StreetBall signup open

NEENAH — Online registration is open for the 21st annual StreetBall 3-on-3 basketball tournament, which will be held June 9 and 10 on the streets of downtown Neenah.

Males and females ages 8 and above are eligible to participate in StreetBall. Five male and three female brackets are available, with teams consisting of three to four players. Activities during the tournament weekend include a slam dunk contest, a free throw contest, three-point shooting contest and a contest for youngsters.

The fee is $116 through May 11, with registration closing on May 25.

To register, visit www.streetball3on3.org or call 920-725-TEAM.

Gus Macker basketball tournament will return to Saginaw in 2013 – The Saginaw News

View full sizeThe Saginaw NewsGus Macker backboards will return to Saginaw in 2013SAGINAW – The last time Ziggy Kozicki played in the Saginaw Gus Macker 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament, he won the Toilet Bowl Trophy.

He also had his original hip.

Kozicki, 60, expects to break in his new hip when he helps bring back the Macker to downtown Saginaw in 2013, he announced Tuesday.

“We have a group of people committed to bring it back, including (Gus Macker founder) Scott McNeal, so it is definitely going to happen,” Kozicki said. “There are lot of things to do before then, a lot of logistics, sponsors, dates and things to line up to make it happen, but it’s going to happen.”

Kozicki is part of PAC-V, or People Against Crime and Violence, and hopes to use the Macker as a cornerstone of a larger event called Saginaw’s Got Soul, a multi-day festival of basketball, volleyball, blues concerts, soul food and art shows in downtown Saginaw.

“We’re putting up a big tent so a lot of people can get involved … we would love to have as many non-profits, churches, schools, organizations and charities involved as possible,” Kozicki said. “This could be a conduit for organizations to become stakeholders in this and share in the proceeds.”

McNeal was happy to hear about interest in Saginaw, which held the Macker from 1990 to 2000.

View full sizeZiggy Kozicki“Next year will be the 40th year of the Macker, so it would be a great part of the celebration to bring it back to one of the great places we’ve held it,” McNeal said. “I’ve been wanting to come back forever to the tournament that Wilbur Hoffman made happen.”

Hoffman, a member of PRIDE, was instrumental in bringing the Macker to Saginaw in 1990. Hoffman, who owned Schaefer Hat Store in Saginaw, died in 1998.

“Ziggy’s a fellow CMU grad, so that’s great,” McNeal said. “He started talking about it and the more he talked about it, the more it started to get a Wilbur feel to it,” McNeal said. “I really liked it.”

Kozicki lives in Midland, but works at Mid-Michigan Neuropsychology at Towne Center in Saginaw. He also teaches classes at Central Michigan University and Ferris State University.

McNeal will come to Saginaw on Friday, March 9 to talk to people interested in helping bring the Macker to Saginaw. He will meet people at the Underground Railroad office, beginning at 9 a.m.

“We want this to be a way to energize the community and bring something exciting to Saginaw,” Kozicki said. “We would like to provide something for our youth, give our local charities a way to raise money and re-introduce people to Saginaw friendliness.

“There’s a lot of potential. It can do a lot of great things, but we have a lot of work to do in the next year. We don’t want this to be just a one-year event. We want it to be sustainable, something people can expect to be part of every year.”

Kozicki and McNeal have no dates picked out for the 2013 season. Kozicki wants to make sure the Saginaw Has Soul event does not conflict with any other events already planned in Saginaw. McNeal also has to make sure the Saginaw event doesn’t conflict with other Macker tournaments.

Anyone interested in getting involved can contact Kozicki at zigpsych@sbcglobal.net.

“I played when it was here and our team won a Toilet Bowl trophy,” Kozicki said. “We did OK, won some games and had a lot of fun.

“I have every intention of going back out there in 2013 and playing again, even if I don’t have my old hip.”

5 Things You Need to Know Today: Feb. 22

Our daily morning column, 5 Things You Need to Know, provides you with information that can help you plan your day and give you some fodder for water cooler conversations.

1. On Thursday, Natick Patch editor Alissa Letkowski and advertising manager Steve Antonellis will be at Starbucks in Sherwood Plaza between 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. to speak with residents and business owners about advertising opportunities, story ideas, and how you and your business can get the most out of the Patch experience. Stop by and say hello!

2. Stacey Peasley Band will perform kids songs at Temple Israel at 10 a.m. Admission is $8 (free for kids under 2).

3. Bring your friends and stop by the Cole Center at 9 a.m. for 3-on-3 basketball. Divisions are limited to five teams each.

4. Roots Wings will host two yoga class for individuals with special needs today. The class for pre-teens and teens age 12 through 16 is from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. and the class for teens and adults age 17 and older is from 6:15 to 7:15.

