February 1, 2018
The ‘Stormers will travel on the adidas Gauntlet Travel Circuit again in 2018
The Iowa Barnstormers announced their projected 2018 high school schedule today, which includes trips to New York City, Los Angeles and Atlanta in addition to their annual season-ending event in Las Vegas. For the first time this season, the Barnstormers will field two teams (“Gold” and “Silver”) on the adidas Gauntlet travel circuit. The Barnstormers are the only grassroots program in Iowa that plays in one of the “Big 3” shoe sponsored circuits.
The season tips off for all of the Barnstormers high school teams in Madison, Wisconsin for The Rock Spring Classic. The Madison event serves as a great tune-up for the spring NCAA “Live” events when Division 1 college coaches can attend events and evaluate athletes in person. In the two “Live” weekends of the spring, the ‘Stormers teams will all go to Indianapolis for the first session of the adidas Gauntlet (April 20-22), and then will split up for the second weekend on April 27-29: the Gold teams will go to Atlanta, GA, for the second weekend of the adidas Gauntlet with the Silver teams headed to Lawrence, KS for the Midwest Live event.
After the NCAA events, the ‘Stormers will all head to Spiece Fieldhouse in Fort Wayne, Indiana the first week of May for the Bill Hensley Memorial. The 2019 class are the defending champions from Spiece, so we’re excited to go back and try to win some more hardware! The next week, all of the teams will travel together again to Minneapolis, MN for the Prep Hoops Battle at the Lakes. The Battle is one of the favorite events of the year… they have great media coverage at the event, including Tony Roe and TJ Rushing from Prep Hoops Iowa.
On Memorial Day weekend, all of the teams will head to Chicago for the adidas Chicago Classic. This is an important event for all of the teams- by placing at the Chicago Classic or by placing in the top half of their division in Indianapolis or Atlanta, teams can qualify for the prestigious Adidas Gauntlet Finale in New York City in early July. After Chicago, the ‘Stormers high school teams take the entire month of June off- most of the boys will play every weekend with their school teams, and others have a chance to be invited to prestigious camps like the Pangos All American Camp or the NBA Players Association Top 100.
In July, the ‘Stormers who have qualified will head to the Big Apple for the adidas Gauntlet Finale on July 11-15, while teams that don’t qualify for the Finale will head to Omaha for the Adidas Open instead. All of the events in July are NCAA Certified, so they are all incredibly important for the exposure and recruitment of the athletes. On July 18-22, the ‘Stormers “Gold” teams will travel to Los Angeles for the Adidas Summer Championships, with the “Silver” teams headed to Lawrence, KS for the always-popular Hardwood Classic. For their last tournament on July 25-29, all of the teams will be back together again at the Las Vegas Fab48, the Barnstormers annual trip to the desert to finish up the travel season.
More information on the schedule can be found at www.barnstormersbasketball.com/schedules. You can follow along with the Barnstormers this season by following @IA_Barnstormers on Twitter, where they will be live streaming nearly all of their games.