Parents create lifelong bonds during the grind of travel basketball, too

Kyan VanderWoude watches a Calvin-Hope basketball game with his parents Lindsey and Kevin VanderWoude on Feb. 25, 2023. Kyan, who will be a senior at Caledonia, has played with the MBA program most of his time playing travel basketball.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - When Tracy and Jason Zamarron walked out of the gym after the Brawl for the Ball last weekend, they got a little emotional. This was it. The final travel basketball game that their son Trevor Zamarron - who will be a senior at Greenville High School - would ever play.

“We felt it as parents,” Tracy Zamarron said. “We knew this was it. Trevor has always been my passionate kid. He was in tears. It was a rough one. We took some pictures with family after the final game. Travel basketball has been a great experience for us.”

Playing travel basketball can help players grow their games, gain exposure and create new friendships. But it’s a huge experience for the parents as well. They spend hours in the car driving their kid to games all over the Midwest and beyond, spend every weekend in hotels, eating dinners with the team and getting to know the other parents. Sometimes those bonds create life-long friendships for the parents, too.

Bill and Holly Szamrej, whose son Brayden will be a senior at Hudsonville, played for the Grand Rapids Storm this season.

“I will miss that we got to spend time together as a family on the road,” Bill Szamrej said. “We don’t get to see him a whole lot during the year. So we spend time in the car, at dinners and the hotels. We just got time to enjoy our son that we don’t get to usually get to do.”

Grand Rapids Storm teammates, from left, Cam Regnerus, Carter Goodyke, Brayden Szamrej and coach Ryer Highland watch a game at the Brawl for the Ball in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Saturday, July 15, 2023. (Photo | Lenny Padilla).

Tony Vermaas, whose son Jake plays at South Christian, said he’s created strong friendships with the other dads on Jake’s Grand Rapids Storm team over the past four years. 

“Between myself, Lowell Whitaker, Josh Meerman, Jason VanderWoude, Matt Ambrose … just a lot of solid dudes,” Tony Vermaas said. “We are very likeminded personalities. When we’d travel … the dads hang out together all the time. There was very little antagonism between the dads. During the high school season if Jake had a great game, I’d get a text from one of the dads. We appreciated each others kids and we rooted for their kids.”

The group of Jaxson Whitaker (Reeths-Puffer), Carter Meerman (Grand Rapids Catholic Central), Jonas VanderWoude (Forest Hills Central) and Travis Ambrose (Reeths-Puffer) have played on the same Grand Rapids Storm team since they were freshmen.  

Maria and Tony Vermaas watch South Christian play in the Division 2 state championship game on March 25, 2023. (Photo | Lenny Padilla).

“Our experience with AAU was very positive,” said Tony Vermaas of he and his wife Maria. “The parents and the kids really got along. Most of the guys spent the night at my house before that final game (at the Brawl for the Ball). The kids really liked each other.”

The final AAU game really hits home when the youngest kid enters his senior year. Kevin VanderWoude, whose son Kyan goes to Caledonia, was feeling kind of melancholy heading into the final few weeks of the AAU season.

“We started thinking about it a week before the Brawl for the Ball,” Kevin VanderWoude said. “Paul Steffen and I talked about it on our trip down to Cincinnati. We knew it was coming to and end and we talked about what we’d do with all our free time.”

Kyan VanderWoude and Myles Steffen (Zeeland West) had played on the same MBA and Storm teams for many years and their parents have become good friends.

“Some of my best friends in every day life are the travel soccer parents,” said Kevin VanderWoude, whose sons Koby and Kyan also played soccer. “Its tougher with basketball because players jump teams. But the Steffens, Malachi Hooser, Amanda Regnerus … it makes it more fun to travel when you have other parents you get along with. Because travel can get exhausting and you are living out of a suitcase. And one parent is usually left behind. So the group of parents you are with help alleviate the stress of traveling. We stay the same hotels and eat meals together. So you create a bond.”

The moms behind the success of the MBA Lakeshore basketball team the past two years. From left, Rachel DeHaan, Deb Medendorp, Shellee DeHaan and Stephanie Swartz. Their sons Jake DeHaan (South Christian), Sam Medendorp (South Christian), Carson DeHaan (Calvin Christian) and Parker Swartz (Northview) played together on a dominant MBA Lakeshore team. (Photo | Lenny Padilla).

Stephanie Swartz and her husband Shannon have been travel parents for years. Their oldest son Parker, who recently graduated from Northview High School, was on an elite MBA Lakeshore team the past few years. So they went through the emotions of a final travel season a summer ago. But they still have son Brady, who will be a junior at Northview.

“It was different for me because I have Brady still,” Stephanie Swartz said. “Also because I knew (Parker’s) senior year of high school wasn’t over yet. Also, (MBA Lakeshore) won their last tournament so they didn’t have anything else to prove. So its like he completed his AAU journey.”

Swartz said she loves getting to know the other parents. But she found out she had a deeper bond with Brett and Shellee DeHaan, the parents of Carson DeHaan, who recently graduated from Calvin Christian. They found out they are related.

“My grandma and Brett’s grandpa were brother and sister,” Swartz said. “My grandma was a DeHaan and grew up in Grand Rapids. We were at the holiday tournament to watch Carson (in December of 2022). We were out to eat with the DeHaans. And my dad started asking them about their background. And we found out we are related. And we’ve known them all the years. Not Parker and Carson call each other ‘cousin.’”

Bill Szamrej said it is important to build friendships with some of the other parents.

“Getting to know the parents of (Brayden’s) AAU teammates was fun,” he said. “Like getting to know the parents of Carter Goodyke (Grand Rapids Christian) and Myles Steffen on a deeper level. That’s a lot of fun. The Goodykes are a good example of that. Brandon (Goodyke) and I became friends. You form friendships that you never would have if it wasn’t for travel ball.”

Tracy Zamarron agrees. 

“This year was amazing,” she said. “We met people from all over. Carter Bishop from Holt, we got to know him and his family.  They moved here from The Netherlands. We would have never met him if it wasn’t for AAU.”

Said Tony Vermaas: “I will miss it a ton. I don’t think it’s set in with Jake yet that he won’t be playing with those guys again.”

The parents still have one final high school year to look forward to. But the end of that season will be coming soon, too. And with it all the emotions will come flooding back.

MBA coach Ryer Highland on the sidelines during the Brawl for the Ball on July 15, 2023. Carter Bishop, center, and Trevor Zamarron became friends over the past two travel seasons. As did their parents. (Photo | Lenny Padilla).