Phyllis Dallas Discusses Summer Jam and Houston Colleges

UPDATED -- July 20, 2010, 8:30 a.m.  -- Todd Buchanan and his staff have reached out to Coach Dallas regarding Jessieka Palmer. Contact was made a few weeks ago; but, I'm finally putting it into print today.


HOUSTON, TX --This weekend, at Lutheran North School, some of the top AAU (grass roots / summer ball) teams in the state of Texas are participating in the 2010 "Houstonians' Summer Jam". The event is a chance for the teams to compete against other talented teams as well as get ready for the NCAA's "open" recruiting period in July (July 6 - 15 and July 22 - 31) for Division I coaches.

The "Summer Jam" is organized and run by Phyllis Dallas. Coach Dallas is the coach of the Houstonians which is one of the top AAU basketball programs (girls and boys) in the city of Houston and also the state of Texas.

"A bunch of teams in the state of Texas are here getting ready for the (NCAA) sanctioned tournaments next month," said Dallas. "It's a tournament we normally have at the end of June; so, the teams can see where they're at and get ready for the sanctioned tournaments coming up in July."

Dallas has been in charge of the Houstonians' basketball club for about 15 years; and, she also works for the City of Houston's Park and Recreation Department.

A few of the top teams competing in the Summer jam are the Houstonians; the San Antonio Lady Rohawks; Team Xpress out of Austin; and DFW 2011 out of Dallas / Fort Worth.

Dallas has coached talented players throughout her time with the Houstonians; and her current squad includes Jessieka Palmer from La Marque HS. Palmer, 6'0", is a highly-touted sophomore.

Dallas says Palmer is "one of top up and coming sophomores from around the city. She's going to be a pretty good ball player. She's 6'0" tall and can play the point or the two-guard position. She can play the three as well. She's a phenomenal player."

Coach Dallas also touted Akuuna Elonu as one of her players to watch.

"Akuuna will be a junior at Elsik High School in the fall," Dallas said. "She's the last of the 'Elonu Clan.' Honestly, I think she's going to be the best of all five (brothers and sisters) because she's seen them grow and watched them progress. She's gotten better and better every year."

Dallas played collegiate basketball at the University of Louisville; and, she shared her opinions on how women's basketball has improved since she created the Houstonians.

"It's a little different. Athletically, they're much better athletes because they can do things that girls couldn't do then. However, hear-wise it's a little different. When I first started, I had kids that had no where to go. They didn't have any opportunities to continue playing basketball; but, now, kids have more than those kids did so they don't work as hard."

Next, Coach Dallas provided her opinion on how the Houston area colleges / universities have done or are doing when it comes to recruiting and signing the talented Houston area players.

"Honestly, speaking just for my team, my players do not get recruited locally," Dallas said bluntly. "I don't know if the Houston schools think they can't get these kids (so why try) because we go through all of these sanctioned tournaments; and, we do all of this traveling (across the country). But, the majority of these kids that I've had would have loved to stay at home and went to school here (and played college ball). But, they just were not given the opportunity because a lot of the schools did not recruit them."

Along that line, Dallas credited Texas A&M for being very active recruiting her players.

"Texas A&M signed one of my kids -- Adaora Elonu. Plus, her brother, Chimelu, also played for the Houstonians as well.

"Texas A&M does a pretty good job recruiting the kids in the area because they want to keep the kids here. Rice does some (recruiting); but, I wish U of H would do more. There are a couple of kids that I had that would have stayed here. Even the kid (6'6" center Waltia Rolle, WBCA High School All-American, from Westbury Christian School) that signed with North Carolina, only received one letter from U of H; so, she figured U of H wasn't interested and she moved on."

Coach Dallas continued hammering her point saying, "Even the kids I have now would stay here and go to school here. I haven't talked with Todd (Todd Buchanan, U of H's new head women's coach) because he hasn't reached out to me, yet. I'm hoping that he does get in touch with me to try and keep some of these kids home."

Under Dallas' guidance, the Houstonians have enjoyed much success.

"I don't believe I've had one kid that has not gone to college. I make it a point to get my kids to the next level whether it's Division I, II, III, the NAIA, etc. We've been extremely successful because I've gotten to know a lot of college coaches. A lot of coaches, when they're looking to sign players, even though all of my kids have signed, I find them players from other teams. I don't turn my back on anybody's kids."

The "Summer Jam" concludes Sunday at Lutheran North. Games will be held on each of the three basketball courts. Stop by and check out some of the next stars of women's hoops.