Blue Star Basketball

History of the Blue Star Basketball Camps & College Showcases

The Blue Star Invitational Camps were started in 1981 by pioneer and original owner Mike Flynn. Mike had the vision of giving girls basketball players an opportunity to compete against the nation's best players, in first class settings, in front of college coaches during the NCAA observation periods.  In the late 90s, to reflect the changes to the NCAA Observation Calendar, we revised our event schedule to include the Blue Star College Showcases to recognize the importance of spring/summer/fall exposure and competition in front of college coaches.  Blue Star has the largest database of college women's basketball coaches in the country for all levels D1/D2/D3/NAIA/JC, allowing us to be the 'bridge' between prospects/teams and college recruiters.

While most other camps cater to the men's game, Blue Star's approach has been to the women's game from the start.  In over 40 years of operation, Blue Star is considered the premier experience in girls' high school basketball.

Over 70% of the top female high school players during the past few decades have attended Blue Star.  During the past 40 years of Blue Star, thousands of campers were named to the prestigious Street & Smith Magazine pre-season All-America high school girls basketball team, and hundreds have been named to the McDonald's All American Team.  Our past event all-star listings are a Who's Who of college basketball.  Blue Star staff alone has four of the 23 committee members for the McDonald's All-American Team.

Our newest prestigious camp model is the Blue Star 30 camp, which profiles the top middle school athletes across the country.  Over the past 5 years, 55 of the past 72 USA Basketball players on the 17u or 16u team were Blue Star 30 alums, a 75%+ success rate.  Meaning we were finding this young talent 2 years before they made the USAB teams.  To learn more and to nominate athletes for this event: www.bluestar30bb.com

Most of the players recommended for the Blue Star Invitational Camps were candidates for the prestigious Sporting News (formerly Street & Smith) pre-season All-America team, McDonald's All-American Team, Blue Star Report All-America / National Rankings, USA Today All-America, Parade Magazine All-America, the Gatorade Circle of Champions Award and Naismith All-America.

National Evaluators and Event Coordinators

Chris Mennig Event Coordinator / National Evaluator
Phone: (309) 530-2220
Email: chris@bluestarbb.com

The Blue Star Office

• Blue Star Office Mailing Address:
  PO Box 7828
  Champaign, IL 61826-7828
• WINTER/SPRING HOURS --
  Monday / Thursday 11 AM to 3 PM (EDT).
• SUMMER HOURS --
  Start on April 1st

To join the Blue Star distribution list, contact office@usjn.com.