Kenwood Academy is located on the South Side of Chicago at 51st and Blackstone. We have a one word mission at our school that applies not only to our academic departments, but also our athletic department......"College." While many of our students are headed in that direction, others need a little extra incentive. Our athletic department can be used as means to end if we have the proper funding. In my case, I realized early on in my teaching and coaching career how important basketball was to many of these kids. By holding our athletes accountable for their grades and behavior, myself and others, have seen a positive effect on our players grades and our overall school climate. We have chosen to stick to are academic standards and behavioral expectations, regardless of what it may do to our winning percentage and have seen enormous improvement in our kids throughout the year. We believe all of us can do even better if we were to have the proper funding.
Speaking on behalf of the basketball program, we currently are short on equipment, specifically, basketballs and uniforms. The bleachers in our gymnasium are the same ones that were there when the school was built in the early sixties. We have one semi-working scoreboard and only receive transportation funds for conference games. As a result, we were not able to schedule many games outside of CPS conference play.
Since we have learned the importance of using basketball and other sports as motivation, we recognize the need to make the department more attractive. By improving our resources and facilities, we know that we can make the carrot that we dangle in front of our kids far more meaningful, and thus we will see better results in the areas of academic performance and personal discipline.
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