I tried out and made a middle school team in 6th grade, then transferred middle schools and made my new schools team in 7th grade. I had read about allstars and heard about it. I googled allstar gyms in my area (yeah, I was like 12. haha) And found ACX. I called them and asked them about allstars without telling my mom. They started giving me the info and I panicked and hung up on them. Then I broke the news to my mom about what I wanted to do, and she called the gym and talked to them about it. We went back and forth about trying out for about a month when she didn't think we could afford it.
I finally convinced her and I went in for a private tryout on a Sunday afternoon. They put me on the junior 3 team, which happened to have practice in about 30 minutes. I hung around the gym and had the 1st practice with my new team, and there was no looking back from there. I had no friends who did allstars, and was the only person from my side of town period at the gym at that time. Eventually as the gym grew more of my school friends joined up and I got to know people from the gym better.