![]() “The high school players are making an excellent choice for themselves if they want to get to that next level, but it’s a tough choice,” she said. We want the challenge.”Įrnst said players paying tuition – roughly $9,300 for domestic and $11,300 for international students – will be getting a unique academic, athletic and life instruction. “We go above and beyond everyone else with our schedule,” she said. ![]() In February they are planning a game at Columbia Central High School. In mid-November they have a ‘home’ tournament that will be in Lansing. On November 2, the team goes to Oak Hill Academy. They have games everywhere, from Indiana to West Virginia, Pennsylvania to Arizona, Las Vegas to Maryland. Ernst said the teams will go on the road starting next month with the opener being at the Crestwood Jamboree in Toronto. The Aim High schedule has turned some heads. If you have coaches around you all day, they can correct you and give you feedback.” “I love that I can work very hard and have coaches who can correct me. He moved to Cement City less than two weeks ago. Sebastian Gahse is a 6-foot-10, 19-year-old from Germany who will play on the post-graduate team. They are partnering the renowned, Ann Arbor-based Clonlara School for the academics part of the academy. Aim High looks regionally, nationally and internationally for basketball players who want to get better, focus on the sport and grow academically. It’s a town of 400.”Įrnst said the type of players her program will be built on aren’t local high school athletes, although they would be welcome. Cement City – no one really thinks of Cement City when they think of high-level basketball. “We are 30 miles from Ann Arbor, a few miles south of Jackson. “It’s kind of Oak Hill-ish in that we are out here in the middle of nowhere,” she said. Instead, she says, multiple instructors will spend time with the athletes, including herself. It’s intense.”Įrnst hasn’t named a head coach. ![]() ![]() They are on the court two or three times a day. “It’s a big passion of mine to see kids get to go on and play at the next level. “The only students on campus will be basketball players,” she said. Thomas, IMG Academy and, the leader of them all, Oak Hill Academy from Virginia. It will play an independent, national schedule against all of the basketball academies that have become household names in the sport – St. The high school team won’t be sanctioned by the Michigan High School Athletic Association. “They get the specialized academics but still get to focus on what they love to do. “You hear of tennis players or those in ballet doing this,” she said. This program, Ernst said, combines that into a on-site academic/athletic facility that has high-level student athletes focused on basketball. The program is not new to the Ernst family, who started the Eldon Academy several years ago in Petoskey and have long operated camps and instruction facilities in Lansing. Plans call for two teams of 15 basketball players – one a prep school and one a post-graduate school – to live on campus, go through academic classes and, yes, play basketball. They’ve went through various permits and processes and have received a warm welcome. “And, obviously, we want to see their game pick up.”Įrnst said the Aim High Basketball Academy has purchased the building and has begun cleaning and renovating it with the blessing of local officials. AIM HIGH ACADEMY HOW TOWe want to see these kids improve their test scores and we want to see them learn how to be a better students. I want the kids just to get better every day they are on the floor and every day they are in the classroom. You teach them that they are competing against the game. ![]() “It’s just to help the players become better. “The goal is always the same whenever I’m coaching,” she said. Through it all the family maintained a passion for the sport and commitment to getting kids the training they need to play basketball at higher levels. Her brother, Steve, was a coach, too, with stops at places like Grand Valley State University, Olivet College and Leslie High School. Her father, Jerry, was her high school coach. ![]()
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