SHOWTIME BASKETBALL LOCAL BOYS AND GIRLS PROGRAM IS PICKING UP STEAM from first grade through high school. “Regardless of our size, we really want to make sure we’re still making a good product,” says Eric Schellhammer, Showtime’s director of basketball. “We can have 100 teams, but if it’s not a good product we have to reevaluate.” The program calls Finch Creek Fieldhouse in Noblesville its home. There was a local need for youth sports, and Schellhammer was approached by the facility’s owner and chief operating officer because of his background in basketball. He had played at a junior college in Michigan, then went on to become a graduate assistant at Western Kentucky University, an assistant coach at the University of Tennessee at Martin, and an assistant coach at IUPUI, all on the girls side. Writer / Jamie Hergott
Showtime Basketball in Noblesville is only about two years old, but its growth has been rapid and it shows no signs of stopping. Currently there are 51 boys and girls teams,
Schellhammer’s two daughters were always playing at Finch Creek Fieldhouse, and he was asked to put on a camp for first-grade through eighth-grade boys. This volunteer position turned into much more. As he began building the program, starting with about six boys teams in the spring and 22 / JUNE 2021
summer of 2019, it didn’t take long for him encourage the launch of girls teams. “Being a girl dad, that was really important to me,” Schellhammer says. “We launched the girls side along with the boys side right before COVID hit, and we were shut down. We went back to the drawing board, and we were back at it this past fall.” The program put protocols in place, followed CDC and Hamilton County guidelines, and had an explosive fall and winter season, growing from 32 teams to the current 51. They also started an AAU branch called Showtime Select, for eighthgrade and ninth-grade boys, before also starting Showtime Select for girls, for a total of 57 Select teams. “We grew by around 700% through COVID,” Schellhammer says. “That’s pretty substantial.” While there are many youth programs out there, Schellhammer points out what makes Showtime stand apart from others. “The two words I built this program on are
