Based on HBO’s story I did a little digging on my own, and it was shocking to say the least as to what I found. It appears that all it takes to start your own High School Basketball team is to have a group of able body individuals, along with a semblance of a school and you are in business.

The individuals who start these programs appear to obtain their players from countries overseas, such as Senegal, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and France to name a few. These kids mainly come from low-income areas and are searching for any method whatsoever in bettering their life. A school called Stoneridge Preparatory School, which is located in Simi Valley California, is such an institution. It seems that not a single regular student at Stoneridge has even seen their basketball team play a game, and to add to this situation, just six months ago eight of the players on this team were members of Florida Prep located in Port Charlotte Florida.

Then, if you can keep up with this, an entire different group of individuals played for Stoneridge, and have now moved on to an entirely different prep school in California. Don’t think for a minute that this is limited to Florida and California, no it seems that in Chicago there was a team last year (2006) that was called “Boys to Men Academy” whose roster size was 15, and just by coincidence that was the total enrollment of the entire school. It also appears that Ladysmith Wisconsin is also involved in this “traveling basketball team, not know as the Harlem Globetrotters” although that would be a more aptly name for this group.