By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Kerry Darting was very pleased with how the international element of the Darting Basketball Academy fared in its debut last summer.
And Year 2 has gone even better.
"I think last year was just really important to get started and the experience was just great,'' Darting said. "The community around here was very supportive, the experience for the kids was great. Last year we had 22 kids and 16 of them are all in the states now, going to American universities, so last year was really important just to get it off the ground and running.
"It was very successful and I think the experience is better this year just from going through everything and kind of learning what needs to get better. We made those adjustments and it's going really well this year.''
The program numbers have more than doubled this summer while also including female athletes for the first time.
The program, which is made up of high school-aged players with college basketball aspirations, includes 44 boys and eight girls representing 13 different countries, including Australia, Italy, Spain, Lithuania, Serbia, Lithuania, Croatia, Slovenia, Norway and Sweden.
The players, competing as College Stars International under the DBA umbrella, will play in three tournaments -- two in Kansas City and one in Chicago -- before returning to their home countries later this month.
The international players are staying in dorms on the University of Kansas campus and training in Lawrence and at Shawnee Heights.
The boys players were at Heights Thursday to face a group of local players in a pair of scrimmages before competing in Kansas City this weekend.
Eight area college coaches were at Heights for the scrimmages.
Matas Zigmantas, a 16-year-old native of Lithuania, said he's enjoying his time in the U.S.
"I just wanted to improve on and off the court and grow as a person,'' Zigmantas said. "I love it here. It's amazing.''
