FORT WAYNE – Emily Bley gets the calls and texts from friends inviting her to the pool or lake. And usually the Homestead junior gives the same answer – thanks, but no thanks. It’s not like Bley is anti-social, it’s just during the summer she is busy in a basketball gym.

And starting today, she will hit the highway with the Spiece Gym Rats 2013 traveling AAU girls basketball team for a road trip that will take nine players and two coaches crammed into one van on a journey to five tournaments in five cities.

“It is definitely a huge sacrifice, but in the end it will be worth it,” Bley said. “It will definitely prepare us for what college is like because we are not going to have all the free time that other college students have.

“We have been thinking about this for a while, and we have been preparing our whole season for July. It determines where we are going to go after high school, hopefully. We just love the game, and we want to keep on playing.”

All five tournaments are NCAA-certified and are critical in getting the members of the team – Bley, Snider’s Meredith Shipman, Canterbury’s Bailey Farley, South Side’s Ariana Simmons, De’Joya Johnson and Brittni Clopton, Warsaw’s Lindsay Baker, Angola’s Rachel Rinehart and Leo’s Keanna Gary – looks in front of college basketball coaches.

The team will be gone for nine days and play three tournaments in three cities before returning home – for a week. Then it’s back on the road for nine more days and two more tournaments. It could be as many as 35 games in fewer than three weeks.

Spiece Fieldhouse and Gym Rats director Todd Hensley provide funds for the trip and even sprung for a van this year for transportation.

“You get to play in front of college coaches and get the exposure,” Simmons said. “It is a good opportunity that Spiece is letting us do this.

“I am trying to play my team ball and show my individual play and everything else; just put it all out there.”

Normally the Gym Rats 2013 play in three tournaments in July, but things are getting critical for the team of eight juniors and one sophomore (Clopton).

“For these girls to get exposure, this year is probably the most important year, going from sophomore to junior year in that summer to get themselves on the map or enhance the relationship to the schools they are already dealing with,” said Gil Farley, who coaches the team along with Mike Bley. “The timing (for more tournaments) is for the exposure and because we have such a special group. It is fun to take them on the road and show their talents, but at the end of the day the goal is college exposure.”

In order to get visibility during the summer, the AAU girls teams like the Gym Rats 2013 often have to hit the road. So they want to be seen, and often, by those who could decide their college basketball future.

“As a team, we are all looking to go play basketball in college, and that’s what this month is for,” Baker said. “You talk to college coaches that tell you if you play Division I basketball, it is your life. It is basketball all the time.”

The grind keeps them away from the summer activities, but in the end the sacrifice – hopefully – becomes a scholarship to play basketball and get a college education.

“Everything else in your life gets put on hold for the opportunities that we get,” said Bailey Farley, Gil’s daughter. “In the offseason for high school, to become the next-level player you have to go into July and put in the extra work. It does take a toll on other parts of my life, but it’s definitely worth it.”

The players on the team are among the best in northeast Indiana and are not new to college coaches.

They have already made contact with some and have even received scholarship offers. The trip, though, is still critical in the recruitment process. All nine players have yet to commit to a college.

“Being out on the road gives you a chance to see everybody else that is at your level of play,” Shipman said. I go through that a lot, but then I am like ‘look how I have gotten myself this far and imagine how much further I can get if I just keep going through it.’ ”

gjones@jg.net