On January 27, New Leader Hoops had their first Junior Knicks league game of the season and their was also a sneaker donation given to the kids.
They had a 10 and under game at the Red Hook Recreation Center against a team from a Recreation Center in a different neighborhood. All of the 12 kids got pizza after the game and before the game there was a practice at the Miccio Center.
The New Leaders Hoops participants got NYC Parks Department shorts and reversible blue and white Knicks jerseys before the game. Before the game they got into layup lines on the right and left side. They then played four six-minute quarters.
The coaches encouraged the kids after the game told them to have fun.
Andre Richey, who is the founder of New Leader Hoops, has been working with the kids who were playing today for over five years. He is from Red Hook and grew up going to the Miccio Center.
“I know all of the kids from the community,” Richey said. “I know their parents. Some of them are my nephews.”
Richey does a lot of events in the community so people will reach out and ask if he has anything going on. People will find out about events he is doing through checking his website and social media (newleader_hoops on Instagram).
New Leader Hoops is committed to serving the youth in education, basketball and community. His goal for the participants in New Leader Hoops is for the kids to get a free education.
He wants to give the kids a safe space to be off of the streets.
“Some of these kids do not come from two parent households so we provide something that is part of their village to keep them guided and off the streets. Whether they need sneakers, whether they need clothes or need someone to talk to.”
They are trying to impact the kids in ways outside of just basketball.
“My organization is providing something the community has given me when I was young,” Richey said. “We are trying to repay that with the services we are doing.”
As of now, New Leaders Hoops practices twice a week and then they play a game against different recreation center on the weekend through the Junior Knicks.
They will soon meet a third day in the week. Two days will be practice and a third day will be homework help and studying different projects that the kids are interested in doing.
There is a new computer media lab next to the gym at the Recreation Center that will be finished soon. They will use the media lab two days a week.
GTA and rock star game will sponsor equipment and people will come to teach software programs and editing.
There will also be New Leaders Dance team soon for girls ages 5-14. Richey is a father of a girl who likes to dance. He wants to do something for girls who do not play basketball.
Richey is also a co-owner of Red Hook Collective. There are five owners who started it together.
It started since about two years ago he was doing an event in the neighborhood and asked if anyone wanted to sponsor it. The turn out was great with over 400 people and over 400 gifts.
“We came together, myself and four other entrepreneurs in the community, since we all have our own individual businesses and organizations, we thought we could put our collective minds together and come up with a business for our community,” Richey said about Red Hook Collective.
The goal was to combine their resources and bring their networking and minds together and make sure that they do something that is community driven. They LLC’d the Red Hook Collective name and it started two years ago.
New Leader Hoops did the Christmas Jamboree giveaway in December and Red Hook Collective sponsored it. Red Hook Collective has also done giveaways at schools.
In the spring, Red Hook Collective wants to do activities with the kids during their spring break. They want to do trips with the kids.
“I look forward to doing more swimming in the summer,” Richey said. “Like I said doing more on the technology side with computers.”
Outside of Red Hook Collective, which focuses on 5-14 year olds, Richey works with high school students assisting them with getting Summer Youth Employment jobs and with their resumes.
In addition to the practice at the Miccio Center before the game at the Recreation Center, there was a sneaker giveaway to the 12 participants by Lorenzo Bernardez Jr. and his Slice of Excellence organization.
Bernardez told the kids that he grew up in the South Bronx, went to boarding school in Connecticut and after graduating from college was able to play professional baseball for two years.
He shouted out 7th Street Burger, which was on his shirt, since they were a big part in making this sneaker giveaway happen.
“We are here to give you guys a pair of sneakers to acknowledge your greatness,” Bernardez told the kids. “When you think that you do not want to do that homework, remember that homework counts. Every rep counts like in basketball. Every assignment counts. The same way your prepare for your basketball games is the same way you prepare for your tests in school.”
“I want to see your guys respecting your parents, respecting yourselves and respecting your coaches,” Bernardez said. “Make sure you guys continue to keep the excellence high.”
After talking to the New Leaders Hoops participants, each kid came forward after their name was called to receive their new pair of basketball sneakers.
He had an amazing experience playing in the Austrian baseball league in 2018 and 2019 and said that “overseas is where it is at.” He thinks going abroad is underrated.
He wants to show the kids that there is a whole other world out there that is full of opportunities.
Slice of Excellence’s mission is to trade report cards for pizza.
“We create a positive incentive for the kids,” Bernardez said. “This is another way to give back.”
He started Slice of Excellence in 2020 during the beginning of the pandemic. He started with sending pizza to kids homes when schools were closed and when schools opened up he started doing the pizza parties at the schools.
He started doing sneaker giveaways as well since people are in different situations and since all kids love sneakers.
“Everybody is in a different financial situation,” Bernardez said. “I am from the South Bronx so I understand the struggle. It was an idea. How else could we reach the kids? What better way than sneakers. My partners helped out and we got it done.”
Bernardez found out about New Leader Hoops since his good friend went to elementary school with Richey. Bernardez does a lot of work in the Bronx and he wanted to branch out and use his resources and connections to help in Brooklyn.
“I said, ‘I have the sneakers and I want you to find the place where I can give them out,” Bernardez said. “This is just us coming together and doing something beautiful together.”
A while back, Slice of Excellence went viral through a pizza giveaway and the owner of 7th Street Burger reached out to him via Instagram. He said he could do the same thing with burgers at his restaurant.
This is the sixth time that Slice of Excellence has partnered with 7th Street Burger. Bernardez said he does community work on their behalf. They fund the giveaway and in turn he promotes them.
“They are genuinely good people and anything for the youth they will do it,” Bernardez said. “I pretty much bring the ideas, they fund it and we will do it. I have the relationship with the sneaker store, they fund it and I do it on their behalf.”
Bernardez, who lives on the Lower East Side, has partnered with middle schools in that neighborhood to do perfect attendance lunches at 7th Street Burger. Every month he does perfect attendance parties.
7th Street Burger has opened an hour early and he has taken the top 50 students after school. At Christmas time, Slice of Excellence has done a giveaway for the kids.
Slice of Excellence wants to have kids see that it’s cool to do well in school.
He mainly partners with schools in the Bronx and Harlem. He has partnered with community centers in the Bronx and his main school in Brooklyn is Urban Assembly Unison middle school.
“It’s great for the kids to have places to go and people to take care of them to teach them something,” Bernardez said. “This is the only way we build community. I am here to support the kids and promote academic excellence.”
