Alan Ho knows a thing or two about startups. The Campbell resident started working for a startup company two years ago, but it’s his title as program director and head coach of Team Fury—an AAU 11-and-under boys basketball team—that really sparks something inside of him.
“This basketball thing is kind of a passion project on the side,” he said. “It’s easy (to put in long hours) when it’s a passion.”
One of the rising AAU programs in the Western U.S., Team Fury recently completed its third season, with its Elite team ranking No. 1 in the Bay Area and No. 10 in the West Coast region, which includes Arizona, Oklahoma and Texas. Team Fury also has a Select squad that competes at the top-tier Division I level. Ho said the difference between both teams isn’t as wide as one might think.
“The bottom four guys on Elite and the top four guys on Select are very interchangeable,” said Ho, who was named the 2026 Northern California top AAU grassroots director. “It’s not a huge gap.”
Team Fury has two teams by necessity, as they have 30 kids in the program—double when it first started. Fielding two teams also serves a multitude of benefits.
“We try to make sure kids get all the reps they need,” Ho said. “So if you’re a point guard and there are three other point guards on the (Elite) team, your ability to get those reps is limited. That’s why we have two teams. And the kids who don’t make those rosters we have spots for in workouts and practices. We don’t call it a team A or team B if you will, because we know kids will catch up with athletic training and skill development. Both teams play the same set of opponents and the scores weren’t all that much different.”
The Team Fury program roster includes Alon Hoffer, Boss Butler, Calin Hsu, Crew Cochran, Cyrus Mortezaie, Deacon Caviglia, Dylan Mune, Dylan Shanker, Ethan Kfir, Gavin Evenson, Gus Widell, Jaxon Abrams, Keon Meisenhelder, Leo Rocha, Lorenz Buecker, Mason Rich, Nathan Ho, Orin Soper, Oz Azriel, Parker Rath, Samir Agarwal, Sanjo Nakashima, and Ziyu Chen. The practice roster players include Ace Perez, August Balciunas, Casey Chu, Henry Balciunas, Jacob Hsia, and Vidit Noti.
The team practices year-round at the Jewish Community Center in Los Gatos. Of the 30 players,18 are from Los Gatos, Saratoga, San Jose and Campbell. One player, Rocha, travels all the way from Watsonville. Ho emphasizes development over wins and losses, though he recognizes continual improvement eventually leads to victories on the scoreboard.
“I would say we don’t really define success by wins and losses,” Ho said. “We’re generally at a .600 win percentage because we’re always trying to challenge these kids. We’ll play them one year up or play in tournaments where we know we’re really not supposed to win because those are really valuable for development.”
Ho’s emphasis on development and creating close relationships off the court has made the program attractive for incoming families. In the ultra-competitive club and AAU circuits, some teams never spend time outside of competition. That would be a major no-no for Ho, who understands the importance of strong bonds and team cohesion.
Depending on the month, Team Fury practices anywhere from two to four times a week. To put that in perspective, some AAU teams practice together just once a week and meet for games. Ho utilizes a variety of different conditioning sessions to test the players’ mettle, including beach workouts in Santa Cruz, hill runs in Saratoga and challenging maneuvers in the pool.
“These are 30 kids I care deeply about,” he said. “I know their families and I’m invested in them. We’re seeing kids three to four times a week so over time you build a really strong bond with these kids. It doesn’t feel like work, honestly. It’s something I look forward to everyday.”
In the first two years of the program’s existence, Ho decided to stay local tournament-wise. Last season Team Fury elected to travel outside the Bay Area for a couple of tournaments, where they recorded their two biggest wins in program history. In the MLK West Coast Smoke Tournament on Jan. 17 in Las Vegas, Fury Elite beat the top-ranked AAU team from Idaho, 48-45.
In May, Team Fury edged the Cali Rebels—the top-ranked team in Southern California—54-53 in the championship game of the G365 Memorial Madness Tournament in Anaheim.
“We have 20 to 30 kids who are really good, probably the best kids in our area,” Ho said. “We compete hard and our practices are super competitive.”
Two of the team’s best experiences included playing a game at Chase Center before the Warriors-Lakers Summer League contest, and doing a scrimmage during halftime at a San Jose State-Colorado State men’s basketball game. That was particularly special because Butler’s older brother played for Colorado State, SJSU’s opponent that night.
Speaking of experiences, Team Fury traveled to Paris and Slovenia in July. The latter trip involved participating in a training camp and scrimmage with two of the top youth teams in Slovenia.
“We certainly enjoyed the local culture, the food and doing touristy stuff, but in terms of basketball, we wanted to learn from the European coaches,” Ho said. “The style of play in Europe is a lot more team-oriented. In the U.S., we’re known especially at the youth levels to be individually dominated, a lot of 1-on-1 play. In Europe, it’s all about passing, moving without the ball and reading the court. We got a chance to play other 11-year-olds who were at the top of their game in their regions, so it was a great experience.”
Ho said Butler, Rocha and Rich are standouts at the national level. Mune, Cochran and Nathan Ho—the youngest of the coach’s three sons—have been with the program since it was established in 2023. Ho said Widell, Kfir and Mortezaie are rising stars who have developed into top players within the program.
Ho credited the dedication of the families who have been with the program since Day One and the ones who have come along since.
“The families that have stuck with us understand this is not about being on a team simply for the present time,” Ho said. “It’s about what we’re doing to prepare their kids to be in high school or beyond. We’re looking at the long run.”
The genesis of Team Fury was an organic process. Nathan Ho and three of his friends spent a lot of time playing basketball on their driveways and at the Bay Club. Alan Ho often ran drills for the boys at the Bay Club. During this time, Ho started to envision a way to keep this core group together.
“Youth sports are a lot of fun but sometimes teams don’t get a chance to stick together and grow,” he said. “We all just wanted to play together, so that’s when we decided to start the team. What’s different for us as a program is that it’s always been about the commitment to this group and the desire to really coach them up. How were we going to design a program so every kid gets the development they need? That was the question and goal. And thankfully I think we’re doing a pretty good job of developing every kid individually, but also putting together competitive teams.”
