Charlotte, N.C. (March 12, 2014) – Since 2010, Felicia Hall Allen & Associates has provided a platform for college basketball coaches to share their experiences and insight on what it takes to be one of the best in the business. On Wednesday, FHA &Associates announced the men’s basketball speakers its’ annual professional development symposium, for A Step Up Fort Lauderdale 2014, scheduled for May 2-4 at the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina Hotel.
The speaker roster includes Chris Caputon (University of Miami), Mike Flynn (Blue Star Basketball), Robert Kirby (University of Memphis), Rob Lanier (University of Texas), Dave Leitao (University of Missouri) and Brad Underwood, head coach at Stephen F. Austin, Boo Williams (founder of AAU Boo Williams Summer League) and Charlton Young (Florida State University).
Caputo spent the last 12 seasons on head coach Jim larranaga staff , working his way up the coaching chain from video coordinator to now his third season as assistant coach. He also served as assistant coach for nine seasons at George Mason. He is primarily responsible for recruiting and scouting the opposition.
Flynn is owner and operator of Blue Star Basketball and U.S. Junior Nationals. He is a National Evaluator and publishes the Blue Star Report which ranks the top 100 high school girls basketball players in the nation. He also serves as a consultant to Gatorade for girls basketball, a member of the McDonalds All –American selection committee, and a consultant for Nike Global Basketball.
Kirby is in his first season as an assistant coach at Memphis after previous stints at LSU, Georgetown, Mississippi State, Houston, Southeastern Louisiana and University of Arkansas-Little Rock. Kirby has nearly 30 years of coaching experience and is recognized by Rivals.com as one of the nation’s top recruiters.
Lanier, the well travelled coach is in his third season as associate head coach at the University of Texas. Lanier, who previously served as head coach at Siena College and as an assistant coach at Texas, has also held assistant coaching positions at Florida, Virginia, Rutgers and St. Bonaventure.
Leitao, enters his second season as an assistant coach at Missouri. He had two head coaching stints at DePaul and at Virginia, where he earned ACC coach of the Year honors in 2007. A prodigy of Hall of Famer Jim Calhoun, Leitao was an assistant at Connecticut for nine seasons from 1986-1994.
Underwood’s coaching career spans over 27 years with stops at South Carolina and his alma mater Kansas State, serving as an associate head coach and assistant coach with the Wildcats. He also spent 10 years as an assistant coach at Western Illinois. This is his first season as head coach with the Lumberjacks
Williams, founded the Boo Williams Summer league in 1982, which is a Youth Basketball Organization in Hampton Roads region of Virginia. He also helped fund and build the Boo Williams Sportsplex, which is a multi-purpose, eight court, sport facility that hosts several basketball games throughout the year. Williams has coached and mentored over 2,500 student athletes both male and female and holds one of the most prestigious AAU tournaments in the country.
Young, in his second season with the Seminoles, has built a reputation as one of the top young recruiters in the game. He has held assistant coaching positions at Auburn, Jacksonville, Northeastern, Tennessee-Chattanooga and Georgia Tech. Prior to joining the FSU, Young spent three seasons as head coach at his alma mater, Georgia Southern.
For more information on A Step Up, log on to www.feliciahallallen.com
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About the Symposium
A Step Up (Athletic Symposium to Elevate Professionals & Uplift Performance) is a career building and professional development opportunity for assistant basketball coaches, developed by the husband and wife team of Johnny and Felicia Allen. Its’ mission is to help assistant coaches gain knowledge, discover coaching insights and develop strategies, techniques and tactics to help them reach their full coaching potential. Each year Felicia Hall Allen & Associates chooses a different city to host the symposium. The inaugural symposium was held in Atlanta, Georgia in 2010. The event moved to Chicago last year and adopted the name – A Step Up (Athletic Symposium to Elevate Professionals & Uplift Performance). In addition to Fort Lauderdale there have been four other sites to host A STEP UP (Atlanta 2010, Chicago 2011, Dallas 2012 and Charlotte 2013). Fort Lauderdale marks the fifth symposium for the women basketball coaches and the third for the men.
“From playing for the Iowa to executive positions with NIKE and the WNBA, to now providing legal representation, professional development and motivation to college coaches, Felicia’s positive influence continues to be felt far and wide across the landscape of women’s basketball.”
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (April 3, 2014) – Felicia Hall Allen & Associates congratulates the 12 recipients of the UPLIFT Registration Scholarship sponsored by the NCAA. The scholarship covers the cost of registration for A Step Up Fort Lauderdale 2014, the professional development symposium for basketball assistant coaches which will be held May 2-4 at the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina.
