Homeschooling sports teams are coming of age. The breadth, depth, and quality of play at the national basketball tournament has been steadily improving for the past five or six years. This year’s event in Springfield, MO involves 340 teams from 20 states playing games in 33 local gyms.

The star of the women’s basketball competition is 6’1″ Taber Spani (with the ball in the picture at left) who has already signed with the University of Tennessee Lady Vols.

Very nice coverage from the local newspaper in Springfield, MO.

h/t: Susan Frederick, who posted a link to this story on Kay Brooks‘ national email list for homeschool leaders.

There is also an annual Homeschool World Series in Panama City which draws baseball teams from the southeastern states. Many of those players wind up recruited and offered scholarships by colleges.

And finally, there is the spectacular success of Tim Tebow, Heisman trophy quarterback for the Florida Gators. Although he played for a public high school in Florida, he was homeschooled by his mother and took advantage of the Florida homeschool law that allows homeschooled students to play for the public high school they are zoned for.

The growth in homeschooling has been significant. From one million students in the 1990s to an estimated two million students today. There may be more students in homeschool than there are in private schools. No one knows for sure, as homeschoolers are notoriously difficult to count.

Their academic success has been noted for years – on standardized achievement tests, ACT & SAT scores, and in national spelling and geography bees.

Now, it seems, they’re going to be achieving prominence in organized sports as well.