As stated by Dr. James Naismith, the father of basketball, “Be strong in body, clean in mind, lofty in ideals”. That is why he invented basketball over a century ago - to provide a game that would foster this philosophy. Basketball is one of the quickest games in sports, requiring an athlete to be physically fit and mentally sharp.

The Wheatland Wizards Travel Basketball club is striving to develop a youth program that supports and promotes this philosophy. As a club, we do not believe that simply playing 60 games a year develops the skills needed in order to advance into high school and college level basketball. The proper approach is to have a mix of high quality skills training, proper game preparation and strategy and high level of competition. Without mastering the fundamentals, youth players continue to repeat the same mistakes over and over again during games and as they grow older and the game becomes quicker they are no longer able to effectively compete. In addition to becoming physically fit and well skilled in basketball we also place a high emphasis on academic achievement. We like to recognize those athletes that can develop both physically and mentally.

The Youth Program consists of a Wizards Standard program and an Illinois Wizards AAU Select program. The Standard program is more focused on the athlete that is involved in multiple sports and activities but wants to continue to develop competitively in basketball. The summer off-season session allows the player an opportunity to continue to focus on skill development in a highly structured format. Games are played so that players can continue to apply the skills that they are learning. The winter session continues to place high emphasis on training and practice time throughout the season. Teams can begin working out in early to mid-September with the games generally beginning in early November and going to early March. The standard program balances hard work and fun.  The current roster of players in the Wizards Standard program come from communities such as Naperville, Aurora, North Aurora, Montgomery, Oswego, Plainfield and Bolingbrook to name a few.

The AAU Select program is for certain teams that consist of highly skilled and talented players that want to continue to learn and play at a higher level. With this program, players will continue to focus on skill development and then also play in highly competitive local and regional tournaments such as AAU and NAYS in the Spring and early Summer. Once the Spring session is over, these players will either return to their current winter travel programs or continue to train and play with the Wizards in the summer and winter sessions through the Wizards Standard program.