Four YSL.com kids to help at conference meets

Four St. Louis area kids will represent Young Saint Louis.com while they serve as ball kids during the two Missouri Valley Conference basketball tournaments this month.

 

Matt Causino

 

Thirteen-year-old Matt Causino and 12-year-old Tanner Cochran will work two games of the MVC men's tournament at the Scottrade Center in downtown St. Louis. They will work games Thursday night, March 5.

 

 

Tanner Cochran

Fourteen-year- old Dajae Williams and 15-year-old Lianna Doty will work two games in the MVC women's tournament at the Family Arena in St. Charles. They'll work games on Thursday night, March 12.

The kids were selected by Matt Brobeck, who heads up the AAU boys and girls basketball program in the St. Louis area.

 

Dajae Williams

The MVC has cooperated with YSL.com for several years in letting kids take part in the tournament at court level. This is the second year Matt Brobeck has coordinated the selection of the ball kids.

All of the kids play on AAU teams in the St. Louis area. However, this year, the two girl ball kids won't be playing with their AAU select team until this summer.

ianna Doty

That's because both girls, as freshmen, earned starting varsity guard positions with their Kirkwood High School girls' team. Under rules, girls can't compete on AAU teams at the same time they are playing on high school teams.

In fact, both Dajae and Lianna got floor-level tournament action of their own as players before their MVC ball kid assignments. Kirkwood played arch-rival Webster Groves in first-round district action late in February.

All of the YSL.com ball kids started playing basketball at an early age.

Tanner Cochran and Dajae Williams both started at age four when they began playing at the YMCA. Lianna Doty started when she was in 3rd grade.

Matt Causino has the busiest basketball schedule at this time. He's on three different teams. He plays on his St Margaret Mary school team and is also on two AAU teams, the Kings and the TLC Celtics.

All of the kids play guard for their school or AAU teams.

The ball kids all have their favorite college and pro teams. But, none of them have much experience following MVC teams.

Matt Causino said he follows Missouri State University a bit because he knows St. Louis kids who attend the Springfield, Mo., school. "But, none of the kids I know play basketball there," he said.

One of the reasons for the kids' unfamiliarity is that the league doesn't have any local teams. The conference tournaments are held in St. Louis because the conference's home office is here.

St. Louis has good venues where up to 20,000 fans can see each game. Also, St. Louis is centrally located for schools that are spread over Iowa, Kansas, Illinois, Indiana and Missouri.

Ball kids are stationed under the baskets at the ends of the court. They retrieve balls during practice sessions before the game. They also are ready to mop up moisture on the court, if players fall during game action.

But, it's not all work for the kids. They can talk with players and referees during warm-up sessions and share refreshments with media personnel covering the games.

All the ball kids say they are looking forward to being so close to the game action.

Lianna Doty said she's assisted at floor level of "little kids' games." But, she added, "This will be the first time I've worked in a game with big players."

Matt Causino said he's attended St. Louis University Billiken games as a spectator.

But, he said he's a particular fan of the University of Missouri Tigers from Columbia, Mo. He said his favorite players are J.T. Tiller, a good defender as a guard, and Matt Lawrence, a forward who specializes in 3-point shooting.

It's not a coincidence that Matt also plays guard and considers himself a good long-range shooter.

Tanner Cochran said his favorite college team is the North Carolina Tarheels, which is led by Tyler Hansborough from Popular Bluff, Mo. His favorite pro team is the Cleveland Cavaliers, which is led by LeBron James.

Dajae Williams said the North Carolina Tarheels are her men's college team favorites, again because of Missouri's Tyler Hansborough. Among women's college teams, she cheers for Rutgers University, which has a reputation for hard play.

She also roots for the Indiana Fever in the women's pro league. One of the reasons for that is that Dajae's AAU team is named The Fever.

Lianna Doty's favorite college team is the Lady Volunteers from the University of Tennessee.

"I like Coach Pat Summitt and her program. They always have good teams that are fun to watch," she said.

Coach Summitt recently recorded her 1,000th college victory, all at the University of Tennessee. That's more victories than any college coach ever, men or women.

The girl ball kids, who are somewhat older than their boy counterparts, are starting to think about college and a career.

Both Lianna and Dajae said they'd like to be engineers when they grow up. Lianna said she's also considering being an accountant.

Both said they were good at math and science. Lianna's mother also had been an engineer.