Basketball nonprofit bounces into the classroom

After about a year in the nonprofit game, Jordan Harris still says that the Pickup Game, a charity that uses basketball as a means to mentor at-risk youths, is his passion.

“It’s what I’ve always wanted to do,” Harris said. “We all love helping people.”

The Pickup Game is a nonprofit group that provides an opportunity for youths to play basketball all day in the summer, coupled with mentoring sessions. It was started in July.

Harris’ nonprofit is starting to branch out – off the basketball court and into the classroom. Harris is calling the program the Pickup Grades.

The organization has partnered with USD 259 to provide one-on-one mentoring sessions to at-risk student-athletes, “speaking about the balance of home life, school life and athletics,” Harris said.

“A lot of kids go to school just to play football or basketball,” he said. “We’re teaching these kids to play your sports so you can get an education in college down the line.”

Harris’ brother played basketball at Wichita State University in 2005 and 2006. He received one-on-one help from a person who “would meet with him every week to go over every class in depth,” Harris said. He said that is the kind of mentoring he hopes the Pickup Grades will be able to perform.

“I have plenty of cousins and really, really close friends who played basketball in high school, but they were academically ineligible because all they cared about was playing basketball,” Harris said. “Even though sports is important to them, we want to make sure the grades are even more important.”

Harris said the nonprofit originally was envisioned as continuing its basketball mentorship year-round; however, the daytime hours conflicted with school time.

The Pickup Game had higher-than-expected attendance last summer, Harris said, and he hopes bringing in additional guest speakers will bolster its numbers even more. Guest speakers typically come in once every week to speak to attendees about “different things kids in high school or middle school face, like bullying, college choices or talking about how to get into college,” Harris said.

“We plan on having far more guest speakers – last summer we had one guest speaker, and now we’re going to have one every week,” he said. “We’re trying to get Coach (Gregg) Marshall to speak to the kids. We’re trying to find people who are doing positive things in the community.”

Adults who are looking to join a pickup basketball league can sign up with the PUG League, which will begin on March 28. Funds from registration will go toward the nonprofit’s youth programming, Harris said.

Registration is $250 per team.

For more information about the Pickup Game or to sign up for the PUG League, visit www.thepug.net.

This story was originally published March 15, 2015 at 8:22 PM with the headline "Basketball nonprofit bounces into the classroom."