For more than a year and a half, thanks to the efforts of the NCAA and many community organizations, the kids at San Antonio’s Eastside Boys and Girls Club are now able to play on a state-of-the-art outdoor basketball court.
Members of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Commission got to see the court, known as the Legacy Dream Court, for themselves on Tuesday at an event hosted by the San Antonio Sports Organization and the Boys and Girls Club of San Antonio.
With the city aiming to host the Women’s Final Four in 2029, 2030 or 2031, the commission toured the Alamodome and its final stop in Alamo City was the Martin Luther King Drive. It was the Eastside Boys and Girls Club. city leader.
The Legacy Dream Court will be inaugurated in April 2021, at the same time San Antonio hosted the 2021 Women’s Final Four at the Alamodome. Construction of the court was funded by donations from the NCAA, Nancy Lieberman Charities, Santikos Foundation, and San Antonio Sports.
Ada Saenz, chief executive of San Antonio’s Boys and Girls Club, said Legacy Dream Court was built on the site of an old tennis court that the club could not use due to its condition. Told.
“Thanks to the support of the NCAA and community, we were able to transform this previously unavailable space into this absolutely gorgeous court,” Saenz said. “Now the kids play basketball here every day and enjoy a variety of engaging activities.”
The NCAA has helped build legacy courts in cities that have hosted the men’s and women’s Final Four tournaments. When San Antonio hosted his 2018 Men’s Final Four, a legacy court was built at the Higgs Carter King Gifted and Talent Academy on the city’s West Side.
Saenz said the court is not only for the boys and girls club kids, but also for the community as a whole when the club is not open.
“We’re lining up people to make sure they’re first at this gate, so they can get the team out here,” Saenz said. rice field.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, committee members were unable to visit the court last year while in town for the Women’s Final Four.
Jill Shields, Deputy Athletic Director of Kansas State University and member of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Commission, said: “San Antonio has done a great job for us.”
Russ Bookbinder, president and chief executive officer of San Antonio Sports, said Legacy Dream Court is a San Antonio Sports facility that will make the playgrounds and facilities of the city’s elementary and middle schools available to the community. It said it was part of the School Parks initiative. Eastside Boys and Girls Clubs is he one of 37 locations around San Antonio that are part of the School Parks program.
Members of the women’s basketball team from UTSA and Incarnate Ward University were due to provide a basketball clinic for 20 children at the nearby Martin Luther King Jr. Academy, but it was canceled due to downpours.
Instead, one of the players, UTSA’s Hayley Atwood, spoke to kids about following their dreams and making them come true.
“If you have the chance to go to college, make sure you do your job and do what you have to do so that one day you will be in the position that everyone else here is.” said Atwood.
She also spoke at an event attended by UTSA Women’s Basketball Coach Karen Aston and UIW Women’s Basketball Coach Jeff Dow.
