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Tim Kisner Hoops

With the New Year starting a few weeks ago that got me thinking about my biggest responsibility of each year.

Every summer, the second week of July we have the Tim Kisner Hoops c& in my hometown. This coming year will be the 8th year we have done the basketball c&. It may sound easy but there is an unbelievable amount of work that goes into it. I started on this already last week, I have to reserve the gyms (we use the high school, middle school and elementary school) get a brochure together - which is an information p&hlet - that explains what the c& is. These are the first two things to do and the brochure is the hardest. Things have become even more complicated over the last few years because I am trying to put this together while I am in Europe. I thank GOD for my family though because they do a lot of the work.

My sister, Kim, puts together the brochure at her work. Her work does not know that they pay her to do that for me, but it works out good for me. After that it has to go to printing and then we try to get them in all the schools, stores, gas stations, banks, anything by the beginning of April. Once I get that completed then I have to most of the work from there. I have to get people to work the c&. We usually need around 10-12 people. My dad always works and I am thankful that he does because he helps me from going crazy sometimes. Then I get a few guys I played basketball in college with, along with some that still play professionally, and a few that are still in local colleges to help out. once, we get that done then I have to order the t-shirts (each kid gets a t-shirt on the first day of c&) buy the awards, and make sure we have enough supplies (basketballs, jump ropes, cones, medical and first aid). This is pretty much the hard part, then all I have to do is go out and get sponsors (people or businesses to help pay for the c&) which is easy now because we have done it for so long, some people just send their money without me even going to ask for it. All that is left after that is to do the paper work. To put the kids in groups by age and gender (male or female) and we are ready for the start of c&.

Over the 7 years there have been some great stories from c&. I think we have had at least one kid throw up at every c&, and I mean you would be surprised at what some kids eat for breakfast!!! There is always a few kids that do not want to do anything, and you have to be hard on them, but all in all it is the best week of my summer. To get into the gym and work with kids (age 8-15) for four hours a day and four days in a row is really fun. The workers make it great too because most I have been friends with for years and they use it as an excuse to get away from whatever their doing to come down and stay at my parents house for the week. The c& goes from 8-12 so that leaves the whole day for us to play golf, basketball or just hang out and tell old stories.

There have been two huge highlights of the seven years of c&. The first was 5 years ago, my friend and college teammate David Webber got in touch with his older brother, you may know him Chris Webber now of the Pistons. He sent me two huge boxes of shoes, practice gear, headbands, balls and autographed almost all of it. We gave it all away to the kids, to see them open that stuff and the looks on their faces was truly amazing. The second was 3 years ago, when Chris Kaman (starting center for the LA Clippers) my old college teammate came and spoke to the kids. Most were in shock as he stood their and talked with them for 20 min. I find great joy in being able to give to kids where I grew up because I never had that kind of stuff to go to when I was young. The kids love it but I think I love it more than they do and I look forward to doing it every year.

Thanks for the great fans of Wroclaw for the atmosphere on Sunday against Slupsk. I know it was a hard game to watch with all the fouls, there was really no flow to the game until middle of the 3rd quarter. We played well enough to get the win and we are just trying to get better each week. We have two huge road games coming up in the next two weeks. We go to Polpharma this week and then Anwil the week after that. We are trying to separate from those teams behind us and we need these two wins and so do the teams we are playing so they will be tough games.

Everyone take care and have a great week.