Showtime Basketball, which is an Australian company organising tours for visiting college basketball teams, gave our community at Helping Hoops Richmond the opportunities to meet the Oklahoma State University (OSU) women’s basketball team on Thursday August 10. OSU and Helping Hoops share a loose connection through Tegan Cunningham, who has been our ambassador for many years and attended OSU before returning to play professionally in Australia.
The OSU team and coaches helped Coach Steve and the volunteers deliver drills to the group while making many new friends. Everyone was impressed with their positive attitude, energy and willingness to step out of their comfort zone and embrace our community in the limited time we had together.
OSU player Jentry Holt put these words together on the experience for the OSU website,
“We finished up the second day by spending some time with the kids at Helping Hoops Youth Clinic. Helping Hoops is a charity that runs free basketball programs for underprivileged children. They welcomed us with open arms and to say we had a blast would be an understatement! These kids had little to nothing and were the most kind-hearted and cheerful people I’ve ever met. During our time we participated in games and helped run a few drills. We went there to help them, but in turn they helped us right back.”
Before leaving to prepare for their game against the Waverley Falcons that evening, many of the OSU players and coaches approached to make cash donations as a token of their support. Although unexpected, these donations will be used to help make Helping Hoops Richmond even better, and we truly appreciate the giving nature of all involved.
The OSU visit is the third such experience organised by Showtime Basketball. We would like to thank Kelvin Taylor and his team for including us in their plans and creating some great memories for our kids and community.
To learn more about Showtime Basketball, please visit showtimebasketball.com.au.
