The Emerald City Jaguars, a pro basketball team that competes in a player development league, plans to hold tryouts Oct. 12-13 at Philomath High School, the club’s owner announced.
In conjunction with the tryouts, the Jags will also offer a free 90-minute kids camp each of those days.
The tryouts are scheduled to run from 11 a.m.-2:15 p.m. and are part of the team’s process to fill 12 active roster spots that are available for the upcoming season. Team owner Marion Clark said players will have an opportunity to showcase their skills.
“We will do a bunch of different drills just to assess where they are in different categories,” Clark said. “And then we always end it with a scrimmage because going through drills is one thing but you want to see how players compete, how they play — are they smart at moving the ball or play selfish, how they play being down?”
The athletes that pay the $200 registration fee (registration is available online) can go to one or all tryouts. In addition to the two dates at Philomath, the team will also hold sessions Dec. 7-8 at McArthur Court in Eugene.
“You can come to as many tryouts as you can and be confident that you gave your best effort,” Clark said. “Because as a basketball player myself, I know for a fact that you can walk into a gym and just have a really bad day — like a really bad shooting day and there’s not much you can do about it. So I want to make sure that the players have enough confidence to say, ‘alright, I didn’t give it my best effort so I need to make sure I can come back.’”
Registered athletes also have access to pre-tryout open gyms.
The tryouts are open to the public with parents and younger kids are encouraged to come out and watch.
Kids camp both days
In addition to the tryouts, the Jaguars will also host a free kids camp at PHS. Players ages 7-11 will go from 2:30-4 p.m. Oct. 12 and ages 12-18 will go from 2:30-4 p.m. Oct. 13.
“Basically, they can expect to get to train like a pro,” Clark said. “That’s one of the basis of the program and that is giving kids access to high-level training and high-level routines that they may not otherwise have access to.”
Clark believes there is a lot of basketball talent in the region.
“The Willamette Valley has no shortage of high-level athletes and there’s just so many of them that fall through the cracks because there aren’t enough programs, there aren’t enough trainers and there aren’t enough opportunities,” he said.
The kids camp will include the participation of players.
“They’re going to be there hanging out and talking to kids and helping them,” Clark said, stressing that it’s important for youth to have access to high-level athletes “just to be around them and understand what it takes to be one.”
Although the kids camp is free, there is an online registration process.
Team plays in TBL
Emerald City plays in the TBL, which simply stands for The Basketball League and dates back to 2018 when it began operations with eight teams. Called North America Premier Basketball in its inaugural season, the league now features more than 30 teams.
The TBL believes it can fill a void by becoming a stepping stone for players who are fighting for roster spots in the NBA G League, overseas or even on an NBA team.
Clark, a Lakers fan growing up, developed his basketball skills and participated in several NBA G League tryouts but injuries and other setbacks derailed his dreams of playing professionally.
“If you think about the MLB (Major League Baseball) model where they have a complete minor league system of multiple levels,” Clark said. “That’s the way the NBA has been trending for the last maybe 10 years and their first official step toward that was the G League.”
But Clark said there are many other players to develop beyond the constraints of G League rosters.
“That’s kind of where the TBL has come in and filled that gap,” he said.
Clark pointed to Kylor Kelley, a 7-foot center who just last month signed with the Los Angeles Lakers. Kelley played his high school ball at Gervais and then collegiately at Northwest Christian (now Bushnell), Lane Community College and Oregon State. Undrafted, he bounced around in various leagues, including with the TBL’s Salem Capitals.
Clark said the TBL has rosters full of players in various stages of their careers. Last season’s Jaguars roster had players that ranged in age from 18 to 38.
“There are people that have come back from the G League and there are people that play overseas and are just looking to continue to stay in playing shape before they go back overseas,” Clark said. “There are kids fresh out of college that didn’t get drafted. They just come from all over the place.”
Players receive modest paychecks but also have the option of picking up other jobs in town to supplement their income.
“I’m looking for partners to potentially have them go work in town so they can make sure they earn enough money to live and then we’re also trying to look for potential host families that would be willing to host a player or two in an extra bedrooms in exchange for mentorships or guidance for their kids and stuff like that,” Clark said. “We had one host family last year and basically we used that as an extension of our ‘big brother’ program.”
Clark founded club
Clark founded the Jaguars in 2023 “to unite the community through the joy of basketball while nurturing the personal and professional growth of our dedicated athletes,” according to the team’s mission statement.
The Jaguars opened its season March 1 and struggled to a 0-23 record while competing in the Pacific Northwest Division with teams from Vancouver, Seattle, Salem, Great Falls and Wenatchee. Kevin Fletcher, a 6-foot-6 guard who played collegiately for Mid-Atlantic Christian University in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, was the team’s top scorer at 17.3 points per game.
The TBL follows the NBA rulebook with one exception.
“The only difference between us and the NBA is you can get the ball off the cylinder,” Clark said.
Players expected back for the Jags include forward Joshua Jones (10.4 ppg) and possibly two other players who saw their seasons cut short by injuries, one of those being guard Myles Warren (9.4 ppg).
Clark said his team has developed a relationship with the Rip City Remix, the Portland-based G League team.
“The Remix will send players to Vancouver, they’ll send players to us, they’ll send players to Seattle to keep them local,” he said, adding that the Jags have been in negotiations with a former Rip City coach to take over as the Jags head coach.
Jags looking to move
Clark said the team will be officially moving to one of three locations for next season — Linn-Benton Community College in Albany, Oregon State University’s Gill Coliseum in Corvallis or Philomath High School.
“We’re trying to figure out and work with Philomath High School on access to the gym and facilities … We are also talking to Linn-Benton about their facility and we’ve reached out to Gill twice and we’re ready for feedback from them,” Clark said.
The Jaguars’ gym last season was at Lane Community College’s Titan Coliseum with a dozen home games. Clark had been negotiating with the University of Oregon for the use of McArthur Court but a list of repairs that would be needed to get the facility back to a functional level involved expenses beyond the team’s reach.
Clark said he likes the PHS gym.
“That’s a really nice gym and I feel like we would have a lot of community outreach that we’d be able to do between all three cities,” he said.
PHS Athletic Director Mike Hood confirmed that there was an ongoing discussion with Clark but said it was too early to comment on the possibility of the Jaguars coming to the local school’s gym with further evaluation on “what this looks like moving forward.”
The team did use the PHS gym last year for some practices.
As mentioned, involvement in the community is an important component of the overall package, Clark said. This past Christmas, for example, the Jaguars hosted a movie night with Santa Claus .
Clark said he hopes that it could be an event that comes to Philomath.
“What we did last year was we gave away $3,000 worth of gifts … to kids in need and people that just needed gifts for their kids,” Clark said. “We had popcorn and a Christmas movie showing and then we even had Santa Claus show up to hand the gifts out.”
