KING is excited to announce that we have been awarded the 2018-2019 Heisman Trophy Trust grant through the New York Community Trust. While the name Heisman is typically synonymous with college football, the Heisman Trophy Trust is dedicated to supporting amateur athletes and their goals on and off the playing field. The trust states, “our goal through these charitable endeavors is for the Heisman Trophy to symbolize the fostering of a sense of community responsibility and service to our youth, especially those disadvantaged or with special needs.”

This fall will be the first season implementing academic and life skill programming into our competitive travel teams. Beyond our players receiving the highest quality sports coaching, we will be providing academic support, test prep courses, admissions guidance and life skill seminars that will prepare them for life outside of sport. The program will cater to each individual student-athlete and consider their personal career, sport and life goals.

KING is lucky to have a network of volunteers that include former Division I, II and III athletes and coaches that understand the dedication it takes to be a successful student athlete. As their own athletic careers came to an end, our volunteers and mentors have transitioned to successful careers in fields ranging from finance, advertising, entrepreneurship, education, etc. Paired with our volunteers, the grant will also allow us to hire a professional tutoring service that will provide the highest quality services to our kids.

KING as a whole organization continues to evolve and grow, our dedication to support each and every one of our kids to reach their goals is unwavering. Thanks to our new partnership with the Heisman Trophy and New York Community Trusts we will be able to continue and enhance our mission.

What: Jr. NBA Skills Challenge
Who: Boys and Girls, age 13 and under
Where: Leman Manhattan – 41 Broad St. 9th Floor
Cost: FREE
Sign-up: Email Paul@kidsinthegame.com or come to event 30 minutes prior to start

Do you have the moves like Steph Curry? Can you handle the ball like Maya Moore? Good. Come show us! KING Hoops is excited to host their Jr. NBA Skills Challenge Event February 17th at The Franciscan Community Center. The event will take place from 1:30pm to 3:00pm and is open to boys and girls 13 years and younger. Oh, and did I mention it was free? Yes, free! Boys and girls will compete is separate divisions (14U and 12U) and showcase their ball handling and shooting skills.

To see the official rules click here

From this local competition the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners will advance to the regional competition with a chance to advance to the national competition in June.

Finalists for the national competition win an all-expense paid trip to New York City, receive gift bags, attend special events, interact with NBA/WNBA/D-League Players, Legends, & Draftees, and attend the 2017 NBA Draft.

Questions? Email KING Hoops Basketball Director at Paul@kidsinthegame.com

Paul O’Connor, our director of KING Hoops program, recently attended the Jr. Knicks Youth Basketball Leadership conference. The event had the likes of Allan Houston, Kym Winter, Tiffany Chag, Don Showalter among other leaders in the basketball world. Topics ranged from how to keep athletes safe and the benefits of raising multi-sport athletes. Coach Paul came away from the event with a breadth of knowledge but also knowing that there is still a ton of work to do in the youth basketball arena. Here are some thoughts and questions Coach Paul had on the event and where basketball is headed for kids growing up in New York City.

At the Jr. Knicks event there was one question raised that stuck with me… How can organizations like the Jr. Knicks and USA Basketball have a greater effect on youth basketball?

The question alone doesn’t seem complicated. But as we all know or grow to learn, nothing about youth sports in New York City is uncomplicated. Between a seemingly unlimited market and “coaches” on every corner, navigating the youth basketball scene can be tough. I see two main issues that arise and that the Jr. Knicks and USA Basketball can have a hand in improving.

Issue #1 — Players jumping from team to team throughout the year.

I have seen kids in the 6th grade play for 3+ AAU teams in one season. I don’t see this to be in the child’s benefit. First off, the player simply cannot commit to 3+ programs and make all practices/games/etc. This also leads to distrust amongst the other players on the team. The players who are committed to one team start to learn how to play together and don’t gel with the players who are in and out. As a coach and director, it makes it very hard to teach them your beliefs, techniques, and overall organization mission. The biggest problem in my opinion is the lack of ability to keep players accountable. If a coach disciplines a player and that player doesn’t like it they can simply go play for another team the next day. This is a dangerous lesson that will hurt our children in the long run.

Solution — Adopt the GEVA Volleyball rules for committing to a program, see here:

USA Volleyball prohibits player transfers from club to club, which is necessary to protect players, their teammates, and their clubs. In choosing a club, carefully consider your goals with potential clubs’ emphasis on elite teams versus developmental, teams offered, cost, practice quantity and quality, number of coaches and their qualifications, distance to tournaments, length of the season, playing time, and tournament schedule.

Tryouts are during the same time period for volleyball — Please remember that once you have made a binding commitment to a club, you are committed to them for the season. They have reserved a spot on a team (possibly turning away another athlete) and you have committed to meeting your obligations per the club’s offer letter. Failure to meet a contractually obligated financial commitment to a club will mean that you can’t register to play for any USAV club the following season(s).

