Fishburne Military School postgrad basketball coach Ed Huckaby had arranged for his players to lead a basketball clinic at the Waynesboro YMCA earlier in the week.
The clinic went off well, with the Caissons working with more than 50 Y youth-basketball players in a two-hour session.
That was it as far as obligations go. Even Huckaby was pleasantly surprised to hear from a group of players on Thursday that they were planning to head back to the Y to help out with scheduled youth-hoops games at the Y.
“This is all them,” said Huckaby, who himself pitched in as a referee for one of the scheduled games as members of his team assisted with coaching young players in the 8-and-under league at the Y.
“We just came down to help out. I got to ref a little bit, and we were coaching some. It’s fun to come down and give back to the community a little bit,” said Will Darley, a 6’7″ swingman who has signed a Division I scholarship with Maryland-Baltimore County.
Top recruit Kuran Iverson was also on hand. The 6’10” Memphis signee shot baskets with a group of youngsters on an adjacent court for more than an hour.
“I like doing these things. I’m good with kids. I just decided to come out and support them and help them to get better,” Iverson said.
Marcel Simon, a 6’6″ guard who has signed with Texas-Pan American, gained as much from the experience as the kids did.
“It’s great to be a role model for the kids. They can look up to us and see in a couple of years what they maybe can be. If they keep working hard, they can play at the level that Fishburne basketball presents,” Simon said.
Huckaby was proud of his guys for their initiative in reaching out to support the Y basketball program. The fourth-year coach preaches community involvement and civic responsibility to his players.
“We’ve got to make sure that we do everything we can to support our children and the communities we live in. I can’t control other communities, but I can contribute to the Waynesboro community,”: Huckaby said. “This means a lot – to our program, to our school, to our players. Hopefully our small way of giving back is something everyone can be happy with.”
Jeff Fife, the executive director at the YMCA, is among those quite happy with Huckaby and his team.
“It’s great having Fishburne here, because they’re not just phenomenal athletes, but they’re great adults, great young men,” Fife said. “Having the Fishburne kids here gives these kids something to look up to, not just for sports, but for the types of behaviors that we expect from them as they grow older. So them seeing these special athletes, Division I college kids, coming down here and spending time on Thursday nights with our kids, says a lot.”
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