Free basketball clinic at Boys & Girls Club teaches hoops, life lessons
Article Date: November 9, 2013
From The Herald News
By Michael Gagne
FALL RIVER – For B.M.C. Durfee High School boys’ varsity basketball coach Jamison Guimond, participating in the sport is about more than just playing the game.
“You can learn so much besides the actual game,” Guimond said. Basketball, Guimond explained, can instill in players values that can be applied elsewhere in life: commitment, discipline and camaraderie.
On Saturday morning at the Boys & Girls Club at 803 Bedford St., Guimond was the lead instructor in a free basketball clinic conducted by the office of Bristol County District Attorney Sam Sutter. About 80 to 100 city youth took part.
Guimond was assisted by girls’ varsity Coach Brendan Kelly, along with several players from both the boys’ and girls’ varsity teams.
The group ran two clinics — one for youth in grades 2 to 4, and a second for youth in grades 5 to 8.
Guimond said he enjoyed the opportunity to connect to the city’s young people. The clinic provided a positive, structured environment absent of “negative activities.”
“Kids like to play sports,” Guimond said. “The atmosphere was great.”
It also gave the participants the additional benefit of being able to connect and interact with not only adults, but older high school-age youth, in a big-brother, big-sister sort of way.
“That was the thing myself and the girls’ coach noticed,” Guimond said. “It’s kind of been missing in the community. When I was younger, we always had somebody to look up to.”
According to a district attorney press release, it was one of many sports clinics the office will conduct this year. The recurring program began in 2007, launched as a “volunteer initiative” to serve area youth. Those free sports clinics “aim to promote a healthy and active lifestyle while also focusing on proactive crime prevention by providing youth with an outlet to stay involved and avoid risk factors for criminal activity,” according to the release.
Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Brian Rose manages the program through the DA office’s Community Affairs Division
Original Article: http://www.heraldnews.com/x2132754689/Free-basketball-clinic-at-Boys-Girls-Club-teaches-hoops-life-lessons