Summer has come and almost ceased to exist for many grade school students. To help pass the time, many attended the fifth annual Kia Summer Hoops Tour hosted by the Atlanta Hawks to improve their basketball skills. The tour offered 20 clinics in 25 days throughout the metro Atlanta Area and was free for all participants. The clinics averaged around an hour and a half to two hours. In total, the tour traveled roughly 640 miles around the state to teach children the importance of sports and education. This allowed the tour to travel approximately 50 miles for every three venues. The clinics focused on the fundamentals and skills of basketball but truly emphasized the importance of education and staying in school while helping players hone their basketball skills. It also gives children the chance to have the basketball experience during the offseason.

“Developing the Kia Summer Hoops Tour was a way for us to continue to engage and entertain our fans during the offseason,” exclaimed Tracy White, Chief Sales Officer and Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for the Atlanta Hawks. “It provides the stage for us to involve the community and keep kids excited about the sport of basketball.”

Education stands as a vital point and top priority of the Kia Summer Hoops Tour. One main goal of the tour is to teach children the importance of staying in school. Every child envisions becoming a successful adult, and in order to do that, they must remain in school to reach their goals and aspirations in life. Included in the persistence of having a developed education is the teaching of building character. The building of character helps teach the children to cooperate with others; this in turn helps players not only on the basketball court but also in every day situations.

In addition to education, players were taught the importance of staying fit. To stay fit, players must have a constant want and need to exercise and in this case playing basketball. To help cement the basis for the need of staying fit, the clinics put on drills to help players improve their shots and all-around skills in an entertaining manor. They improved their skills through eight-minute skill stations that taught various aspects of the game. Such aspects included passing drills, shooting drills, and other teachings of basketball fundamentals. The Hawks Development Team taught the stations and ran the clinics.

The Hawks Development Team works with the youth to help promote basketball and education not only on the Kia Summer Hoops Tour but also through camps and clinics. In addition, the Development Team goes to schools to help promote the value of education and playing basketball to stay fit. The Hawks Development Team has led and taught every Kia Summer Hoops Tour to date.

After working on fundamentals, a few players participated in a shooting competition. The competition involves players playing a game of H-A-W-K-S, which is based off of the game H-O-R-S-E. This allows players to take shots from all areas of the court; if a shot is missed, a player is given a letter. Whoever does not gather all of the letters to spell H-A-W-K-S wins. In each competition, around three or four children participated as well as a coach. The youngest winner of all the clinics was eight-year-old Tommy Rob of Oakcliff Elementary’s Four Seasons Camp in Doraville; a coach won the competition in only three of the clinics.

Of the 20 stops, the Kia Summer Hoops Tour held clinics in Doraville, Stone Mountain, Decatur, Lithonia and Woodstock. Each location individually averaged around 40 to 60 participants and generated a grand total of approximately 1,000 participants. The largest participation occurred at the locations that hosted two clinics such as Newbirth Baptist Church and Camp Barney Medintz; these venues had roughly 100 players participate in total for the two clinics they hosted individually. These venues had two clinics because of the large group of participants involved.

One new aspect of the tour this year was the addition of the West Point Recreation Center’s stop. On July 9, a special clinic took place for the employees of the Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia (KMMG) manufacturing plant in West Point. This helped KMMG’s employees polish up on his or her own basketball skills. In addition to the employees partaking, their children participated as well. The clinic served a similar purpose to the other stops even though they tailor the drills to the players’ age and skill level at each location. The ultimate goal is to help children develop the fundamental skills of basketball and to teach the importance of education.

“We are thrilled to return for another summer of the Kia Summer Hoops Tour and offer aspiring young basketball players with a fun and engaging opportunity to learn the fundamentals of the game as well as the importance of education, personal character and physical fitness,” said Michael Sprague, vice president, marketing and communications, Kia Motors America.  “In addition to Atlanta-area youth, it is a special treat to be able to open this opportunity to the dedicated team members at KMMG.”

The tour targets any child who has an interest in playing basketball. The range for children’s ages run from young beginners around five years of age all the way through high school aged players. This causes the tour to affect all age groups and help them benefit from the teachings of being fit and having a proper education. This helps lead toward the ultimate goal of teaching the overall youth the importance of education and fitness.

In the age of electronics and video games, the Atlanta Hawks and KMMG have taken the proper approach to promote sports and physical fitness to the youth. The Summer Hoops tour goes down as a success for the fifth consecutive year and hopefully will return next summer to inspire metro Atlanta’s youth. It all begins with the youth in creating a fit country, and the Atlanta Hawks Kia Summer Hoops Tour has figured that out.