MLK HS Named Football Kings of New York by BBC

Martin Luther King Jr High School has a troubled history. It hit the news in 2002, when a student shot two fellow students, seriously injuring them. Shortly afterwards, it became one of the first in New York City to be closed due to low performance and high drop-out rates. The building now houses six smaller schools. Their 2,400 students still have to pass through a metal detector and file past two uniformed police officers to get to their classrooms.
But its boys' football team, still playing under the MLK banner, is a success by anyone's measure. Not only has it won 12 out of 14 city championships, its players also have one of highest graduation rates and are regularly awarded scholarships to prestigious colleges.
The man behind the success of the team is Martin Jacobson, aka Coach Jake



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I am Blessed...

From the first moment my tiny fingers dribbled a ball and assisted my dad to a rim-breaking alley-oop on my Little Tikes basketball hoop, I had a smile on my face. It was clear to me and probably crystal clear to my parents that we needed a stronger rim and more importantly that basketball was going to be an integral part of my life. Now fast forward almost two decades, and here I am still dribbling a ball and still wearing that same smile. I guess some things really do never change :o)



Not a day passes here in Holland that I don’t stop and remind myself that I am truly blessed. Playing basketball overseas has been one of the most rewarding and life-shaping experiences thus far in my life because I have come to learn what I’m made of and what really matters to me. When I signed my first contract, my thoughts were consumed by the opportunity to compete at the next level and develop my skills as a player. Never did I imagine I would find a home away from home, meet people that would treat me like family, take weekend trips to various countries, learn some Finnish and Dutch and be able to speak them, cross the Arctic Circle and sit on the real Santa Claus’ lap from the North Pole, set foot in the massive Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, teach a few economics classes at a university in Holland, cruise the streets of Rome on a vespa, walk through the hallways of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, admire with my own eyes Michelangelo’s masterpiece in the Sistine Chapel, and the list goes on…



I am certain that basketball is and will always be a passion of mine because it is so much more than a game. It has granted me infinite opportunities both on and off the court and has also taught me more than any book could about life and all its valuable lessons. It is now my third season playing professionally overseas since graduating college. I have played one and a half seasons in Finland, half a season in Sweden and am currently closing out a season in Holland. In the past three years, I’ve been on a team that finished dead-last in our league winning barely a handful of games, and I’ve also been a part of squad that was crowned National Champions and rarely saw a loss. I’ve had to practice three times a day for one team and also only three times a week for another. I’ve played in front of sold-out crowds and in gyms where you could barely hear the ball bounce because it was so loud, and I’ve also played in front of empty bleachers and in gyms that you could hear every squeak of every sneaker. I’ve been on teams with multiple international players and also been the only foreigner as an American. Looking back on it all, I can say I’ve seen both ends of the spectrum from a player’s perspective. The best part of that realization is that every single one of my experiences has contributed to who I am right in this moment, and I am grateful for the hardest, most impossible times as much as the happiest, indescribably amazing ones.



Fortunately for me, the learning and growing doesn’t stop when I step off the court. This season in Holland has been a testament to that too. During the days, I’ve been working at a primary school as a member of the “overblijf-team,” in which I watch the kids during their recess and monitor their lunch period. Also, before my practices in the evenings, I have been assistant coaching our U20 girls’ team and taking Dutch lessons with some of the foreign players of our men’s team. Every day presents a new challenge, and every day I look forward to it!



I have and will always love being able to lace up my sneakers and go to work on the court, but I’ve also come to love and appreciate everything basketball has enabled me to learn about life and myself. I can’t say it enough…I am blessed!



Can't wait till this summer at SportsChallenge. -Coach Megan Griffith

"Come spend a day with Coach K!"

SportsChallenge Coach Kizmahr Grell currently plays professional basketball for the Rotterdam Challengers in the Netherlands. Here is a day in the life of Coach Grell...

