Since 2004, the Charlotte Storm has prided itself as an alternative to other youth tournament basketball programs.

Storm officials say their players enjoy competition, but not at the cost of sacrificing other interests or success in school.

With 160 players ages 9-17, the co-ed Storm will soon conclude its third season. Over the next several weeks, three of its 16 teams will be competing in national championship tournaments around the country.

Three years ago, Willie Jefferson, Clarence McLean and Tony Brown -- who had coached together in the Mallard Creek Optimist Club's youth recreational program -- began talking about their dissatisfaction with other tournament teams their own children were involved with.

"What I found out, was that if my kid wasn't one of the superstars, if he wasn't already one of the elite kids on the map, you don't get a lot of the attention from the AAU clubs," said Jefferson, whose son Michael plays for the Storm 17-and-under team. "And plus there didn't seem to be a good balance between kids that did well in school or had other interests."

Jefferson, McLean and Brown found other parents and children who had similar concerns and interests. One of them was native New Yorker Keith Belfield, who signed up his sons, Keith Jr. and David, shortly after the family moved to Charlotte three years ago. Belfield has been one of the coaches of the 11-under "black" team for two years. (The program divides age groups into teams named by different colors.)

"So many people get lost in the winning," he says. "A lot of kids on those teams playing, even on those elite teams, aren't going to go to college (to play basketball). Everybody has the dream of the NBA, but it's just that, a dream. It's not a reality for 99.8 percent of the kids."

The Storm is the basketball-playing arm of the University City Basketball Association, a tax-exempt, nonprofit organization. Jefferson is the organization's executive director and coordinates the high school-aged teams. Brown runs the middle school division and McLean leads the elementary teams.

Players try out and must pay a fee, which is $435 for the Storm (based on a 10-player roster). The fee helps offset the costs of tournament fees, equipment, and gym rental for practices.

The Storm does some fundraising, collecting private donations and through working concession stands at the Charlotte Bobcats Arena and Lowe's Motor Speedway. Smaller efforts include car washes.

One of the program's mostly costly expenses is gym rental. Jefferson says the $6 per hour fee that Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools charges nonprofits is much more affordable than what private gyms charge. Practices are held primarily at James Martin and Alexander middle schools, and Vance and North Mecklenburg high schools.

When players are selected to be on one of the Storm's teams, they are also signing up for membership to all of the sanctioning bodies with which the Storm is affiliated -- the Amateur Athletic Union, United States Specialty Sports Association, Youth Basketball of America and the United States Basketball Association.

The sanctioning bodies differ by competition level, tournament formats and membership volume. AAU is the most advanced of the bodies to which the UCBA belongs, but the Storm's teams mostly play in USSSA and YBOA events because of their level of play.

The sanctioning bodies sometimes split their level of play into separate divisions and, for example, may have more than one national champion in each age group. In some cases, the sanctioning bodies are not all-inclusive on a national level.

Nevertheless, Storm teams have won two national and six state championships in the last two years.

Off the court, Storm leaders celebrate academic achievement by naming an all-academic team at the end of each season. The coaches of the 11-under "black" team, Belfield and Nick Milovic, were as proud of the number of players they put on the Storm's all-academic team as they were of winning the USBA national championship at Myrtle Beach in June.

Shawntae Anthony's son Sean Anthony is on the 12-under gold team, coached by Brown, that will be playing in the YBOA national tournament in Orlando this month. She says Sean is regularly approached by other tournament team coaches trying to entice him to play for them.

"There are several reasons we chose to stay in the (Storm's) program after three years," she said. "The coaching staff is phenomenal. It's more than basketball to them. They visit schools. They keep track of grades. It's like a mentorship.

"(Other programs) say they'll waive his fees. I tell them it's not about the money."