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| U-15 All-Ohio Gold |
In only their first year of existence, Eddie Norills’ All-Ohio Gold (AOG) program has made a significant impact on the Ohio travel basketball scene. In their first year, All-Ohio Gold fielded teams in 3 divisions including U-14, U-15 and U-16. The Toledo-based program is collaboration between Norills’ former Team Toledo (2020) team, Tony Scruggs’ Toledo Ice (2019) team and Derek Kizer’s Toledo Wildcats (2021) team. It’s safe to say, AOG’s U-16 team was the most successful in year one based on their multiple tournament championships and #2 state ranking by Ohio Preps. Although the U-15 squad only won 1 tournament, they made the championship game in at least 5 tournaments, including the Buckeye Prep Invitational in April when they finished second to C2K Elite.
All-Ohio Gold was formed with the intent of keeping the top northwest Ohio kids together and to get them more exposure and recognition. “We recognized that our team would get more exposure with All-Ohio on our chest,” said Norills. In terms of expansion, Norills would like to add a few younger teams from the area. However, there are no current plans to expand statewide. We asked Norills why he decided to partner with All-Ohio versus some of the state’s other shoe-company-sponsored programs and he pointed to long-term relationships with guys who were already affiliated with All-Ohio. We can’t wait to see how All-Ohio Gold grows in year two. Congrats to Coach Norrils for giving northwest Ohio kids more options for competition and exposure.
