College Park Skyhawks Coaches And Players Team Up With West Clayton Elementary School For Youth Mentorship Experience 

All Coaches, Players, and Basketball Operations Staff Helped Serve as Mentors to Students

COLLEGE PARK, Ga. – On Monday morning, the College Park Skyhawks joined West Clayton Elementary School for a youth mentorship experience for fourth and fifth grade boys, aimed to inspire and teach each student the value of leadership and character development in their community.

All players, coaches, and basketball operations staff from the College Park Skyhawks participated in the event this morning to serve as mentors to each student, which was run by the educators and parent liaison of West Clayton Elementary School.

“Today was a great day for our players and staff to interact and make a positive impact on the students at West Clayton Elementary,” said Aaron Evans, General Manager of the College Park Skyhawks. “It’s important for us to give back to the Southside community and support them the way they support our team throughout the season. Thank you to West Clayton for partnering with us and including us in the event today.”

The experience started with a welcome from West Clayton Elementary, followed by a leadership workshop session. Students sat down with either a player or coach in small groups, where they discussed different scenarios of leadership, set goals of how they can be a leader in life, and finished with an exercise that emphasized communication, teamwork and collaboration.

The students then broke out into different skill stations, where players and coaches taught each group the fundamentals of basketball, including layups, ball handling, shooting, passing and rebounding.

To conclude the event, students shared what they learned from the program, while players and coaches shouted out examples of leadership they saw during the clinic.

“This was an incredible day for all of our educators and students who participated and is something we have never done before” said West Clayton Elementary School Assistant Principal Zakiyya Whittle. “To have some of our young men not just be around others they look up to, but actually sit down and talk with them about lessons in leadership really made an impact on every single one of our scholars today.”

The Skyhawks are in the second year of ‘Colli’s Classroom’ program at West Clayton Elementary, aimed to impact the school’s 400 students and 60 staff members throughout the entire school year. The program has included events such as supply drops, multiple PE takeovers and reading days for all grades, a National Girls and Women in Sports Day Clinic ran by Skyhawks assistant coaches, a Drop Everything and Read event where the team donated 500 books to the school, and Career Day.

To learn more about the Skyhawks’ community initiatives, including Colli’s Classroom, follow @CPSkyhawks on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram or visit cpskyhawks.com.