2010 IHoops Skills Challenge

The Albany City Rocks in partnership with the Albany Boys & Girls Club, IHoops, Prospect Mortgage & Feed The Poor are proud to announce the 2010 IHoops Skills Challenge on February 20th, 10am -1pm at Boys & Girls Club, 21 Deleware Ave, Albany NY 12210.

IHoops is a $50 Million initiative formed by the NBA & NCAA governing bodies to bring a higher level of basketball education, training & support to the future of the game of youth basketball.

For more info on IHoops, feel free to Google & enjoy their very informative site.

The Skills challenge will be open & free of charge to Girls & Boys, ages 9-14 & will consist of a timed "skills" course. The basic fundamentals of the game (passing, lay-ups, free throws, jump shots & dribbling ) will be highlighted in this event. The winner of each respective age division does have the opportunity to move on to a Regional event, very similar to "Punt, Pass & Kick" by the NFL.

We will open the door for registration at 9:30 am & start promptly at 10am with the 9 &10 year old division, followed by 11 & 12 year old at 11am & 13 & 14 year old at 12pm. We will end the event at 1pm & assist in the clean-up of gym area. Each child participant will receive a Certificate of Participation & the winners of their respective age division will receive a ribbon / medal.

Several of the areas top Section 2 players will be on hand to assist with running of this event.

There is not a set # of volunteers specified to run this event but I would like to see a strong showing by our Coaching & Administrative Staff . More importantly, for members of our 15u-17u Team(s), this will act as a volunteer opportunity, which we are mandating that each player participates in 2 of this season.

Coffee, juice & donuts/cookies will be provided for all participants & volunteers in the morning.

The second prong of this event is the most important. We will also be using this location as a drop off point for our "Sneakers for Haiti Campaign". As I am sure everyone is well aware of by now, the people of Haiti are in dire need of all resources to combat their most recent tragedy. Even before this happened, shoes were a luxury item to most people living in this deeply impoverished city.

We are looking for gently used flat sole sneakers or shoes (no heels please) that will be shipped directly to a processing facility in Florida & then on a cargo ship bound for Haiti. I am sure if everyone looks in their closet, garage or whatever, you can find some shoes that could help someone who has none. Please contact your family & friends to help with this campaign as our goal is to collect 500 pairs.

Thank you in advance for your support of this event which we hope will be a memorable event to kick off our 2010 Season.

Derek Radz
518 694 2670