Nashville Celtics Youth Basketball

The Nashville Celtics 16’s participated in the Wallace Prather Memorial Tournament over Mothers Day weekend and had their best showing of the year. The team was on fire during pool play, going 3-0 and winning by a collective margin of 101 points. The team then moved on to bracket play and rallied from 15 down twice to improve to 5-0.  Saturdays nightcap was particularly exciting as the Celtics played one of the local teams, the Atlanta Knicks.  In a hostile gymnasium with no air conditioning, the guys pulled out a 1 point win to advance on to Sunday.  On Sunday morning the team got off to a slow start and had trouble making free throws. The guys gave a valiant effort to come back from 17 down but couldn’t get over the hump, losing to the Southern Select Team 60-53.  This dropped their record to 5-1 for the weekend.  Everyone played hard this weekend and made solid contributions.  It seemed like their was a different star every game. The remainder of the summer should be really exciting for these guys as they continue to mesh and learn how to play together.

Sub-State AAU 14U Champs–Nashville Celtics

The 14’s traveled to Clarksville for the AAU Central-South Sub State.  On Friday night the 14’s dominated the entire game but made some mental  mistakes in the last 1:30 that cost them the game.  After the game, Coach Duke had a long heart to heart talk with the guys about what they wanted to do with the rest of the season.  It must have worked, because on Saturday the 14’s won three straight games: 63-43,74-62,74-56 to put them in the semifinals against a good Jtown Cavs team from Jackson,TN.  The team won 69-51 advancing to the Championship game vs. TN Edge.  Again, the 14’s dominated the entire game with a lead between 7 & 13 points but once again had a tough time closing the game out.  However, in this case, they were able to hold on and win 75-72.  This championship gives the Nashville Celtics a #1 seed in the state tournament May 13-15 in Knoxville, TN.

Nashville Celtics player Jalen Duke has been awarded the Nashville Metro Public Schools Mr.Basketball award.  This is an outstanding award and well deserved.  Jalen is the son of Coach Duke and plays on our 14’s team.  He has  been with the Celtics for 3 years and is a terrific competitor and accomplished player.

Jalen is shown above receiving his award from Charles Davis, former Vanderbilt and Chicago Bulls star.

The Celtics 13’s traveled to Clarksville for their AAU Sub-State and had great success. The 13’s blew by every team that they played, overpowering the opposition with aggressive defense, rebounding and fast breaks that are the signature of Coach Vic Wharton’s teams.  The 13’s won the championship game on Sunday by 40+ points.  The team has great character and outstanding players, including big men Parker Bryan and Yalen Reed, wings Coleman Goodwin, Cyenterius Lyons, and TC Newton, shooting guards Ross Plunkett and Jordan Wilson and the team is glued together by the outstanding play of the Cummings twins from Dickson.  The 13’s will advance to the state tournament as a #1 seed.

iHigh Sports has several Nashville Celtics games archived on their website. Just click the logo below… Take a look and enjoy!

The Nashville Celtics 11U team has had a successfull spring/summer so far.  They have a record of 24-9 with two tournaments to go.  They have three second place finishes in GreenWave shootout, Warrior Rumble, and Phi Slamma Jamma.

 They placed 5th in the state in AAU, loosing 2 heart breakers. They had an 8 point lead with 4 mins to go on the former War Eagles team and lost by 4. The other loss came after they lead by 4 with 3 mins to go and ended up losing by 5.  Numerous coaches from other teams commented on how well the team performed.  It has been a great learning experience for the team on finishing the game until the buzzer. They really have grown.  Other finishes include 4^th in the YBOA State, loosing a heartbreaker in the semis.