{"id":5894,"date":"2011-04-21T14:38:59","date_gmt":"2011-04-21T18:38:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=5894"},"modified":"2011-04-21T14:50:20","modified_gmt":"2011-04-21T18:50:20","slug":"coaches-seek-to-draw-attention-to-basketball-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=5894","title":{"rendered":"Coaches Seek To Draw Attention To Basketball Players"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY IRIS B. HOLTON
\nSentinel City Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Reginald Burke, Sr.<\/strong> (pictured, right)<\/strong>, moved to Tampa, he took stock of his new surroundings. And, one of the first things he discovered was, that there was not much attention focused on young African American students wishing to play basketball.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was shocked. The kids are not getting the looks they should from scouts and we have some very talented kids in Hillsborough County. I noticed there were no gyms in certain areas where the kids could practice and many of the parents can\u2019t afford to pay recreation fees. I felt there were a lot of things that could be changed,\u201d Burke<\/strong> said.<\/p>\n

He met Armwood High School Coach Benjamin Bromley (pictured, left)<\/strong>, and the two set about creating an atmosphere to encourage youngsters interested in the sport.<\/p>\n

That was the beginning of the Bay Area Hurricanes. Formed in 2006, Bromley<\/strong> is the Head Coach and Burke <\/strong>is an Assistant Coach. The goal of the organization is to produce student athletes to play on a college level.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very concerned why this county is looked over for its basketball talent. We currently have 6 All-County or All-Conference players that have also produced in the classroom. These students are from various high schools and have no other help besides the AAU Coaches and a few high school coaches to help get them to college on scholarships,\u201d Bromley<\/strong> said.<\/p>\n

Burke<\/strong>, who has prior experience with the AAU for the D. C. Ballers team, is a native of Buffalo, New York. He said that while they have found some sponsors in the community, (such as the owner of Beef O\u2019Brady\u2019s in Seffner) the organization is largely non-funded. They hold\u00a0 fundraisers to help supply the needs of the team.<\/p>\n

The Bay Area Hurricanes are currently working with high school boys, ages 14-17. They are currently working on a 13-year-old and under group, as well as an 11-year-old and under group.<\/p>\n

Burke <\/strong>stated that they hope to have a girls\u2019 league in the future, but it\u2019s difficult to find girl leagues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not focused on basketball. I\u2019m focused on life experience. I want them to enjoy college, get a degree, and then if everything falls into place that\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bay Area Hurricanes currently have 6 seniors who are eligible for college. Those seniors are: Chris Smith, Matt Dennis, Ryan Bethony, Jamal Evans, Zak Bradley<\/strong>, and Reggie Burke, Jr.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last week, Reggie Burke, Jr.<\/strong>, became the first Strawberry Crest High School basketball player to sign a national letter of intent with the College of Coastal Georgia, in Brunswick, Georgia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor When Reginald Burke, Sr. (pictured, right), moved to Tampa, he took stock of his new surroundings. And, one of the first things he discovered was, that there was not much attention focused on young African American students wishing to play basketball. \u201cI was shocked. The kids are not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5894\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}