Atlanta, took second in Las Vegas and third in South Carolina.

     “They saw that quality product of our youth teams coming up, and that’s really where this all came from,” Stephen said.

     Stephen, a former middle school coach and later a coach at Upper Iowa University, came back to Monticello to help with the family business – Stephen Motors – after Greg’s brother Brad passed away.

     “This is my way of continuing to coach basketball and fuel this passion of helping kids get college scholarships and get to the next level,” he said. “It’s a way of scratching my itch of staying around the game. It makes it pretty fun for me.”

     The club has a website (gostormers.com) and a Facebook page (facebook.com/gostormers), and also is on Twitter. Information about the Adidas league is available at adidasuprising.com.

     

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