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Summer in the City set for St. John's on Friday
By Zachary Braziller July 29, 2009For years Kimani Young has traveled the country with his New Heights AAU club for showcase tournaments. As much as he loves seeing other parts of the United States, Young also found it odd that he would run into so many fellow NYC teams at these events, but there was nothing like it here during the live recruiting period at the end of July.
Not anymore.
New Heights and New Jersey-based Team NJABC have collaborated on a one-day tournament on the last day of the live period: Friday at St. John’s University, entitled Summer in the City.
There will be two different categories – U17 and U16 – featuring the best clubs the tri-state area has to offer, such as Juice, the New York Panthers, Gauchos, Raising Champions, New Heights, Playaz Club, New York Elite, Long Island Lightning and Metrohawks. Additionally, it includes Team Philly and the BC Eagles.
Young said he expects several notable Division I head coaches to be on hand, such as Bruce Pearl of Tennessee, Jay Wright of Villanova, Sean Miller of Arizona, Gary Williams of Maryland, Jamie Dixon of Pittsburgh, and, of course, Norm Roberts of St. John’s.
Not anymore.
New Heights and New Jersey-based Team NJABC have collaborated on a one-day tournament on the last day of the live period: Friday at St. John’s University, entitled Summer in the City.
There will be two different categories – U17 and U16 – featuring the best clubs the tri-state area has to offer, such as Juice, the New York Panthers, Gauchos, Raising Champions, New Heights, Playaz Club, New York Elite, Long Island Lightning and Metrohawks. Additionally, it includes Team Philly and the BC Eagles.
Young said he expects several notable Division I head coaches to be on hand, such as Bruce Pearl of Tennessee, Jay Wright of Villanova, Sean Miller of Arizona, Gary Williams of Maryland, Jamie Dixon of Pittsburgh, and, of course, Norm Roberts of St. John’s.
“There’s a lot of talent in the local area that’s being recruited at a high level,” he said. “I’m sure if not the head coach, a lot of assistants will be out there.”
Young said championship awards, MVPs and Honor of the Game, given to the player on the losing team that conducts himself the right way, will all be given out.
The event was initially supposed to be across three days and include U15 and U14 teams, but New Heights was out in Las Vegas for the Adidas Super 64, and several of the other big-name teams involved were also traveling, making it difficult to properly organize the tournament.
“This is something we want to build on and do every year,” Young said. “We want to expand and have teams from all over the country. It’s important to try to build a strong even here in NYC, in the Mecca of basketball.”
Proceeds from Summer in the City will help support the programs at New Heights Youth, Inc., a NYC-based non-profit organization whose mission is “to inspire inner-city youth to be leaders, champions and student-athletes and empower them to be successful in high school, college and life,” and Team NJABC, a program that focuses on developing young people into positive contributors to society.
zbraziller@fiveborosports.com