NEWSLETTER
Wednesday, January 15, 2024
What Martin Luther King Jr.'s Message Means to Us:
Sports have always been a head of their time when it comes to racial integration. While the tensions in the United States continued to grow and escalate well into the 60s, pioneers like the inventor of basketball himself, James Naismith was mentoring and tutoring the father of fast break basketball John McLendon despite the University of Kentucky trying to keep him out of the school altogether. In 1944 McLendon would lead a "secret game" between his team, North Carolina College for Negros (now North Carolina Central University), and a collection of white, former college stars from Duke University Medical School. Then, in 1950-51 NBA season, Chuck Cooper, Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton and Earl Lloyd would all be drafted breaking the racial barrier in the league.
(https://andscape.com/features/excerpt-basketball-a-love-story-battle-for-racial-equality/)
(https://www.nba.com/news/how-chuck-cooper-nat-clifton-earl-lloyd-changed-nba-racial-integration)
Prior to integration in the MLB, there was the Negro Baseball League that featured many stars such as Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, Cool Papa Bell, Martín Dihigo. Then, with the passing of MLB Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis, one of the main opponents to integrating the MLB, in 1944 history would be made with Jackie Robinson being drafted by the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking the color barrier. (https://www.mlb.com/history/negro-leagues/history)
The Civil Rights Movement that was led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. began in 1954, 3 years after the NBA was integrated and 10 years after Major League Baseball. It is interesting to note that despite these Black American players being on these teams, they faced many hardships during their time playing still trying exist in a world outside of sports that was still segregated.
Professional soccer, while completely integrated at this point still struggles with racial tension in a lot countries that outside of the US that have professional level teams competing all across the nation. However, the MLS which is the professional mens soccer league in America was founded in 1993, 30 years after the civil rights movement led by Dr. King. The WNBA was founded in 1996 and the WPF (Women's Professional Fastpitch) was founded in 2022.
Sports continue to serve as a sounding board of racial, gender and social equality to this day. Despite the many steps forward we have taken as a nation to bring people together, we are still working on the tensions that exist within this sports industry, in the nation and even in our own communities. May we take sometime today to remember Martin Luther King Jr.'s words that continue to encourage us as we work to improve our community to be more accepting, inclusive and loving for every person we meet.
Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be.
This is the interrelated structure of reality.
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
PROGRAM UPDATES:
VOLUNTEER COACH OF THE WEEK!
Congratulations to Kim Wurzburg who has been selected as Del Riv's very first volunteer coach of the week, a new tradtion at Del Riv. Coach Wurzburg has been coaching in Del Riv's Basketball League since its rebirth in 2021-22. She usually coach's on two teams, she also coaches soccer in the fall and softball and baseball in the spring. Her dedication to her teams has been admirable. From working with her players no matter what their skill level is to improve their game to bringing her teams snacks after games and making her players feel like a family. At Del Riv we always want to encourage parents or other family members of our athletes to step up and coach teams, Coach Wurzburg has gone above and beyond what it means to be a recreational and instructional youth sports coach. Last week at our first basketball Sunday, one of our referees made a comment about players who had been on her team for the past 2 years, noticing the improvement that they have made since starting in this league.
THANK YOU COACH! WE APPRECIATE ALL YOU HAVE DONE FOR THE CHILDREN AND FAMILIES AT DEL RIV!
SPRING SPORTS REGISTRATION IS OPEN!
You can now sign up for Baseball, Softball and Tee-Ball on our website: CLICK HERE
Sign-Ups are open from now until March 4th, 2024.
Make sure to register as soon as you can!
FIELD CLEAN-UP DATES!
This year's field clean up dates for Spring Sports are as follows:
Whomsley Field - March 9, 2024
West Ave - March 16, 2024
Field of Dreams - March 16, 2024
More details to sign-up for field clean-ups to come soon! As always we appreciate any volunteers who spend their time helping to maintain our facilities for the youth to participate in sports in our community!
2023-24 WINTER BASKETBALL
DEL RIV NIGHT!
Come out on February 5th to watch Riverside Boys Basketball play against LEAP Academy. The Rams are coached by Carmine Cesare, who also helps coach our mini's program. Riverside High School was a major factor in helping our league get back up in running in 2021-22 by allowing us gym use on Sundays, despite a very packed schedule for their interscholastic sports teams along with all the other things the school has going on. We would love to support the program like they have supported us. You also have seen volunteers like Sophomore Cameron Brown, running the clock or keeping score at the gym over the past 2 years for Del Riv game days. Cameron is currently a starter for the boys basketball team.
We hope that you will join us in supporting the high school basketball team at RHS. The game will be at Riverside High School at 5:15 PM. More details about how to sign-up as well as ticket costs will be available soon!
LET'S PACK THE STANDS AT RHS!
"If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk,
if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward."
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.