Staff file photos / Brian Yauger and Preston Byers. Howland’s Alex Henry (top-left), Warren JFK’s Nick Ryan (top-right), Canfield’s Dom Cruz (bottom-right) and Badger’s Duncan Moy (bottom-left) were all members of the successful Ohio Panthers AAU team.

Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) basketball has developed a reputation for overbearing parents, as well as a lack of teamwork and coaching required to properly develop young, aspiring players.

But the Ohio Panthers, a team created nearly a decade ago by a few local parents, has seemingly created the culture needed to nurture some of the most promising players in the area.

Of the 40 boys and girls named to this year’s Ohio High School Basketball Coaches Association (OHSBCA) District 1 all-district team, nearly half played for the Panthers at some point. Additionally, more than half of a dozen former Panthers surpassed 1,000 career points in high school.

Using his experience running the Badger Youth Basketball Association, John Moy, one of the team’s founders and the father of Badger star Duncan Moy, said he and Brian Henry, the father of Howland’s Alex Henry, decided to combine AAU teams when their sons were in the fourth grade.

“He had a Howland team that he would take to AAU games, and I had a mainly Badger team,” the elder Moy said. “[Duncan] and Alex played together in an Upward league in kindergarten, I think, and we started coming together in fourth grade. Once we put them together and (Warren JFK’s) Jaden Rishel… then other kids basically kind of wanted to join the team. They were seeing what was forming.”

While Henry and the younger Moy recruited fellow players, their parents scouted kids they felt would fit the culture they were attempting to create.

“We looked for good kids, kids that we weren’t going to have a problem with,” the elder Moy said. “This was an extended season for us. We wanted to make it a fun experience but be very competitive.”

Some of the area’s best young players came onboard, including Moy, Henry, Rishel, Warren JFK’s Nick Ryan, Nico Ciminero and Michael Condoleon, Ursuline’s Jaden Payne, Bristol’s Mikey Burbach, Canfield’s Dom Cruz, Brookfield’s Matteo Fortuna and Hubbard’s Lavonte Daniels and Caden Candor.

On the girls side, standout local players such as Boardman’s Mackenzie Riccitelli and Howland’s Alyssa Massucci shined. With the talent and a competitive enviroment, the Panthers began winning tournaments.

Moy acknowledged that AAU’s reputation isn’t great, but he said the Panthers’ kids and parents were never a problem.

“I guess it does get a little bad rap every once in a while,” Moy said, referring to the AAU circuit. “You gotta get kids to understand their role, have fun and enjoy working hard together. Most of my practices were getting the kids to work as a unit, getting them to trust each other because… they were all the best kids on the [school’s] team. And they’re usually expected to be the top gun on the team all the time. And it kind of gets uglier when you get to go to AAU — it’s more iso ball and stuff like that — but we kept it more as a team-oriented thing.

“And I think they bought into that. The kids loved it. They always came back. Parents loved it. I never had an issue with any parents saying, ‘You should be doing this, you should be doing that.’ Kids just kept wanting to come and play, so I think we did it the right way.”

Most of the team broke apart as they each entered high school, but Moy looks back fondly on those days. He said he isn’t surprised by any of the players’ improvement over the years because they all possessed special ability and a desire to get better.

Moy likes to think he played a part in the development of the players, some of whom will continue their playing careers in college, and he expressed that’s what he is most proud of from his time coaching the Panthers.

“When you come down at the end of the year like right now, when you see all the accolades coming out from all their hard work,” Moy said. “It’s just amazing that we got that many good kids together. … I can’t wait to see what happens over the next four years.”

Have an interesting story? Contact Preston Byers by email at pbyers@tribtoday.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @PresByers.