5. Natick High School Principal Rose Bertucci announced Friday that the school will change its team name from “Red and Blue” to a new suggestion voted on by students and staff. If you have a suggestion that you would like to be considered, email rbertucci@natickps.org. Bertucci has said that returning to the original “Natick Redmen” name will not be considered. Residents have until March 30 to submit a name.

For more information and updates on all things Natick, like Natick Patch on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Make sure to tell your friends about us!

Basketball: Aberdeen 3-on-3 tourney Saturday

The annual free Quality Quick Print 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament will be Saturday at the Aberdeen Civic Arena for grades 3-8.

Boys’ and girls’ teams in grades 6-8 check-in at noon and start playing at 12:30 p.m. Boys’ and girls’ teams in grades 3-5 check-in at 2 p.m. and start playing at 2:30 p.m. This is a single-elimination tournament.

Pre-registration required by 5 p.m. Thursday. Details: Aberdeen Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department at 605-626-7015.

3 on 3 basketball tournament to raise money for Haiti

AUBURN, AL (WTVM) -

An Auburn 12-year old is making a difference, by combining her love of basketball and fundraising to bring clean drinking water to families in Haiti.

Sutton Smith created hoops for Haiti, a three
on three tournaments for kids in 2008.

This year, she hopes to raise $1,000 to help
Auburn United Methodist Church build a water well in Haiti.

“It would make the lives of
people in Haiti so much easier. They can get fresh drinking water. They don’t
have to travel to get water is a necessity to life and we don’t realize we take
it for granted,” says Sutton.

The 3 on 3 tournaments is set for March 3rd from 10 am until
noon at the Grove Hill neighborhood.  Kids
can play for a $5 donation.

Sutton says halftime is the most entertaining as the dads
compete in a dunking contest, judged by the moms.

For more information on how to donate or how to play in
hoops for Haiti, call the missions director at Auburn United Methodist Church.

Copyright 2012 WTVM. All rights reserved. 

Briggs Nissan Lawrence Helps Support Boys & Girls Club 3 on 3 Basketball …

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Lawrence, Kansas (PRWEB) February 22, 2012

On Saturday February 25th the University of Kansas Sport Management and Marketing Club along with the Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence will be putting on a 3 on 3 basketball tournament for first and second graders to participate in. This event has been made possible with the help from area sponsors such as the Briggs Nissan Lawrence store. Briggs Nissan Lawrence is one of the leading Nissan dealers in Lawrence and is very proud to be a part of this great event.

The tournament will be taking place at the Robinson Recreation Center on the University of Kansas campus. This event is very special because currently, there are no basketball tournament opportunities offered to first and second graders in the area. The goal of the tournament is to help teach these children the importance of good sportsmanship, getting active and learning the values of the game of basketball. The Boys Girls Club or Lawrence and the KU Sports Management and Marketing Club hopes that this tournament will help inspire and enable the children to realize their full potential.

Briggs Nissan Lawrence is a huge fan of basketball and getting kids active. They are a large supporter of the Lawrence community and they are proud to help out with this tournament. Briggs Nissan Lawrence is joined by Briggs Subaru and Briggs Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram in contributing to this event.

Briggs Nissan Lawrence carries a large selection of vehicles such as Nissan in Lawrence, KS. The dealership also has many used cars in Lawrence, KS and would be happy to show interested consumers a great vehicle. For more information on the dealership please visit http://www.briggsnissanlawrence.com.

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InTech students build robot that shoots hoops

For most people, designing and building a mobile robot with the
capability of picking up small basketballs and shooting them
through a hoop with regularity would be the hard part.

But for a couple dozen students on the MegaBots team at InTech
Collegiate High School, it’s coming up with a name for their robot
that has been the real challenge.

“I suggested calling it Hayward to see if we could get (Utah
Jazz forward) Gordon Hayward to come to our competition,” team
captain Tyler Dewey said. “But we might be calling it Om Nom
because it kind of goes around and eats everything in front of it.
We still haven’t decided because you kind of let the name come out
of its personality, and we haven’t had enough time to judge it
yet.”

Saturday night at Pastarama, the annual MegaBots’ fundraiser at
Bridgerland Applied Technology College, the team put on a
demonstration of the abilities of the still nameless robot who may
or may not resemble Cookie Monster.

A couple of glitches had made it a “crazy day,” according to
adviser Jim Baker, but after banking in a basket on the seventh
attempt, driver Paul Hart had the robot dialed in and successfully
nailed six of the next seven shots.

“It’s been a scramble,” Baker said, “but it’s not a big deal. We
can still use it, we just have to be really careful and baby it.
But when we’re in the heat of competition, we can’t baby it, so
we’ve got to make it bulletproof.”

The MegaBots team started this year’s project Jan. 7, and have
until today at 11:59 p.m. to complete it. After that, the robot
will be sealed up in a bag and can’t be touched again until the
FIRST Robotics competition March 15 to 17, at the Maverik Center in
West Valley City.

