Brooklyn's premier, community-driven youth sports organization.

Our Mission

BKYSC assists Brooklyn youth in their pursuit of college enrollment using basketball as the hook for academic engagement and leadership development. BKYSC is based on the simple premise that youth can achieve anything when they are motivated, engaged and respected. Our mission is to provide high quality, youth-centered after school and summer programming, using athletics as a hook for academic engagement and leadership development. BKYSC provides youth with high quality athletics, academics, arts, community activism, cultural and career exposures as a way for Brooklyn youth to learn life skills transferable for college, career, life readiness and success.

IMG_0437.jpg

Our History

The Brooklyn Youth Sports Club was founded in 2009 as an academic support and college-preparatory initiative serving kids from all over Brooklyn. In our first year, BKYSC worked with 30 students, most of whom lived in Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights, East New York, Brownville and Bushwick. This first group of fourteen and fifteen year olds kids were all really good kids and showed a true passion for the game they loved; they also had no program to turn to for academic support and college guidance. That where BKYSC came in.

After the first year with that first group, it was clear that the greatest impact we could have as an organization would be based on the idea that basketball could serve as an entry point to meaningful learning and academic engagement. In 2011, BKYSC implemented the academic component of the program. Ever since, in order to step foot in the gym, BKYSC has required all students to participate in a minute-for-minute ratio of academic support programs. This policy is non negotiable; it is also the reason our programs works - our kids are actively engaged in our programs and work hard because they are motivated by their own passion and interests. From there, the possibilities for learning and growth are unlimited.

Ultimately, the goal of the organization is to assist students in their pursuit of college enrollment. Since inception, BKYSC has maintained a 100% college enrollment rate. Those first thirty kids - and then every single BKYSC kid after that - has gone on to enroll in college. With over $3M in scholarships awarded to BKYSC youth, an average SAT score increase of almost 250 points, and now over 300 program participants per year, BKYSC will soon celebrate 10 years of providing quality programming for kids all around Brooklyn!

 

Our Team

The Board of Directors

Alex Huebsch, Writer, Director, Producer

Benjamin Ezra, Entrepreneur

Ben Mathan, Senior Associate, Atairos Management

Brad Tobin, President & COO, Hot 97 / WBLS

Diandra Barnwell, Brand Development, Producer

Gerald Castaldo, Vice President, Bregal Sagemount

Gregg Weiss, Partner, Gardner, Weiss, & Rosenblum, LLP

Jake Nidenberg*, Vice President of Finance, Spring Education Group

Jed Limmer, Managing Director, D.A. Davidson

Jeff Fischer, Senior Vice President, CBRE

Jelani Roy, Agent, BeGreat Sports

Jordan Fox, President, MMP Digital

Matthew Monness, Monness, Crespi, & Hardt

Michael McKay, Morgan Stanley, Executive Director

Niles Ellis*, Research Analyst, Goldsmith & Co.

Pat McAndrew, Senior Consultant, Deloitte

Rachel Hammer, VP Prime Finance, JP Morgan

Ramel Bradley, App Harvest, Community Director


*BKYSC Alumnus

 

We're in the neighborhood.

If you're curious to learn more, want to collaborate or just looking to say hi, we would love to hear from you. Drop us an email at information@bkysc.org or visit us at our office located 100 Dobbin Street, Brooklyn, NY 11222