In The News

January 30, 2003

Men's basketball team enriches community's youth

Steven Chambers
Norwich Guidon Staff Writer

This year's Norwich University men's basketball team has started a new program that is sponsored by the National Association of Basketball Coaches. The program is designed to promote reading to neighborhood schools by college athletes.

The National Academic Committee started the program, and since being taken on as a pilot program by the Coaches' Association, it has had success in many other areas. The intent of the program is to have Norwich University basketball players go into schools and read to second, third and fourth-graders. The idea is to have them be role models to kids and explain to them the importance of reading.

This program has been going on nationally for three years. It has just been started in the Northfield area this year. The first and second grade classes at Northfield Elementary School were chosen to participate in a trial run of this program.

Adrian Ackles, Andrew Pinard, Matt Johnson and Tim Shedd are the four student athletes who decided to volunteer. Meetings have been arranged according to the schedule of the players and are presently every Thursday between 11:45 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Coach Paul Booth looks at the players as more like reading buddies for the kids as opposed to just another adult figure trying to tell them to read.

The similarities between Northfield youth and children from much larger and more urban areas are greater than originally thought. It is being revealed that the kids in Northfield are having the same problems, such as single-family households, parents on drugs, and not enough attention for the children to feel wanted.

Booth looks at the program as another opportunity for the players to learn how their presence can impact the lives of young kids.

Pinard, 20, a sophomore from Montpelier, jumped at the opportunity to volunteer because of his previous experience with a similar program at his elementary school.

"It was a very good program when I went through it years earlier, so now that I have the opportunity to participate in a similar program. From the other point of view I was more than happy to accept the opportunity," said Pinard.

Johnson sees the team's role to the kids from a different angle, as well.

"We get to see things from a different perspective. We get to go in and play the teacher role for a while and give them some help," said Johnson, team captain, 20, a junior mechanical engineering major from Fishscale, N.Y. "I think we are someone they can look up to and talk to."

Ackles, team captain, 19, a sophomore business/management major from Alexandria, VA, volunteered for this program to help kids understand that reading is very important in their lives. More importantly, he hopes they have fun doing it.

"I jumped at this opportunity because I like to be involved with things that are going on around me and to have a positive impact on someone is very meaningful to me," said Ackles.

It is Booth's hope that he can get more players and more classrooms to participate in this program.

"We are now at our infancy stage with this program, and it's my hope to have at least a half a dozen classrooms participating in this in the near future," said Booth.

The Cadets have their next home game on Jan. 28 versus Daniel Webster at 7pm.

Back to Guidon index

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