I recently caught up with some of the staff members from New Heights NYC - Nick Blatchford (Founder and Executive Director), Ted Smith (Program Director), and Kimani Young (Athletic Director) - a non-profit educational organization that seeks to inspire inner-city youth to be leaders, champions, and student-athletes, and to empower them to be successful in school, college and life. New Heights creates opportunities and provides support for promising youth to fulfill their potential in the classroom, on the court and in the community.
Take us back to the inception of New Heights NYC. As a former NYC public school teacher, what provoked you to start a non-profit organization that focuses on academics and athletics? What were some of the early challenges that stood in your way to get the program off the ground?
Nick: New Heights was started as a response to a need. During my time as a teacher and coach at IS 90 in Washington Heights, it became clear to me that young people need two things to be successful: support and structure. And talented young athletes, beyond what they can do on the field or court, often don't get either. They too often get exploited for their athletic talent at the expense of their academic and social development. They also grow up with a mindset of 'NBA or bust,' which almost always ends up as 'bust'.
New Heights was founded to provide structure and support - academic and social - that will allow young athletes to use the game of basketball to enhance and improve their lives and afford them opportunities, rather than for the game (and some people around the game) to use them.
There were a ton of challenges when we first began. First, the NYC youth basketball community did not immediately accept us. We were the new guys on the block and nobody made it easy on us to build our program. Second, running a program that balances STUDENT with athlete was not widely accepted by kids, even some parents and coaches in our program. For some, all that mattered was basketball. Third, we were intent on not just building a basketball program, but an organization that supports the holistic development of the young athlete from the inner city - on the court, in the classroom and in terms of their character. We aim to set them up for success in life when the ball stops bouncing. Building a basketball program is one thing, but building, organizing, staffing and funding an organization that is built to last poses significant challenges.
New Heights appears to stand out in the AAU landscape because of its authentic emphasis on academics and teaching life skills, which includes an intensive summer program at the heralded Riverdale Academy. What's a typical day look like at the Academy for NH student-athletes? How does the Academy and NH's program prepare student-athletes to succeed in life?
Ted: The Summer Academy is a continuation of the year round program at New Heights. The Summer Academy is an intensive four week program for middle school student-athletes that takes place on the campus of the Riverdale Country School in the Bronx. The participants spend the morning in the classroom taking Math, ELA and elective courses that all use basketball as the focus of the curriculum. After lunch, the student-athletes spend the afternoon in the gym working on basketball skills and fundamentals.
The Summer Academy helps middle school student-athletes prepare for the next year in school, and it also exposes and prepares student-athletes for the high school process in 8th grade. A vital part of the New Heights program is providing high school and college placement support, and the Summer Academy is a time (at a relatively early age) that student-athletes and families can start focusing on high school, and ultimately, college selection.
Your Summer in the City event at St. John's is quickly approaching; What marquee names (teams and players) have confirmed their participation? Is this event open to fans?
Kimani: We are extremely excited to be hosting the Summer In The City event out at St. John's. We have received confirmation from a majority of the elite teams in the Northeast including the NJ Playaz, Metro Hawks, Juice All-Stars, LI Panthers, NY Elite, Sports University, Westchester Hawks, Connecticut Basketball Club, LI Lightning, New Heights and Team NJABC. We'll have a tremendous collection of talent participating in this event with many of the players being ranked in the Top 100 in their respective classes by many of the scouting services and websites. You can look forward to watching Jayvaughn Pinkston, Ashton Pankey, Devon Collier, Isaiah Epps, Sterling Gibbs, Jermaine Sanders, Angel Nunez, Maurice Harkless, Sidiki Johnson and a host of many other talented young players.
I recently posed a question on Facebook and Twitter seeking to learn more about the high-level problems that exist in youth basketball. The recurrent theme amongst respondents was poor coaching quality. a) Do you agree? b) Does New Heights offer any training and development for their coaches or outside coaches?
Kimani: Absolutely, I've maintained for years that the fact that there is no pre-requisite to become a youth basketball coach has damaged the fabric of our game from a coaching, playing and participation standpoint.
There are a great deal of coaches out there who are doing great youth work with our kids but need to be trained on how to be effective youth basketball coaches. New Heights has recognized this issue and will be hosting a Coaches Academy this fall for our coaches as well as outside coaches with a number of the country's top college coaches including Jay Wright, Billy Donovan, Sean Miller, Buzz Williams, and Norm Roberts confirmed to speak and lend their years of coaching experience to youth, high school and college coaches in this area.
You've come a long way since you were housed under the Children's Aid Society and I'm sure much continued success is still in front of you. How do you define success, in general, for NH, and what does ultimate success look like for the organization?
Nick: That's a really good question. We measure a series of program outcomes for our student-athletes. First, we measure academic performance and year to year advancement in school. Second, we measure high school graduation and college matriculation rates. Those things are important to us. Many of our kids are high level D1 recruits, but most are not. It is our responsibility to ALL kids and families in our program to help them access the very best options and opportunities to receive a college education, regardless of how heavily they are recruited.
On a broader level, we are going to be exploring ways to better serve this population of kids - promising young athletes from the inner city - and that could include other sports, scaling our model beyond NYC and/or looking at school-based solutions for enhancing the learning and developmental experience for the kids we work with. There is no shortage of need and we want to make the biggest and broadest impact possible.
