The registration fee for Garden City Basketball is still just $50. NO LATE FEES.

Applications for Garden City Basketball are available on our website www.gardencitybasketball.org or you may signup online.

Our third FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS session for Boys 7th Grade and higher will be Friday December 4th at 7:00pm at Stewart School.

Congratulations to Brandon Pizzingrillo, Joseph Pizzingrillo, and Kyle Skramko for winning their age groups at the NBA FIT event. The NBA FIT event is similar to “punt pass and kick” for football and the “pitch hit and run” events for baseball. The NBA FIT event sponsored by Singular consists of five challenges (jump rope, defensive shuffle, line sprints, passing, ball handling) where a contestant has 30 seconds to perform each activity. A point system (number of times you jump rope in 30 seconds) determines the winner. We’ll see if any of our local winners qualify for the NY Knicks regional.

For our participants that missed our annual trip to the Professional Athletic Performance Center we had Saturday November 14th, we will make free trail coupons available for another Speed, Agility, and Quickness session. This awesome opportunity is FREE to the participants who are registered for our program. Please select the PAPC icon/link on our website for more information on this excellent part of our program.

The regular intramural game day season is expected to start Saturday, December 5th and run through March 6th, 2010.

The Garden City Basketball intramural program was unfortunately allocated a 4pm start time by the Village of Garden City. We have challenged this unfair decision and are hopeful as we proceed through the process. Until such time, we will have our:

• K-1-2 Clinic from 4:00pm to 5:30pm,

• Boys & girls 3rd and 4th grade 5:30pm to 6:30pm, and

• Boys & girls 5th grade and higher 6:30pm to 7:30pm

The focus of Garden City Basketball is our intramural program. Our greater mission is to provide a wonderful experience for all of our participants so that a love for the game of basketball will be nurtured and developed.

Garden City Basketball is a proud member of the JrNBA/JrWNBA, iHoops, and the AAU, respected national youth sports organizations, and our program follows their rules, policies, and procedures.

Saturday clinics for Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade Boys & Girls. Our nationally recognized clinic uses 8ft baskets and stations of different foundational skills & drills. Professionals recommend staying at a lower basket as not to create poor shooting mechanics in younger players. Basket height at a young age needs to be set for all players not for the limited few who can use the higher basket. If a second grader would like to “play-up” on a 3rd/4th grade intramural team we always have made this accommodation.

Boys intramural “Friday Night Lights” for the 7th grade and higher. “Friday Night Lights - Streetball” is for Boys 7th thru 12th Grade and held on Friday night at Stewart School. This is the longest running program of its type for this age group in the village and many of the older boys have enjoyed 10 years of pick-up basketball with Island Garden refs and Coach Skramko. This program was originally formed 10 years ago as an “anti-drug and alcohol” alternative. There were teams, uniforms and formal games. The offering has evolved over the years to what it is today. A relaxed format where teenage boys play lots of basketball the way they want to play. Last season the boys generally played about 90 minutes of hoops followed by half court “knock out”. All other clinics and games offered by Garden City Basketball are scheduled on Saturday.

If there are any questions, please contact John Skramko at jskramko@optonline.net or 746-9659.