6:45am: Hit snooze button on alarm going off for 8am practice.
6:50am: Hit snooze button...again.
7:00am: Wakened by teammates who live in the upstairs apartment.
7:05am: Put a shine on my pearly whites with crest...media might be stalking me again.
7:10am: Prepare All-American breakfast...peanut butter and banana sandwich.
7:30am: Out the door. The weather is actually lovely this morning. I think
to myself "what a perfect day for an afternoon saunter around the
neighborhood." [Editor's note: Most of us have never heard Coach Kiz use the word saunter or lovely but apparently this is the way he speaks overseas.]
8:00am: Practice starts...250 MADE shots. 50 from 5 spots. 100 free throws.
9:00am: Practice continues...go through team sets and lots of defense.
10:45am: Team Lift...I tend to do the beach workout in the middle of winter. The beach
workout consists of reps of chest and abs. Occasionally calves. [Editor's Note: Beach workout?? I thought it was freezing over there...how 'bout some lunges?!]
1:00pm: This time is essential. It's my recovery period. I catch up with shows in the states such as One Tree Hill, Scrubs, Heroes, The Office, The Hills, and the new smash hit Paris Hilton BFF. To stay articulate and to keep up with the witty banter between Coaches Kodis, Molly and I, I also read. I am currently reading Homer's "Odyssey." I also check facebook to see how many friendly insults Coach Molly and Kodis have written on my wall. By the time I am caught up with my shows and reading, it is time to get ready for...practice...again.
7:00pm: The night practices are always packed with fun stuff like suicides and full
court sprints. These practices we usually play a lot of 5 on 5 to get ready for games.
10:00pm: I arrive home and shower. [Editor's Note: Finally!!] Prepare food only to be reminded of what a terrible cook I am.
11:30pm: Fall asleep. Yes, the hard work pays off.

Coach Kizmahr Grell not only coaches at SportsChallenge but he also attended SportsChallenge as a student-athlete!

Malamo's SportsChallenge Experience... Good or Bad?

SportsChallenge was the best way I could've started off the summer of 2009 and my school year, especially since I was going to start Junior Year in September. I honestly thought it was going to be a chance for me to improve on my soccer skills and that's it, but as cliché as this might sound, this PROGRAM made me a stronger person, on and off the field; someone who can deal with things in a different manner. Pre- Sports Challenge, if I was loosing a soccer game I would transmit negative energy to my team and get really angry and be overcome with a feeling of being defeated, which I loathe.



Post- Sports Challenge, I found myself automatically taking deep breaths and telling myself that I can and should NOT give up. This made that defeated feeling go away. Unfortunately, I think the getting angry and giving up part of me is such a big part of me that just a week couldn't fix in totality, but that's reality. Fortunately, it did make me see that the way I handled things on the field was not a great way to resolve things, so I thank the program for helping me recognize it and for giving me ways that I could resolve any situation.



The deep breaths were my number one solution, and that helps even when I'm bombarded with tests and homework and projects. My school's pretty challenging, and with it being Junior year, I had so much on my shoulders and in my mind; Malamo, keep your grades up, Focus on your SAT's, Get to soccer practice on time, Don't let this girl score! People might think that I'm over exaggerating, but I'm really not. Seriously, starting in September my schedule went a little something like this: Monday- Friday: School (During lunch: getting as much homework as I can, that's been assigned, done) , School Soccer, Go Home, Eat, and on Tuesday's and Thursdays: Club Soccer Practice. Saturday: SAT Prep, Community Service and Club Soccer Game(s) Sunday: SAT Prep, Club Soccer Game(s), Homework and Hanging out to get away from academic things and even soccer. I even took time on Sunday nights to just breathe, like we did two times in the auditorium. This helped clear my head and think about the following week in peace, instead of having everything running in my head like a tornado.



If I had the power, I think I would make SportsChallenge a mandatory program for everyone to take at least once. It combines what you love to do with learning to be a leader. It teaches you not just about leadership in your sport, but it also applies to the real world by default. I have to say that without SportsChallenge, I could've balanced everything, BUT I give this program credit for helping me NOT freak out, not even once throughout it. I did everything to the best of my ability, because of the self confidence that the program instilled in me. Now we're in February, I can say I've survived more than half of Junior year and it went VERY smoothly and successfully! I don't know if it would've turned out that way had I not participated in the program. Thank you so much Sports Challenge! I feel the need to add that the program introduced me to amazing people that I have many great memories with that started during the program and now continue outside of SportsChallenge. These will hopefully be life long friendships. So, thank you for the memories, the friendships, the skills, the confidence and the ability to handle ANYTHING that crosses my path, with a different attitude that I believe is getting better all the time.

Sincerely,
Malamo Koutsogiannis :)