Rise to the Top
Rise to the Top was started three years ago in Burlington, VT to provide the local youth in the community a positive sports experience and a safe place to play basketball, do their homework, and interact with other kids. The organization has worked with more than 400 kids through a variety of programming including league play, 3 on 3 tournaments, and providing free clinics to Burlington’s inner-city kids.
While learning the fundamentals of the game is very important, Rise to the Top emphasizes education and being a student first. They have a scholarship program where each child’s parent must write a letter explaining their circumstances as well as provide copies of their child’s school grades. If any kids do not meet the grade requirements, they are able to join the program on a trial period and must provide weekly progress reports from their teacher showing an improvement in grades. They are also required to do homework in the gym rather than participate in practice until their grades meet the requirements. Additionally, Rise to the Top runs a mentorship program where high school students come back to mentor the middle school students, and the middle school students help mentor the elementary school students. This program helps the kids work on their leadership skills, and allows them to apply to become Jr. Coaches within the program.
The philosophy of Rise to the Top is also centered around coaching development. All participating coaches must become certified through USA Basketball and familiarize themselves with the Jr. NBA curriculum and practice plans. This allows their coaches to teach the game at any level and integrate the Jr. NBA philosophy through all programming. Rise to the Top preaches that great coaches create great leaders, and strives to help all kids who come through their program to become productive members of society and to achieve their goals. The coaches run two free clinics every month and provide kids with drills they can do outside of practice without a court. They also encourage multisport participation and do not penalize kids for missing practices due to other sport commitments.
Rise to the Top hopes to own a facility in the future for kids to come learn basketball and life skills, in order to “rise to the top” of any goal they have. In the meantime, they plan to use the Under Armour gift card to help provide equipment to the school gym where many of their participants attend school.