Implementing this would completely solve the issue of playing for multiple teams and help organizations and the kids we serve tremendously. It would raise accountability of our kids, parents, coaches and administrators.

Issue #2 — Anyone is a qualified coach.

This topic was raised by Don Showalter at the event and he made a great point. The term “Coach” is sacred and means a great deal. With the rise in social media and organizations popping up in every gym, almost anyone can be called coach nowadays. There is no standardized process that people have to go through to become a coach, making the difference in the level of coaching from organization to organization easily visible if you attend AAU tournaments. Don compared it to other industries, mentioning that they all have processes, standards, protocol. Why would basketball be any different? To become anything of significance is strenuous and includes multiple steps, something that coaching should not lack. USA Basketball offers an online course to become certified but even that is not enough. This is where organizations like Jr. NBA, Jr. Knicks, USA Basketball need to come together and create standards and requirements that coaches and organizations would need to meet in order to become certified.

Improvements do not happen over night and I would certainly like to continue this discussion with NYC youth basketball organizations and coaches to see how we can try and improve our players experiences.

To check out Coach Paul and KING Hoops in action at our Tuesday Night Middle School Clinics. Workouts are held from 6-7:15pm at Corpus Christi School 533 W. 121st St. New York, NY 10027 and our $15 per session or $100 for the remaining 7 sessions. Register here!

It isn’t easy to summarize a year at Kids in the Game – there are so many small victories that go unseen with the children we work with. Measuring confidence, friendships, perseverance, and just plain fun are not always possible. However, we close out 2017 knowing that those are the wins that we are most proud of. Our organization’s purpose is to change the way New York City children are growing up and this year was a huge step towards reaching our goals. Reading through our 2015 and 2016 reviews, we continue to make tremendous progress and find ourselves more and more excited about what is yet to come. Here are some of the highlights from the year and what you can expect to see from KING in 2018:

1. We continue to expand and serve more schools and families across Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Bronx – we worked with over 16,000 children this year across summer camps, school programming, and our travel teams. Our team has approached ~100 talented coaches, yet we still feel like a family in our approach.

2. We had our best summer yet! Our 4 summer camps served ~700 families from June to August as we continued to add new and creative programming for the kids. We had an emphasis on improving our swimming program, adding lessons and better facilities. There was also more interaction between our camps, as we had days that our older camps went to other sites to meet new friends and have some healthy competition. We had fun building out our theme weeks (ie Camp Olympics, Through the Decades, Spirit Week, Superhero Week, etc) and have some creative ideas for 2018 in the works. Our newest location was opened in Park Slope, and look forward to announcing our 5th location for 2018 here shortly!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvGsjrPjuiI

3. Although we have a team full of active, energetic, sports lovers, we also consciously opened our mind in 2017 to how technology can enhance what we do. We grew our partnership with CodingKidz, providing after-school and summer camp programs in Robotics, Coding, and Video Game Design, as well as made November ‘Sports Technology’ month across all our schools. Our kids collectively walked to Australia in November (measured by our Fitbits), we had SportsTechie cover our Virtual Reality event at Corpus Christi School, and started meeting as a team to talk about other technology and innovation that will help engage more children and enhance our sports programs. It certainly won’t replace what we do at the core, but always looking for ways to improve!

4. Our travel teams continued to make us oh so proud. KING Hoops had 5 teams playing this fall between middle school and high school, with kids coming from many of our schools and communities we work in throughout the year. We won our first tournament this year in Connecticut, and almost all age groups made tournament runs more regularly. Winning isn’t everything, but we’re a competitive group! KING Spikes, our volleyball program, continued to grow and is primed for a big year in 2018. We launched KING Speed, our track and field program, led by Suzie Clinchy who joined our team this year. We are so proud of the programs we’ve run in schools (PS 188M, Blessed Sacrament, Rebecca School, Leman Manhattan) and of our kids that are starting to run in competitive meets around the city. We take a lot of pride in wearing KING on our jersey and the way our players represent us and continue to grow.

5. Furthering our mission to reach all children in NYC, our non-profit KING Kids has made tremendous progress in bridging the opportunity gap. In our first full year of operation, we were humbled by the amount of support and empathy people have for making sure all schools and families have access to positive coaches and opportunities to play sports. We built a junior board of talented young professionals that have helped us drive the movement and fundraise for scholarships and new programming. Our team hosted our first large fundraising event, a 3 on 3 tournament at St Francis, with over 20 teams. We ran our first corporate volunteer day with VML Foundation, donating sports equipment to 3 public schools across Harlem and the Bronx. We’ve added life skills workshops and academic support opportunities for all our travel teams. We built a website. Tons of good work, and the best part is that we are just getting started! So much to do in 2018 in our community and we appreciate everyone’s willingness to help our cause!

