The Beginning

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The Beginning

2003- 2004 Dallas Thunder

Dallas Homeschool Basketball, Inc. was founded in April of 2003 by 5 families in search of an atmosphere of quality and excellence for their young athletes. This new organization would be committed to skill development, building teams that would compete at the highest level possible and developing young men and women of solid Christian character. The founders believed that the game of basketball is a microcosm of life having a beginning and end and struggle in between. It requires hard work, discipline, teamwork, selflessness, and submission to authority. Because of this, they believed that Dallas Thunder Basketball would offer students the opportunity to grow not only in the game of basketball but also in their preparedness for life. The founders were Steve Clay, Lou Dinardo, Marshall Duncan, Chris Petersen and Gary Swearingen.

These men and their families undertook the task of filing and securing 501(c)3 Tax Exempt status; crafting a charter and establishing bi-laws and code of conduct; interviewing and hiring coaches;locating and negotiating practice facilities; holding tryouts and praying for players to show up and for parents to be willing to pay the fees; raising money for and purchasing uniforms; and building a competitive schedule from scratch. God blessed the program with a rapid start growing from 7 players at the first tryout to some 50 who attended the National Christian Homeschool Basketball Championships in Oklahoma City where Thunder won 6A titles in 10U, 12U, and 14U Girls and 12U Boys Divisions.

The program continued to grow in 2004-2005 and each of the teams posted winning records for the regular season and showed quite well at the National Tournament. In fact, the 18U Girls team made it all the way to the finals to play against the then powerhouse San Antonio Feast and had the opportunity to play in front of a crowd of over 3500. In two short years Dallas Thunder was living out the dream of the founders - to give our kids the opportunity to play on that national stage.

(L-R) Rachel Evans, Whitney Williams, Hope Petersen, Barbie Tippit and Brittany Patterson
14U Girls National Champions

(L-R) Whitney Williams, Lydia Miller, Weedy and KC Miller

all pictures on this page courtesy of the Petersen family

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