Last Updated on February 24, 2024 by The HD Post Staff

OAK HILLS — Youth basketball club Team Echelon has a philosophy — anyone can go to the echelon, you just have to be pushed to get there. The High Desert travel team showcases players during summer league tournaments with one goal in mind — to get them into college. 

“Our goal is to help kids get noticed, to help kids get to college — whether it’s at a junior college or at a university,” said Team Echelon Vice President Jennifer Evans. “We just want to help kids get opportunities to leave the desert and make something of their life so they can come back and give back to the desert.”

This is Team Echelon’s first year as a travel team. The club has both boys and girls teams. Summer tournaments included games at the Corona Get it Done Sports Arena, and the Irvine Momentous Sports Center where national scouts and media outlets were in attendance.

Team Echelon CEO and Owner Chris Stallworth says that he combined the words “team” and “echelon” to create the concept of collaborating at a higher level. 

My goal is to collaborate with kids all around the desert — put them on one team with a good foundation to get them represented in the community of basketball.

Chris Stallworth

The club says working in collaboration with high schools as well, sets them apart from other travel teams.

“Most travel ball programs want to claim ownership of kids,” said Evans. “We don’t want to take away from high school coaches. We don’t want to take away from other programs. We want kids who just want to go to college. We want to work with high school coaches.”

Team Echelon is looking to work with other programs and community members to provide opportunities to the High Desert youth.

For more information about Team Echelon visit @team.echelon on Instagram. Contact Team Echelon at [email protected]. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by TEAM ECHELON (@team.echelon)

Copyright Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to some of the photograph(s) or video(s) used in this post. Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” of photographs for purposes such as parody, criticism, commentary, news reporting, education, and research.