Jeremy Russotti's North Bay's Finest event

Jeremy Russotti and his crew have the North Bay's Finest event coming up this weekend -- October 9 and 10. It's worth attending -- even as a spectator -- just to view the skills training portions of the weekend.

Coming October 9th-10th, 1% CLUB Basketball will be organizing the 5th Annual "North Bay's Finest" Instructional showcase for the top 125 players of Sonoma, Marin, Napa, Solano, Humboldt-Del Norte, Lake, and Mendocino counties, respetively. The showcase event will once again involve elite level skill training in the early sessions, followed by evaluated team games in front of lower level college coaches and recruiting analysts in the latter sessions. The cost is $85 if pre-registered before Oct. 8th. Walk up registration cost is $95. This year's event will be held once again at Sonoma State University from 11 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.

The idea for the "The Finest" Showcase events came about by Jeremy Russotti with the vision for a more positive, beneficial, and true grassroots basketball events in areas that were overlooked. Back in 2001-2002, two of Coach Russotti's former players received b-ball scholarships to the PAC-10 Conference. Ironically, both of them were never invited to any local or national so-called "exposure events," overlooked mostly because of the area they resided in. At that point, Russotti knew a quality showcase event could really help draw needed attention to any area, resulting in more recruting resources for top local talent. More importantly, he realized the importance of INSTRUCTIONAL SKILL TRAINING vs EXPOSURE and the impact it had on his player's future recruitments. Therefore, the main focus of the event will be on skill building (6 total hours), with the added bonus of 4-5 games of evaluated team games.

Not only will the event be endorsed by scouting services, but also will include a report written by 1% CLUB Basketball that is emailed to over 1,700 coaches at the D2, NAIA, National JUCO and California JUCO programs (free of charge). Says camp director Jeremy Russotti, "We really take pride in spreading our message about individual skill building and how it can really drive your future recruitment process. The success of Josh Akognon has really come full circle, backing our message that was started five years ago. Also, there is a lot of talent in the North Bay that various colleges or junior colleges never get the chance to see or read about. Furthermore, we want to help bridge these connections, while trying to build intrinsic motivation within our attendee's to the importance of skill building in their daily routines.....and not just playing games."