Northern Tier Force is a newly formed AAU program offered by the Athens Wildcats Youth Basketball Association (“AWYBA”). The program is available to all players grades 5 through 8 in the Northern Tier of PA or Southern Tier of NY who are looking to enhance their basketball skills and competition.

The 2025 season will run from March through May, with tryouts being held in Athens, PA on February 16, 2025. Currently, Northern Tier Force will offer the following four teams based on 2024-2025 academic year grade levels:

5th & 6th Grade Boys: Coached by Kyle Coe

5th & 6th Grade Girls: Coached by Kevin Dougherty & Dan Lane

7th & 8th Grade Boys: Coached by Matt Wayman                            

7th & 8th Grade Girls: Coached by Kevin Dougherty & Don Warner

To be considered for a team, you must attend the tryout for your age group being held on February 16, 2025. To register for tryouts, complete the form below by February 15, 2025 and pay a $5 cash tryout fee the day of tryouts.

You will receive an email from [email protected] within 24 hours of registration confirming receipt of your application and your tryout information. Please ensure you confirm receipt of this email. Send an email to Kevin Dougherty at [email protected] if this email is not received within 24 hours.

Each team will hold two team practices per week beginning in early March through late May. There will also be one optional group training on non-tournament weeks that all program players are able to attend. All practices will be held in Athens, PA.

Each team will attend 5 tournaments, which will be about 15+ games for the season. The current planned tournaments are as follows:

March 22nd – BSC Spring Tourney (Johnson City NY)

April 5th & 6th – Jamin’ for a Cause Hoopfest (Rochester NY)

April 12th or 13th – All or Nothing Tournament (Athens PA)

April 26th & 27th – Electric City Madness (Scranton PA)

* May 3rd – Make Up Tournament Date (If Needed)

* May 17th – Make Up Tournament Date (If Needed)

May 31st or June 1st – All or Nothing Tournament (Norwich NY)

Most tournaments will be 1-day weekend tournaments, with two 2-day tournaments (Rochester NY and Scranton PA).

* Typically, we will not know a tournament schedule until the Wednesday or Thursday before the tournament, so please be patient in requesting each tournament schedule. If a division is cancelled due to lack of registrations, we will attempt to seek out a makeup tournament that same weekend in a different location. If we are unable to find a makeup tournament for the same weekend, we will use the make up tournament dates posted above.

For the 2025 season, the player fee will be $250 for all players, plus a $5 tryout fee due the day of tryouts. The $250 fee is not due until after a player has been selected for a team.

The $250 fee will cover a customized jersey top and shooting shirt, tournament fees and insurance for the player. All travel costs and lodging will be the separate responsibility of the family.

Our goal in differentiating tournaments by team is to better work through conflicts of the spring sports season for the participating players. However, we cannot guarantee that we can accommodate all conflicts for other sports. We are unable to pro-rate the fees for the season due to conflicts that may arise.

If you have additional questions, please email Kevin Dougherty at [email protected]