National Youth Basketball Program Comes to Sacramento

SACRAMENTO, CA, November 8, 2010 -- The Sacramento Kings have joined several NBA teams in offering a unique youth program to area boys and girls ages 4 to 18. The National Basketball Academy will run a specially-developed youth basketball program including camps, clinics, tournaments and youth basketball training beginning in the fall of 2010.
“We’re pleased to have this opportunity to pair with the Kings to bring a quality program to the area,” said the National Basketball Academy’s Shane Kline-Ruminski, who played professional basketball overseas before launching the company in 2002. “Our experience with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Orlando Magic, Minnesota Timberwolves, Los Angeles Clippers, New Orleans Hornets and the Houston Rockets has helped us refine our programming to the point where we can provide unparalleled training and programs while keeping it fun for the kids.”
The company will work with local schools and recreation programs to bring camps into communities throughout the area. The program, titled the “Sacramento Kings Youth Program,” will begin this year with clinics, skill and performance training programs and six to eight summer camps and will have programming available every month throughout the year. Every participant will receive tickets for Kings games as well as great basketball instruction.
To learn more about the National Basketball Academy, visit www.thebasketballacademy.com.

http://www.nba.com/kings/news/national_youth_basketball_program_release.html

The Sacramento Kings recently joined several other NBA teams to offer a youth basketball programs to kids ages 4 to 18. It is run by the National Basketball academy and gets under in Sacramento this fall. This relates to a couple topics we discussed in the first half of the semester. The first is sports being a good way to keep kids out of trouble and away from violence. It is also a way for kids to learn interactive skills and maintain fitness through camps, clinics and tournaments. On the other side of the story though, I believe this is a way to view these athletes as role models. It doesn’t necessarily make them one just by participating in this good gesture, but by doing so it gives the kids someone to look up to who is of higher status. Chapter 5 of the text is dedicated to Sports and Children. It talks about informal games and children having fun while participating in them. This program that the Kings are participating in is a great example of this because the kids are having fun by participating with kids their age but receiving instruction from people they look up to. They don’t have to face the pressures of their parents and coaches, \but they get to enjoy themselves in a fun atmosphere. The text also states that informal games help children learn to cooperate and express themselves through a wider range of movements than they would try to if coaches were evaluating them. This is the whole concept of the program to let the kids enjoy themselves without facing all the negative aspects of youth sports seen in the world today.

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