Basketball clinic empowers youth in Chatham

About 60 area children shot hoops and took tips from high school basketball players and coaches during a basketball clinic at the Boys & Girls Club at the Community Center at Chatham on Friday morning.

The event took place from 9 a.m. to noon and was led by Danville-based Project RISE (Restoring Integrity, Self-Esteem and Excellence), a program started by George Washington High School assistant basketball coach Brian Henderson.

A Danville native and graduate of Virginia State University, Henderson began RISE in 2010 as a project while interning for his master’s degree with the Rudi Johnson Foundation in Petersburg. Its director, Janice Johnson, advised him to create a program for the foundation.

“It was the best thing that ever happened to me,” Henderson, 27 and RISE’s program director, said during an interview at the basketball clinic Friday.

Henderson, who earned a bachelor’s degree and his master’s in sports management from VSU, learned to build a program and hold charitable educational activities and workshops for youths from his internship.

After starting RISE in 2010, Henderson, a 2002 GW graduate who attended VSU on a basketball scholarship, brought the program to Danville this year. RISE is under the Rudi Johnson Foundation, a non-profit organization.

“I wanted to bring Project RISE down here to help the youth with academic support, community involvement and leadership development,” Henderson said.

The project was formed to help young people make changes in their lives also through educational activities and athletic involvement.

“We want to help our youth academically and use sports as a motivator for academics,” Henderson said.

RISE’s activities and programs include leadership workshops, college tours, tutoring, youth basketball camps, Amateur Athletic League and the Pickup-A-Leaf program, where volunteers rake leaves from yards for the elderly.

Friday’s three-hour event at the Community Center at Chatham was an example of Henderson’s vision. The basketball clinic, organized along with the area Boys & Girls clubs, was for youths ages 8-14 and included students from Pittsylvania County and Danville.

Chatham High School basketball coach Barry Mayo was at the workshop along with players from GW and Chatham.

Cindy Martin, unit director for the Boys & Girls Club of Chatham, said the event is an opportunity to build her organization.

“We want to get membership up in 2012,” Martin said.

The event was convenient since the Boys & Girls Club has the facility to hold it, she said. The clinic — a first for the organization’s Chatham branch — also keeps the children active, Martin said.

The basketball clinic provides exercise and fights obesity for children with nothing to do when they’re out of school, said David Thomas, unit director for the Boys & Girls Club of the Danville Area.

“They learn basketball, come together with friends and see different role models,” Thomas said.

Chris Hodnett, 12, a seventh grader at Chatham Middle School, said he participated in the event because “I love basketball.”

“I love to shoot and have fun,” said Hodnett, who plays guard and forward for Chatham Middle School.