Tony Squire coached AAU Basketball since the 1990s and has won AAU World Championships along the way

Original Article by: Lane Casadonte, CBS 6 News Richmond

RICHMOND, Va. -- Longtime Richmond-area AAU basketball coach Tony Squire will receive the Community Champion Award at the RVA Sports Awards on Saturday night.

A lot has changed in the world since Squire started Squires Basketball back in the late 1980s.

There was no social media for young basketball players to get noticed by college coaches. The main way high school athletes made an impression on college coaches was by playing in front of them in person.

Squire saw this as an opportunity.

"He gave us an opportunity to play basketball and compete on a much higher level than where we were competing," former player and current Furman Paladins Offensive Line Coach Kevin Lewis said. "That was very important for me. I think it helped me with my next career which was, of course, football."
 
Vern Hamilton, an assistant basketball coach at McNeese State, said Squire focused on getting his players national exposure.
 
"Any opportunity he had whether it was to call Sonny Vaccaro or to host a tournament in Richmond and have every division one coach in the Siegel Center that one time, Tony was the first to do that," Hamilton said.
 
Vacarro, the legendary marketing agent who signed Michael Jordan to Nike, was also the first person to recognize Squire's ability to not just notice talent but to develop it.
 
Squire did that by making his players go up against the best competition he could find.
 
Those experiences stick with his players to this day even if they change sports.

Click here to see Coach Tony Squire's story