The men’s and women’s basketball team at Cabrini University held it’s 18th annual “Hoops from the Heart” Martin Luther King Day youth basketball clinic on Monday, Jan. 21 in the Nerney Field House.
“The experience was great. It’s always nice to be able to help younger kids learn important fundamentals of basketball,” Cassidy Gallagher, a junior psychology major and guard for the women’s basketball team, said. “It helps me learn how to be better at the little things and is satisfying knowing I am helping others get better. I do enjoy this day even though it is a day “off” for students. It’s exciting seeing how happy and how much fun the kids have with all of us.”
Kate Pearson is the head coach of the women’s basketball team.
“We (Cabrini University) organized this event and we worked with a couple other local colleges and it’s blown up over the past couple of years,” Pearson said.
Pearson also stated that Haverford College, Neumann University and Widener University are some of the local colleges who participated as well.
Both players and the head coaches, Kate Pearson and Tim McDonald, from the men’s and women’s basketball teams, spent their early Monday morning running stations to instruct students in grades 1-8 basketball techniques.
“As far as teaching the kids, even though we were just teaching them basic fundamentals like the proper footwork for a layup, or how to play good defense and box out and working on their post moves, you could tell the kids enjoyed doing this stuff just simply because they were playing basketball,” Tyler Timson, a sophomore and secondary education and history major as well as a forward on the Cabrini men’s basketball team, said.
According to Cabrini Athletics, “The clinic is part of the “Hoops from the Heart” program which benefits Community Action Agency of Delaware County (CAADC) programs that serve low-income residents in Delaware County. All proceeds raised will benefit programs including emergency housing, social services, employment training and life skills training.”
“All the proceeds go towards helping different families in need, specifically some homeless families in the community,” Pearson said.
The clinic raised over $2,000 this year alone. The cost was $30 per child who participated and they were also asked to bring in nonperishable food items such as canned goods to the clinic in order to give to those in need.
“I definitely enjoyed spending Martin Luther King Day with these kids. It felt great to be able to give back to the community since they do so much for both our men’s and women’s teams and our school in general,” Timson said.
This program was started back in 2002 and has since raised over $100,000 for the CAADC programs for the past 18 years.
“Athletes should take away that even though we are busy and caught up in our respective sports, it is an amazing feeling to step back to teach and help those who want to grow up to be athletes like us. They look up to us, so there’s no better way to step away from our own progress and coach those of younger generations,” Abi Fricke, a sophomore and business management major who plays guard and forward on the women’s basketball team, said.