This is the fourth time InTech has competed in the event, which
is called Rebound Rumble this year. In 2011, the MegaBots squad
finished third in qualifying and lost in the finals in a
competition based around robots hanging tubes up on pegs.

“I think it’s important for the public to realize that what
these students are doing is molding what our future is going to
be,” Baker said. “This is as close to an authentic engineering
problem that anybody is ever going to find. There are engineers who
see what we do and just scratch their heads and say, ‘How do you
get it done in six weeks?’ I mean, I’m right in the middle of it,
and I can’t hardly believe what they get done. It’s really amazing
what these students can accomplish with a little direction.”

Playing on a 27-foot-by-54-foot court, Rebound Rumble is
essentially 3-on-3 basketball with robots used specifically for
defense and interference, while the offensive robots shoot at four
different hoops with point values of one through three, depending
on the height. The individual robots form alliances with other
teams and play a round-robin tournament with the best “player”
earning a trip to the national tournament in St. Louis.

By tournament time, the MegaBots plan to have a camera system in
place that will allow Hart to steer the robot without having to
worry about setting up for a shot. After locking in on the basket,
the shooting turrets track the target and move independently.

“The best thing about this robot is it’s almost 100 percent
student-built and designed,” Dewey said. “Other than a little bit
of machining that we had to do to build the frame, we’ve done all
of it ourselves.”

Now a senior, Dewey has been a part of all four of InTech’s
FIRST Robotics projects. He said the team’s experience has
definitely paid off as it’s been able “to put the pinnacle of all
of our knowledge forward.”

Conversely, junior Holly Flann is on the team for the first time
this year and regrets not joining earlier.

“It always looked so amazing and fun,” she said.

As the designated rebounder Saturday, Flann was the only one
getting a genuine workout during the demonstration as she chased
the foam basketballs all over the room. Explaining that she just
wanted to “help out anywhere she can,” Flann said she hadn’t
learned anything more about real basketball by working on the
project.

“I’m a better shooter than he is,” she said with a confident
smile.

—

jhunter@hjnews.com

© 2012 The Herald Journal. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Face-to-face company: Anchorpoint hosts first Unity Day

The morning cloud burst worried KC Adams.

“If you give people a reason not to show up, sometimes they take
it,” Adams said.

And showing up to Unity Day on Saturday at Anchorpoint Christian
High School was all that Adams wanted people to do. When the rain
cleared and the sun peaked through the clouds, he breathed a sigh
of relief.

“I feel good that my phone is dying, because so many people are
calling to say they’re coming,” Adams said.

Adams put together the first-ever Unity Day at Anchorpoint with
one simple goal.

“We want to get everyone from the community to say ‘hello’ to
each other,” Adams said, who is the small private school’s athletic
director, basketball and football coach.

To him, one little “hello” is all it takes. During the morning
prayer, attendees were spread out across the auditorium, often with
three or four seats between them.

“But the pastor got them together, got them to shake hands,”
Adams said. “And now people are talking, now the kids are playing
together.”

About 150 people at any given time were on the Anchorpoint
campus on Pacheco Pass Highway Saturday – and while the adults
listened to a schedule of speakers and live music, the children ran
off their energy during a 3-on-3 basketball tournament, jumping in
a bounce house or trying the punt, pass, kick challenge.

Adams wanted people to come in wondering where they could get
help, find art classes or take their kids to preschool. Beyond
gathering face to face, an American Red Cross blood drive gave
attendees another way to help each other.

The blood drive directly benefited people with sickle cell
anemia, a disease that warps the body’s red blood cells and causes
intense chest and joint pain – and often affects the African
American community. The only treatment is regular blood
transfusions.

Michelle Travlos, a close friend of Adams, organized the drive.
Travlos was diagnosed with sickle cell anemia and has sponsored
several blood drives in Gilroy. She said 36 people had signed up in
advance, and within an hour of the event starting, 10 more had
volunteered.

“To get even 30 donors in this area, because Gilroy is a small
town, is a big deal,” Travlos said.

Antoinette McCoy, a first-time donor, encouraged people to give
blood.

“This process is painless. It’s easy,” McCoy said.

McCoy, a Technology Partnerships Manager at NASA, was at Unity
Day with Mocha Moms, a 10-year-old support group for Gilroy
mothers.

Mocha Moms president Victoria Baxter said the group was at
Anchorpoint to network with mothers who want to spend more time
with their families and get involved in their children’s education.
Initially, the group targeted African American moms, but it accepts
members of all races.

“The African American community is spread out,” in Gilroy,
Baxter said. She added that at Mocha Moms events, people who have
lived in Gilroy for 20-plus years would meet each other for the
first time.

For years, Adams said he had talked among his friends about
putting together an an all-day gathering like Unity Day.

“We just went out on a limb and told everyone we knew to just
hang out,” Adams said. “And they are and it’s great.”

City Council meets on Tuesday this week

3 hours, 18 min ago