Minnesota Heat makes its mark

So, what do you do when your competitive basketball playing days are over but you are still a confirmed basketball junkie? If you are Willie Vang from Irondale, you start your own youth basketball club! At the ripe old age of 18 years old, Vang strolled into the Minnesota Youth Athletic Services office in Columbia Heights and announced that he'd like to start up a new spring/summer basketball club and call it the "Minnesota Heat." Obviously, the MYAS staff was a little skeptical, but after visiting with Vang and finding out that he had been coaching since he was a sophomore in high school and had already run the in-house and traveling coaching gauntlet, we decided that he might just be able to handle it. We were impressed with his passion for the sport and even more impressed when he told us that he wanted to create a club that focused on the development of the athlete, as opposed to the "win at all cost" attitude of some spring basketball clubs. We found that Vang actually wanted to do things right, like emphasizing man-to-man rather than zone defense, charging reasonable participation fees, stressing individual player development, communicating with parents weekly, paying attention to detail, performing mandatory background checks on all his coaches and instituting a "no-cut" business plan that allowed for players of all calibers to wear the Minnesota Heat uniform. Vang started out in 2005 with one boys team. Since then, the Minnesota Heat has added a girls division and created a total of 40 teams for the 2008 Spring/Summer basketball program, making it one of the largest youth basketball clubs in the nation. With over 370 athletes in the 2008 program, Vang prides himself on knowing every kid in a Heat uniform, watching every team play at least one game during the season and attending as many pre-season parent meetings as possible. His quest to be accountable to everyone and to create a family atmosphere in his program is well underway and is a breath of fresh air for many of the kids and parents that have had negative experiences with other existing clubs. Some of the more talented Minnesota Heat teams have also been making a name for themselves on the national stage by participating in several out-of-state Nike tournaments and competing in the USSSA Nationals each of the past three seasons. While their focus is on development, the Minnesota Heat brain trust also believe that some of the better teams and players can benefit greatly from national exposure. Over the past three years, the Minnesota Heat teams have posted several top-four finishes at USSSA Nationals and they have held their own at some very prestigious invitationals around the country. Vang is a very humble soul that gives all the credit for the meteoric rise of the Minnesota Heat to his inner circle of fellow basketball fanatics. He insists that he couldn't have done this without the support, encouragement and assistance from Larry Beck, Dustin Boll, Matt Schumann and Justin Bui. Yes, the Minnesota Heat has come a long way since the days when Vang's mom scribed numbers on t-shirts with a magic marker, but Vang insists that they are just getting started... and we believe him. For more information go to www.minnesotaheat.net Current Minnesota Heat High Schol Players Drew Preiner - Tartan
 Luke Preiner - Tartan
 Phil Hegseth - Forest Lake
 Rob Daul - Hill Murray
 Alex Richter - Lakeville South
 Riley West - Lakeville South
 Vince Calistro - Irondale
 Danny Blumberg - Irondale
 Anthony Calistro - Irondale
 Dan Robel - Blaine
 Eric Kline - Blaine
 Jake Edelen - Forest Lake

 Future Players Jack Martinek - Irondale
 Jordan Boll - Irondale
 Kyle Ringhofer - Irondale Noah Davis - Forest Lake
 Eric Weimar - Centennial 
 Booker Coplin - Shakopee
 Chris Olson - Cambridge
 Jared Swanson - Forest Lake