South Shore’s popular and hugely successful Open Season basketball program is becoming part of the Rising Stars family. Rising Stars founder Paul Savramis opens up about Open Season and similar grassroots programs joining Rising Stars in the following interview excerpt.
Q: Everyone is talking about this new merger and your recent outreach efforts – how did it all come about?
Paul Savramis: We had been looking for new areas in which there was a need for what we offer to expand and the Great South Bay was a perfect target area. Recent gang violence and enrollment of children into gangs at the elementary level had community leaders up in arms and resulted in a invitation for us to expand our team and academic support programs there,
Once we established that, the Open Season teams came on our radar.
We knew Open Season was a program that dealt with very young players and that their coaches and managers had been approached numerous times but they had rejected every offer. Finally, we decided it was worth a shot to see what it was all about and find out why. As it turned out, our mission and values aligned really well with what they (Open Season) were looking for the kids off the court and things just fell into place.
Q: What does this new partnership mean for current Open Season players?
Paul Savramis: It’s going to be very exciting for the Open Season teams as Rising Stars brings years of experience, contacts with other organizations, relationships with professional basketball players, and, most importantly, an educational aspect. Rising Stars has always placed student athletes’ education first and foremost. The best thing they liked is that Rising Stars is not looking to take away or change any of the many positive things they have accomplished.
All we will look to do is add.We will provide scholarships and other academic services.
Q: Have other partnerships been successful in the past?
Paul Savramis: Absolutely. Rising Stars has forged relationships with a number of other community outreach programs and we’ve expanded several times in recent years. One of the greatest benefits of moving into the South Shore area was becoming partners with the Great South Bay YMCA. Joining the YMCA family we can now offer our families yearly memberships to the YMCA. The YMCA also offers Rising Stars a base to be able to reach out to other organizations in the area for volunteer opportunities for our outreach program participants.
Q: Rising Stars is a basketball program. Why do you and your staff put so much emphasis on education?
Paul Savramis: Rising Stars has never been about basketball, per se. We use it as a tool to attract enroll and connect with the youth of our communities. Love of basketball is the glue that binds everything we are doing and needs to be done in the community. It;s not a love of English or Math that brings these at risk kids together. Basketball puts them in a position where they are more willing and able to listen and respond in a positive manner to tutoring and mentorship. Once we have their attention through sports, we can help them better understand the value of education and community.
We believe that extracurricular programs such as Rising Stars are a way to keep these kids on the right path and give the upcoming generation their best chance for success but for that to have a chance of happening we need to have something that keeps them there.
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