COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The quest for fourth straight gold medal is the goal for the 2023 USA Women’s U16 National Team and it begins on May 25. USA Basketball announced today 55 athletes expected to participate in the USA Women’s U16 National Team trials at the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic...
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The U.S. U16 National Team Trials begin tomorrow, with the selection expected to be made on May 30th. I did some research on this age group that started in 2009, so this will be the 8th Americas U16 Championship, the Americans have won 6 gold medals and one bronze. In the past, there was the U18 category at the 4 years from 1988 to 2004 depending on the U19 world championship (at the 4 years) the following year, from 2006 the U18 championship took place at the two years and the U19 world championship also at the two years, the U17 world championship now alternates with the U19 it started in 2010.
The U16 Americas Championship, which is the gateway to the U.S. National Teams, obviously favors athletes born in an odd year, as this year it will be reserved for players born on or after January 1, 2007. On the European side, they have resolved the issue by having a U16 championship every year, even if it does not lead to a world championship the following year. The U.S. team compositions have always included a selection focused on older players, in 2021, 11 players born in 2005 and only one in 2006. There is only one year that the selection has included more than 3 players born with one year more and that is in 2015, the only gold medal that is missing, that year there were 4.
With this information, I looked at the invitations to compare them with the ranking of ESPN class 2025 and the Watch List 2026. In the table that I placed in attachment I highlighted in yellow the invited players of the class 2025, the one that should normally include the maximum of selected players, I had to realize that only three were invited among the first 10 players of American nationality, This probably means that the players who are not highlighted in yellow were born between October 1 and December 31, 2006, and are therefore not eligible for the competition, as the school and FIBA ages are not based on the same birth date. In the ESPN 2025 class, only 11 of the 22 invited players appear. In the 2026 class, 24 players are invited out of a possible 28, those highlighted in red were not invited.
My conclusion is that Kelis Fisher has a good chance of making the team selection which should also include this year at least two players who I am sure were born in 2008, Jersy Robinson and Olivia Vukosa (14 years old on the invite list), this team could even make history if Sydney Douglas (class of 2028) who was probably born in 2009, unless she missed a school year.
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