810 VARSITY PUMA CIRCUIT  TEAM MVP

816 Hoops Shamet 17’s

This is a REALLY solid team. We go all the way to St. Louis to the Chesterfield Sports Complex for a Puma Circuit event. I think it was the 3rd weekend for the Puma Circuit. 816 Shamet was missing two of their best players, Leo Gayman 2025 William Chrisman 6’6” power forward, and Kamren Tate 2025 North Kansas City 6’1” point guard, did not attend the event.

And this team still went 3-1 on the weekend with very nice Puma competition. This team is well assembled with a nice mix of coach’s kids and state champions. Tyler Salmons 2025 Shawnee Mission Northwest 6’6” small forward hasn’t lost a HS game for 14 months now. He’s long and skilled and plays with a really nice feel for the game. Cameron Jones 2025 Park Hill 6’5” combo guard can play the 1-2-3, very versatile and a really good shooter deep when he gets his feet set and his shoulders square. His dad is the head coach at Park Hill HS. Peyton Brown 2025 Basehor Linwood 6’6” power forward IS neither a coach’s son nor a state champ. What he MIGHT be is the best player on this team, at least while Gayman and Tate aren’t available. He used to be a spot up shooter and a low post threat. Now he’s breaking down his man o the dribble facing up to 20 feet. Deng Gak 2024 Oak Park 6’4” small forward has a nice body with some inside-outside scoring skills and really steps out to 20 feet and shoots it well. We’ll have more on this team as the spring 2024 Puma session moves on. Good team. All contributing players.

810 VARSITY PUMA CIRCUIT TEAM MVP

816 Hoops Shamet 16’s

Must be a recurring theme for the 816 Hoops programs. They have a record number of players competing this spring on what seems like an insurmountable amount of teams. Antonio Fowler 2026 Winnetonka 6’4” forward and Jax Navarro 2026 Fort Osage 6’1” shooting guard were absent. Isaiah Caston 2026 Park Hill 5’11” point guard, Jake Miller 2026 Hamilton 6’5” center, Jake Willmann 2026 North Kansas City 6’6” power forward, and Philip Nadeau 2026 Oak Grove were there -and they play well together. Caston is a solid point guard with a good body and solid skills. Miller is a horse in the paint and to the rim. Hard to guard, strong and physical. Willmann is also a QB in football, has serious inside-outside scoring skills. Nadeau looks like he will grow some more and really shoots it well deep with a high basketball IQ. I like his length and bounce. 

810 VARSITY PUMA CIRCUIT TEAM MVP

816 Hoops

Tate McCollum 2027 Maryville 5’7” point guard and Shamet 15’s Jason Simmons 2027 St. Joseph Benton 6’1” shooting guard were not in attendance. We have to cut Tate some slack. His dad Ben just took the head men’s basketball coaching job at DRAKE UNIVERSITY. So they may be moving to Des Moines. They were missing their backcourt, they were NOT missing Elliott Brown 2027 Basehor Linwood 6’3” small forward or Emmanuel Deng 2027 Oak Park 6’5” power forward. Brown is a wonderful young player, plays hard just like his brother, really smooth skills around the rim scoring the rock. Deng is long and bouncy with nice upside. Both of these freshman look like they can grow 3 to 4 inches and that could put them in with elite company. It will be very interesting to see what this team looks like with their starting backcourt. We’ll see!