6. Not always apparent to our families or schools, but we have turned inward to make staff development and training a top priority as an organization. Both personal and professional development is a big part of working at KING, which ultimately helps us grow together and run better and better programs in the community. That will continue to be the case in 2018!

Our team continues to believe in the power of sports and positive coaching to help kids grow. Although not something we typically share with our following, our internal core values are what continues to drive our decision making and what we truly believe in while we work with youth. We wanted to share them with you below to give you some insight into what we are all about and our team’s daily focus as we continue strengthening our programs.

1. Radiate positivity and a family spirit
2. Lead by example through healthy habits
3. Embrace individual strengths and diverse backgrounds
4. Present solutions, not problems
5. Be resourceful and creative – do more with less
6. Constant pursuit of personal growth and learning
7. See the big picture
8. Be a world-class communicator
9. Work as a team, play as a team, grow as a team
10. Strive to always be the best part of our kids’ day

Thank you to everyone that has made 2017 such a year to remember. The support we get from principals, parents, coaches, partners, friends, and family is what keeps us energized and healthy. More to come from KING!

As March comes to an end and brackets are thrown in the trash, it’s a good time for most teams to reflect on the past season. King Hoops teams began practicing in October, similar to most college teams and finished (much to our dismay) a little too early in March.

Our teams participated in the 55 Swish league at Basketball City this past year. Our kids were tested every week both mentally and physically. As a coaching staff, one of the our biggest challenges was getting our kids to play through adversity. At the start of the season, if we got down 8-10 points the attitude was very much, “that’s it, we’re losing, we’re going to lose…” and down went the effort level. We were constantly looking for new ways to keep our kids motivated and their heads in the game.

This is something I’ve seen a lot of especially with kids in middle school. Middle school competition levels begin to increase and this may be the first time some players aren’t the best ones on the court. This can be a challenging thing to deal with, especially mentally. Therefore, we like to instill confidence in our players in a variety of ways: verbally with positive language and encouragement or physically with high fives, hugs, and huddles. We value getting to know our players as individuals and recognizing what motivates them. If we can get a group of ten mentally strong players to click as one cohesive team we know a long March is in our future.

This past Saturday we finished our last tryout this past Saturday with a total of 84 kids in attendance! We have spent this week calling kids from all over the city to give them the good news that they are now KING Hoopers. It’s an exciting time for the King Hoops program and we look forward to a great Spring season with our teams.

If you have any questions about the KING Hoops programs please contact Paul O’Connor at paul@kidsinthegame.com

What if all it took to make a positive impact in the world was to simply walk, play and be a kid?

Thanks to the Jr. NBA, Kids in the Game has been selected to participate in UNICEF’s Kid Power Training program and do just that. Starting this week, 4th through 8th graders in our Mount Carmel Holy Rosary (MCHR) after-school program will be participating in the program that translates steps taken into philanthropic efforts. The Training Program is a kids-helping-kids initiative that “promotes both fitness and global citizenship”.

Each student will receive a Kid Power band that will track their movement and count their steps. With every 2,400 steps the student takes they will receive a Kid Power Point. A cumulation of 10 points earns a therapeutic food packet donation. These packets contain a nutrient-rich peanut paste specifically designed for kids in malnourished communities. UNICEF has donated to over 190 countries and will determine where the packets go by which communities need it the most.

Not only will this program increase our kid’s physical fitness awareness but it will also test their responsibility skills. The kids will be wearing the bands throughout the day and will take them home each evening. They are responsible for their own band and keeping it in tip-top shape. Our staff will collect the bands for each weekend to recharge and sync all results on the program tablet.

“I was amazed by the infectious humanitarianism my kids displayed right after I introduced the Kid Power Band mission. My kids are informed and ready to be active to help as many kids as possible”, said Tracey Lewis, Kids in the Game, MCHR After-School Director.

And because everyone loves a good ol’ fashioned contest, we have decided to add a classic grade versus grade competition to help those legs keep stepping. 4th grade will be competing against 5th and the middle school 6th, 7th and 8th grades will try to outstep each other. Along with the kids getting Power Bands, teachers and Kids in the Game staff will also be joining in the fun and stepping along with the kids. Their steps will count towards their team totals as well as gaining overall power points.

We at Kids in the Game feel very fortunate to be a part of this program. Bringing social awareness and empowerment to our kids and staff is a core value we hold. It is an honor to be taking this step (pun intended!) with UNICEF to end malnourishment around the world.

KinG Hoops NYC, partnered with the Jr. NBA, will be hosting the Jr. NBA Skills Challenge.

This free event will take place this Saturday, April 30th, at 10:00am in the Leman Manhattan Preparatory School gymnasium, located at 25 Greenwich Street (between Morris and Battery Place).

Boys and girls ages 9-14 are welcome to show off their dribbling, shooting and rebounding skills. Finalists will receive  gift bags, have the chance to attend special events, interact with NBA/WNBA players, and attend the 2016 NBA Draft!