Photo by Jake McNeill: Southwest Fury girls basketball players practice drills at Southview Elementary on May 25.

For many young athletes, success in sports starts long before the season does. Athletes are training year-round with indoor training for spring sports and summer training for winter sports. One of the ways that some girls basketball players are staying active in the offseason is through the Southwest Fury AAU team.

Southwest Fury, a satellite of the Minnesota Fury based in the greater Twin Cities area, was started up by Anton and Wendy Towne two years ago to help young girls hone in on their craft, with participants ranging from fourth grade through high school.

“We really like it as a way to help develop and work with the girls and give them extra time to work on their skills and fundamental development,” Wendy Towne, who now serves as the club’s local director, said. “Our goal is really to help them learn and grow so that, when they go back to their school basketball season, they can reap the benefits… it’s really just an additional opportunity for growth.

Despite the fact that the club has only been around for a short while, the Fury found its fair share of success in its inaugural season, with its sixth-grade team winning the Division II AAU state championship.

“I don’t know what I was expecting, to be honest. I wasn’t expecting to do very well because it was our first time with this team and first time in the tournament,” Sydney Towne, a member of that team, said. “We had a lot of hustle and a lot of fire on our tails. We just wanted to go, go go.”

“We got that far and I think we really wanted to do it for each other, for the team, and for ourselves,” Autumn Anderson said. “We were pretty excited and then the clock was just starting to tick down and we had a little bit of a lead and it kept going back and forth. Finally, they fouled us and we made our free throws for the state championship, so it was a pretty fun experience.”

AAU teams had existed in the area before Southwest Fury but COVID-19-related left a gap for girls looking to play the game. When the Towne family moved back to Southwest Minnesota from the cities and their daughter was left with the closest options as Sioux Falls or Alexandria, they decided to reach out to Fury.

“We reached out to the Minnesota Fury and just asked if they’d be interested in a satellite because they’ve done it before. That’s one of the reasons why we chose the Minnesota Fury,” Wendey Towne said. 

Now, players came from over an hour away to compete with the team.

Southwest Fury originated with fifth through eighth-grade girls but added options for freshmen and sophomores this year. Despite increasing demand, they’re sticking to teams of 8-11 players to help keep the player-to-coach ratio low.

While the team emphasizes growth and development, its emphasis on relationship-building and enjoying the process is just as strong.

“Everybody is just so welcoming. We just feel so comfortable around each other so quickly because of getting to hang out which each other at the hotels and getting to play with each other,” Anderson said. “It’s so fun and it’s hard not to come back to those people because it’s such a great environment as well.”

While the players love the game, Sydney Townes added that some of her favorite memories with the team are the tournament trips and team breakfasts with waffles and Nutella before the games.

While the squad is done for the season this year, they’ll look to keep improving and come back even better in the winter.