Parent's Guide to Youth Basketball and Beyond: How to Navigate Your Child's Path to College Basketball

If you want your child to succeed in youth basketball, you can’t be just a spectator. Get involved—the right way—and help him or her prepare for games at the high school and college levels.

In the Parent’s Guide to Youth Basketball and Beyond, authors Kevin Cantwell and Pat Alacqua offer their coaching and parenting expertise, outlining the role parents need to take, providing information and history on youth basketball in the United States, highlighting the pitfalls of the US system, and showing you how to gain access to the resources needed to most effectively help your child.

Cantwell, who spent his career coaching at the college level, pulls back the veil and shows curious readers exactly how the recruitment process for college basketball works, how to recognize and develop their children’s most important skills, and how to best showcase their children’s talent.

The current youth basketball system in the United States is not tailored to help individual children reach their full potential. The responsibility to research and plan for success, therefore, rests on parents and family members. Cantwell and Alacqua’s step-by-step instructions will help you effectually shape and support your child’s journey.

Kevin Cantwell spent twenty-eight years as a college basketball coach. He was head coach at Appalachian State University. He also served as associate head coach at Georgia Tech under celebrated coach Bobby Cremins, personally recruited and coached twenty-two future NBA players, and helped the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets make it to the Final Four in 1990.

Cantwell earned a bachelor's degree in social science from the University of North Carolina at Asheville and a master's degree in education from Appalachian State. He lives with his wife, Cathy, in Lake Junaluska, North Carolina.

Pat Alacqua has spent forty years in the business world and became inspired to write after playing a key role in his own son's and daughter's basketball journeys. Alacqua built the Suwanee Sports Academy into a nationally recognized institution, coached high school basketball and also coached a nationally competitive youth travel team.

Alacqua lives in Johns Creek, Georgia, with his wife, Elaine.