The inaugural GameBreakers, like the 2012 Final Four, is officially in the record books. What better person to provide a recap of this groundbreaking event than UWANTGAME Executive Director & Co-Founder Joe Branch.
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Our team worked really hard to provide a unique experience in New Orleans. We want to utilize this event-based strategy to motivate and educate community leaders, student-athletes, parents, sports professionals, and sports fans around the country on the work that needs to be done in the community. GameBreakers provided an intro to the importance of Building the Game Behind the Game ™. The work off the court is just as significant as the work on the court and we introduced this concept to the coaches and student-athletes in attendance.
During the Summit, student-athletes learned how vital accountability partners or mentors are and the important role they play. Our panel was excellent and provided a perspective on the influence of sport on males from childhood to the professional levels. We’re looking at ways of effectively impacting the pipeline that has been built. Guys had the opportunity to hear from college coaches, athletic directors, and even personnel from an NBA front office.
One of the coolest moments was getting on the Real Talk radio broadcast on Saturday morning with Wild Wayne. We thought we were getting bumped from the show, but fortunately we were granted 3+ minutes of valuable airtime. A coach from Southern University hit the road and came over as a result of the radio show.
Sitting in on the sessions was enlightening for me to learn from the facilitators but to also hear the answers to the questions from the student-athletes. During her session, Andrea Riggs asked attendees about their goals. The second young man to respond to the question innocently asked, “What’s a goal? I don’t have any goals.” I knew then that we were on the right track and there is work to be done.
Our format is cool in that we don’t try to preach to the youth and the coaches. We asked that our facilitators foster conversations. We utilize the game format because this is what student-athletes and coaches are accustomed to and can relate to. “Half-time” is about going in and talking thru adjustments, so this is where the panel discussion took place. This gave our guys an opportunity to hear from their own on how to be successful; it also allowed us to answer any questions they may have had.
We’re thankful to Open Society Foundations, Tides, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Admiral Center, and Partnership for Youth Development (New Orleans) for helping breathe life into GameBreakers. It took a lot of time, talent, and treasure to complete the initial mission. We also would like to thank our corporate partners, Gatorade and Microsoft, for their generous product donations to GameBreakers.
Walking into Dillard University on Sunday morning after planning and moving into execution mode was awesome. We didn’t know what to expect and we had to make some adjustments but God watched over the work we were doing and let us know we were doing the work we should. I always say, I can never predict or determine when or if the NCAA will pay student-athletes, but we can control if these guys are prepared for college and ready to go to the next level.
We hope to align with high school athletic leagues, college associations and professional leagues regarding this work and hope to be their partner on educating high school student-athletes and coaches. We worked diligently and as a result have a commitment to do more work in Detroit and hope to enlist more cities around the country. Work in Durham, NC is underway and selfishly I want to get the work started in Brooklyn, NY and Houston, TX. We’ll see what the future holds for the UWG team.
I’m thankful to my partners Micah Gilmer and Marcus Littles at Frontline Solutions for the partnership and collaboration.
